QuestionA lot of my friends and I ride Honda Goldwings.
This particular message to you pertains mainly to the later GL1800 Goldwings that one of our members has mounted a car tire on.
I just wanted to get your take or opinion on this subject. If you have ever done this or considered mounting a car tire on a motorcycle.
If you would take time to read the thread on this forum and let me know your thoughts. Is this guy nuts or is there something can be said about using a car tire on our GL1800's in place of the OEM tire.
Your input will be appreciated,
http://www.goldwingfacts.com/forums/forum4/9239-1.html
Answer"Polite but what a load of crap. Inaccurate physics regarding 2 shocks and bad information about handling characteristics of the tire in curves. Yes, I do in fact ride a CT."
This is what you mean by "any input would be appreciated"? Maybe I should reconsider volunteering to help people if this is what I get in return. Maybe I should just give up motorcycling because I'm obviously a complete idiot.
If you don't know my background, take a look at my profile on allexperts before you ask me a question. My apologies for not being motorcycle suspension/motorcycle tire engineer. You're welcome, by the way, for the use of my free time in considering and answering your questions.
I was offering an opinion based on the questions YOU asked, not looking to be criticized for my take on using car tires on a freaking motorcycle. If I want that, I'll join your forum. Otherwise, please don't drag me into your little Internet argument.
Dane,
An interesting question, to say the least.
As long as there are motorcyclists, they will find new ways to enjoy their lifestyle, and this is a good case in point. Sometimes people will do things just because they can.
There are a hundred ways to look at this, I'll only go into a few.
I would guess you get increased tire life at the expense of handling characteristics. Because the rear tire will always be resisting riding up on its edge, it will take actual work from the rider to keep it on its edge.
This probably would stress the rider (requiring absolute focus the entire time just to keep it turned), the tire, sidewall, and rear suspension immensely, including adding a steep twisting force to the swingarm, as well as making the bike inherently unstable during a turn--it's always trying to go somewhere else.
This may not be a huge detriment because so many of these bikes (VAlkyries, VLXs, Wings) spend so much of their time in a straight line. It might be a fault you can live with for the benefits, especially if you eschew curves.
And the Valkyries and VLXs don't achieve very good lean angles, either, compared to the Wings. I don't know offhand but if those bikes have dual rear shocks, that could help with stability. A single mono-shock would force the swingarm to twist more. A lot of the custom bikes I see with the great big rear car tire have dual shocks.
I wonder if some sort of independent rear suspension setup would be the key to making this work? Instead of one swingarm, maybe two swingarms connected to two shocks, maybe with one axle? (You heard it here first!)
All said, I wouldn't call it risking your life, though there are 1,000,000 safety concerns you could bring up. Moreover it's just a different style/kind of riding. I can see where you'd put a car tire on a cruiser, but I wouldn't put one on a Gold Wing.
The biggest clue to making the decision is in finding the answer to the question: why would someone put a car tire on the rear but not on the front? Without giving it a lot of thought, I have a hunch that the reasons you'd keep the motorcycle tire on the front are the same reasons you'd want to NOT put a car tire on the back.
This is all without even getting into the idea that once in a turn, a motorcycle is steered with the rear tire. Average riders don't know this. Expert riders do. If an average rider wants to steer constantly with the handlebars and fight the bike all the way through every turn, that's their choice. But I don't think that's really motorcycling, or what motorcycles are meant to do.
I guess what you have is some "other," or possibly "new," kind of motorcycle if you use a car tire on the rear.
Thanks for getting my brain cranked up this morning. This is probably the most interesting question I've ever had. Feel free to use my comments in the discussion and let me know what people say (use pathahn <at> bitstream <dot> net to contact me offline.
Pat
