Choosing the Correct Tires for your Motorcycle
Buying tires for your motorcycle is a very important decision. The entire dynamics of a motorcycle makes it so that all the contact with the road is made through two tires. The width, tread pattern, and other variables all contribute to what kind of tires you will need.
Most important is what kind of riding will you be doing? Is it off road, motocross style? Is it long distance highway cruising? Or, do you have a specialized bike like a bobber, chopper, or café racer?
Each of these variables will need to be considered when you decide what type of tire you need.If riding off road, you will need to have tires that have a lot of tread on them. Usually these are referred to as “knobbies”. They will have very large square shaped “knobs” for treads. These will bite into the dirt and sand and give you the traction needed or off road riding.
If you are planning on taking long trips on smooth highways, then the tire you want will be similar to a car tire (only smaller). You need it to absorb road noise and bumps and give you traction along the way. Just in case you run into a freak down pour, you need the tread to push the water away so you still have a grip on the road.
If you are riding a sports bike (and let’s hope you know what you are doing), they use a special kind of tire. You will have tread on the normal surface but it will extend up to the sidewalls more than on a normal tire. This is because these bikes are made for higher speeds and you lay the bike down when you are making a turn. If you did this with a normal tire, the bike would slide out from under you. With tread on the sidewalls, you will still have the same grip on the road as you did in an upright position.
Bobbers, choppers, café racers, and other custom bikes need special types of tires. Usually with bobbers you will have slightly wider tires and many times have a combination of street/off road bike tires. They will have the knobbies but they won’t be nearly as big.
Choppers are known for having a really wide rear tire with a minimal amount of tread. The front wheel will be extremely skinny and raked out far in front of the frame.
Café racers usually have skinny tires with road tread. They tend to be tall because the bikes are used to race in towns.
It really all boils down to what you are using the bike for and more importantly the safety concerns. If your 2 tires are not giving you the most contact possible with the road, you will have an accident. This is one area that the “cool factor” should never, never outweigh “safety”. Keep that in mind and you should be all right.
If you have any doubts, go to a mechanic and ask their opinion. Don’t let them try to sell you tires, just get information. Motorcycle tires can be extremely expensive just because of the name on them. You can get the same safety from a much more inexpensive tire.
This is the one place that is never a good ideal to “worry about it later”
