TriumPhil
Living Legend
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2009
- Messages
- 11,444
- Location
- Long Valley, NJ
- Ride
- '07 Mulberry Red, Carpentered & Bruted R3 Standard
It's tough for me to hold my tongue on this issue. I have had considerable experience with riding on the Darkside with only 7K miles accrued that way on my Rocket and some 30K miles racked up on my two VTX 1800s. I loved the CT on my Honda's and really didn't have any issues with running my Toyo T1R Proxes on the Rocket until making my first hard run through the twisties when I noticed significant signs of wear a good 1 1/2" up onto the sidewalls.
I returned to a MT because I just can't accept the risk factor of rubbing and wearing the very thin, totally un-reinforced sliver of rubber that is the sidewall on car tires. Apparently, no one we know of has experienced the car tire failing due to this obvious Achille's heel, however, because of the forces exerted on the rear tire of our brutal, bruiser cruisers and given the apparent ease with which the sidewall can fail (puncture) should it encounter just the right kind of debris or road surface anomaly, I am not willing to be a guinea pig by, effectively, playing chicken with myself.
After returning to the "Brightside", the additional overall effort (rider input and countersteering force) required by the car tire became immediately and readily apparent. Although there certainly are posiitve tradeoffs when switching from a MT to a CT, there are negative ones, as well, amongst which are: 1) slower, more sluggish response from the bike in quick, emergency-type evasive maneuvers; 2) enhanced wear of the front tire; 3) loss of rear wheel horsepower and torque and; 4) in addition to the aforementioned risk to more aggressive riders in the twisties, the CT will break traction just as easily or, in some cases (when fully over on the sidewall), more easily than the MT, when making a turn from a dead stop under hard acceleration. In addition, I have found that the MT transmits a more accurate feel for the road and road conditions than does the CT, it is more "flickable" and it feels much lighter, hence, it is less tiring to ride than with the CT. For me, these things make the motorcycle tire my hands down choice.
As I have said many times before, this entire issue of which tire to use and/or which one is "best" comes down to personal preference/freedom of choice, exigent circumstances given how and/or where you ride (i.e., your riding style and local road conditions), your own proclivity for risk exposure and lastly, given what you are willing to spend and/or what you can best afford to keep the rear on a quality tire. I will continue to state the foregoing so that others who are considering making a change have access to as much reliable information as possible in order to make a fair evaluation and to ultimately assist them in making a truly informed decision.
Whatever you choose ride on, please ride safely!
I returned to a MT because I just can't accept the risk factor of rubbing and wearing the very thin, totally un-reinforced sliver of rubber that is the sidewall on car tires. Apparently, no one we know of has experienced the car tire failing due to this obvious Achille's heel, however, because of the forces exerted on the rear tire of our brutal, bruiser cruisers and given the apparent ease with which the sidewall can fail (puncture) should it encounter just the right kind of debris or road surface anomaly, I am not willing to be a guinea pig by, effectively, playing chicken with myself.
After returning to the "Brightside", the additional overall effort (rider input and countersteering force) required by the car tire became immediately and readily apparent. Although there certainly are posiitve tradeoffs when switching from a MT to a CT, there are negative ones, as well, amongst which are: 1) slower, more sluggish response from the bike in quick, emergency-type evasive maneuvers; 2) enhanced wear of the front tire; 3) loss of rear wheel horsepower and torque and; 4) in addition to the aforementioned risk to more aggressive riders in the twisties, the CT will break traction just as easily or, in some cases (when fully over on the sidewall), more easily than the MT, when making a turn from a dead stop under hard acceleration. In addition, I have found that the MT transmits a more accurate feel for the road and road conditions than does the CT, it is more "flickable" and it feels much lighter, hence, it is less tiring to ride than with the CT. For me, these things make the motorcycle tire my hands down choice.
As I have said many times before, this entire issue of which tire to use and/or which one is "best" comes down to personal preference/freedom of choice, exigent circumstances given how and/or where you ride (i.e., your riding style and local road conditions), your own proclivity for risk exposure and lastly, given what you are willing to spend and/or what you can best afford to keep the rear on a quality tire. I will continue to state the foregoing so that others who are considering making a change have access to as much reliable information as possible in order to make a fair evaluation and to ultimately assist them in making a truly informed decision.
Whatever you choose ride on, please ride safely!
