motorcycle tire for fat rear bicycle wheels
- Thread starter jazz2561
- Start date
DIANY
New Member
YES, there is one to fit the 20X4.. maybe even 20X3 i think it comes out to 3.5.. can use as either or... motorcycle tires are by mm and ratios... the 24 and 26 i dont think so.. you can go as wide as 5.5 inches i think for the stingrays.. u need a 16 in motorcycle tire... the rim is only 16 inches... i think the tire i use is 90/80-16.... good luck !!
16v4nrbrgr
Active Member
For a cheaper option you might look into Innova Fat Cat tires, I got some in 20x4 when they were on sale from Cycle Pro a while back and they wear slowly yet still have way better grip than the high silica content v-groove Schwinn chopper tires.
16v4nrbrgr
Active Member
I went 60+ on these and it was smooth as silk with Schwinn OCC tubes at 35 psi with ATV slime in them for safety and dynamic balancing.
miked826
New Member
On a smooth surface you can go pretty fast but if you hit something in or on the road with a bicycle tire then you better be up to date on your life insurance payments.
Bicycle tires, at speed, on a third world street, will really ruin your week.
Here's my FRONT tire............. to deal with The Streets of L.A. LMAO
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16v4nrbrgr
Active Member
It's not the tire that's gonna fail, its the tube, and only if its under-inflated and you get a snakebite on the rim. There are many different styles of bicycle tire, there are gummy soft MTB knobbies, incredibly thin road bike tires that are Kevlar reinforced usually, those cruiser brickyard design tires, the non-black ones don't have any carbon black in them to strengthen and stabilize the tread at high speed or heavy use, then there are ones like the Innova Fat Cats, which are basically a light motorcycle tire.
Quality bicycle tires meant for mountain bikes, BMX, and trekking should be able to handle speeds exceeding 40 mph, because they design in a safety factor in realization that a pedal bicycle can get going extremely fast down steep hills, and if it can be done, it will be done. The road bikers here like to hit a particular hill and pedal down it, achieving speeds over 50 mph on those skinny little racing tires.
The key to safety is having proper tubes, some sort of puncture sealant or protection band, and having them ALWAYS properly inflated. Another thing that's very important is having proper wheels with strong double walled rims, and spokes thick enough to handle the torsional stress from accelerating and decelerating with a motor. If you're still using a rag joint clamped over your spokes, park it until you can figure out a method of mounting the sprocket directly to the hub, because a rag joint will trash even a beefy wheel's spokes in short order. If you get loose spokes they can puncture the tube from the rim side, so its important to keep your spokes tight and trued.
Quality bicycle tires meant for mountain bikes, BMX, and trekking should be able to handle speeds exceeding 40 mph, because they design in a safety factor in realization that a pedal bicycle can get going extremely fast down steep hills, and if it can be done, it will be done. The road bikers here like to hit a particular hill and pedal down it, achieving speeds over 50 mph on those skinny little racing tires.
The key to safety is having proper tubes, some sort of puncture sealant or protection band, and having them ALWAYS properly inflated. Another thing that's very important is having proper wheels with strong double walled rims, and spokes thick enough to handle the torsional stress from accelerating and decelerating with a motor. If you're still using a rag joint clamped over your spokes, park it until you can figure out a method of mounting the sprocket directly to the hub, because a rag joint will trash even a beefy wheel's spokes in short order. If you get loose spokes they can puncture the tube from the rim side, so its important to keep your spokes tight and trued.
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miked826
New Member
My bike tires did fine at 60 PSI to hold a combined load of 320+ lbs. and felt great doing it, until I ran over something in the road, then it felt like I was riding on tires made outta cement. The entire bike, including myself, would get air-born. Never a dull moment was had while riding that thing.
I'm quite tired of splitting my attention between being ran over by a car and what I'm about to run over in the road ahead of me. It gets old real fast.
The tire in the pic above, with no tube or rim installed, is able to support my 195 lb girth without collapsing.
I'm quite tired of splitting my attention between being ran over by a car and what I'm about to run over in the road ahead of me. It gets old real fast.
The tire in the pic above, with no tube or rim installed, is able to support my 195 lb girth without collapsing.
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16v4nrbrgr
Active Member
Well 60 PSI is a lot, a suspension frame would have solved the bounding issue.
I run my chopper tires at the recommended 35 psi, same tire front and rear, with Suzuki K10 fork up front and a suspension seatpost, and the hardtail OCC rides nice and plush, the only thing that kept me from pushing on to 70mph back then was looking at my mechanical Krate speedometer twisted around twice, and thinking how awful it would be if it somehow seized up and snatched the front wheel. The speedometer drive tang or plastic gears in the gauge would probably yield first, but there's really no sane reason to go that fast on a motorized bicycle, lol! I'm fine maxing out at around 50 mph, and geared that way I have plenty of power to take off from a stop without pedaling the heavy chopper like a madman.
