Putting truly sticky rubber on

I am going to set aside my DS pitchfork for this thread ;P

Why don't people put actual grippy tires on when going DS?

Examples -
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/types/comp.jsp#Streetable

The first section has RA1s and 888s, symmetrical design, way stickier than the stuff I see most people put on.

There is also the Proxes R1R not shown there, same compound as the RA1s bit with deeper tread voids caused by thicker tread blocks. Done to achieve the street legal 140 wear rating.

Just curios, I expect the near R compound rubber would let you corner quite hard, have have phenomenal straight line grip, and still last longer than a MT.

Sticky tyres cost more money than hard compound tyres everyone who puts a car tyre on is by nature a cheap bastard so I cannot see them forking over another $20 for a better tyre.

And believe me Dave knows the difference between a thrifty gent and a cheap bastard

<<Thrifty gent

I tried a very sticky car tire and it did grip very well but it would start into a slow weave any time I tried to go ove 200 kph so I went back to M/C tires.

A thrifty gent wouldn't buy an 800lb, 2300cc bike in the first place.

Lol so true. Was just wondering if anyone had tried them.

Stickiness is generally reflected by the treadwear rating of the tyre, is it not?? "Performance" car (OOPS!!) tyres with ratings below about 300 are a good compromise because they stick well and still give a reasonable life. I think most cooking-model tyres are rated in the 300-400 range.

The lower the rating, the softer - and stickier - the tyre. A rating of maybe 240 or lower will stick VERY well but you will scrub off the tread very quickly.

A rating of say 600-700 (a la some "rugged" 4WDs) and the tyre lasts forever but the grip would be like driving on a steel tyre.

(For some reason (legislation perhaps??) they don't seem to be required to show this rating on M/C tyres. Mandatory on car tyres...)


In response to your question - and it obviously refers to C/Ts - A Rocket and even the best rider will run out of cornering ability long before the softness of ANY tyre becomes a factor. And will be QUITE fast enough, thank you. So since we appear to be cheap bastids, no need to spend the extra to go much below 300. Would just lead to more mocking..


And of course there are still people in the world who believe that grip on the road is determined by the tread itself and not the rubber compound.

(Why don't we have a "stirrer's" smiley on here.......? Maybe this one? )

The Toyo Proxes R1R was all the rage with darksiders about 5 years ago, as were asymmetric tread patterns. It was an especially bad recommendation by the square tire cognoscenti back then - which I unfortunately took - a particularly lousy car tire to put on a motorcycle that had a tendency to very easily ride up onto its completely unreinforced sidewall and it was toast by about the 15,000 mile mark if you did any sort of aggressive riding in the twisties or otherwise.

TriumPhil said:

- a particularly lousy car tire to put on a motorcycle ....... .

Click to expand...

So what car tyre would you recommend then, Phil?????

This one, Russ (it might save your life!):

Thanks, Phil! Now THAT looks like a soft compound tyre..............!!!!