I run my chopper tires at the recommended 35 psi, same tire front and rear, with Suzuki K10 fork up front and a suspension seatpost, and the hardtail OCC rides nice and plush, the only thing that kept me from pushing on to 70mph back then was looking at my mechanical Krate speedometer twisted around twice, and thinking how awful it would be if it somehow seized up and snatched the front wheel. The speedometer drive tang or plastic gears in the gauge would probably yield first, but there's really no sane reason to go that fast on a motorized bicycle, lol! I'm fine maxing out at around 50 mph, and geared that way I have plenty of power to take off from a stop without pedaling the heavy chopper like a madman.
miked826
New Member
Why mess with a suspension frame? That's not gonna help the load bearing capacity of the tires one bit. If you have to run the tires to max pressure then that's a real good sign that you need to go to a wider tire to handle the weight. Not to mention all the other things a wider tire solves. No mystery there. LOL
16v4nrbrgr
Active Member
I see, its trollolo time. Well they're 4.25" wide tires, and I don't need to run them at 35 psi, they would work fine at 25, running them at 35 psi makes them more efficient, which means better performance. They're plenty compliant at 35 psi and ride like silk, and they are much lighter than motorcycle tires, which are completely unnecessary, and require under-inflation on a motorized bicycle to have enough compliance of the contact patch, especially if they are rated for a heavy dirtbike which weighs around 300 lbs without rider.
Under-inflation means tread squirm, and more susceptibility of the bead popping off or the tube getting a snakebite from the wheel on those potholes you complain about so much. The tire compound used on motorcycle tires is much more rigid than compounds for bicycle and moped tires, containing more silica. This means unless you load it up with 450+ lbs they're not going to grip the road around corners well. The stock 4.25 Schwinn chopper tires have too much silica like a all season motorcycle tire and are too stiff for a motorized bicycle, and wear forever, but have absolutely no grip. Of course motorcycle tires will wear better, at the tradeoff of grip that keeps you from washing out and tumbling across the pavement and becoming a human tire. I think you oughta try them out around some corners and hard braking before you try going at high speed (93 mph, hahaha, please) on pavement with dual-sport tires that have a tread pattern meant for mostly riding on dirt and gravel.
I wouldn't want to have to pedal those heavy motorcycle wheels, tubes, and tires around, it kinda defeats the purpose of a motorized bicycle. Might as well get a plated dirtbike off of craigslist at that point and put supermoto tires on it for the street, then you'll have hydraulically damped front and rear suspensions, a comfortable seat, severe acceleration, hydraulic brakes, and something that can eat up cars for lunch rather than getting run over by them. With a couple of my bikes I've run up against the motorized bicycle/motorcycle boundary, and have backed away from that idea and have focused on getting the most out of bicycle components, because they work much better than simply adding more big and heavy stuff, as its a point of diminishing returns.
Most slick or street treaded bicycle tires are more than sufficient for speeds over 45 mph, if properly inflated. Using big fat tires for suspension on a fixed frame bike is in my opinion a poor band-aid for a real suspension system. Putting all that rotational inertia on a motorized bicycle means more mass the engine's gotta sling around and accelerate, rather than putting compliance in the front and rear suspension so you don't hammer the crap out of your wheels and tires.
When I was in SoCal I thought the roads there were some of the best paved in CA, they even smooth out the curb cuts for skateboards and lowriders entering parking lots, I have no idea why you'd need dirtbike tires and wheels to ride the street there.
Whatever, I can see you're justifying your decisions to yourself by debating with me, to each his own.
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miked826
New Member
Who said anything about pedaling? Call me crazy, but isn't the whole purpose of a motorized bicycle, to not to have to pedal? Why put a motor on it if you want to pedal it around everywhere? My bike pedals fine, but I don't pedal it cause it has a motor on it. LOL
D.O.T. knobbies do not squirm and are unsurpassed for shock absorption. If they did squirm they wouldn't be DOT approved (unlike non-DOT "Offroad Only" knobbies that squirm all over the place on hard surfaces). The two types look alike but they are not. One is legal for the street and the other is not, for that very reason.
Heavy? With a gasoline motor mounted to your bike the term "heavy" doesn't mean a whole lot anymore. A good gas motor is not even gonna notice the few extra pounds and those extra pounds just might save your life one day. Whether it weighs 100 lbs or 150 lbs, it's still featherweight light enough for a girl to ride.
So you were saying again? LOL
D.O.T. knobbies do not squirm and are unsurpassed for shock absorption. If they did squirm they wouldn't be DOT approved (unlike non-DOT "Offroad Only" knobbies that squirm all over the place on hard surfaces). The two types look alike but they are not. One is legal for the street and the other is not, for that very reason.
Heavy? With a gasoline motor mounted to your bike the term "heavy" doesn't mean a whole lot anymore. A good gas motor is not even gonna notice the few extra pounds and those extra pounds just might save your life one day. Whether it weighs 100 lbs or 150 lbs, it's still featherweight light enough for a girl to ride.
So you were saying again? LOL
miked826
New Member
I see, its trollolo time. Well they're 4.25" wide tires, and I don't need to run them at 35 psi, they would work fine at 25, running them at 35 psi makes them more efficient, which means better performance. They're plenty compliant at 35 psi and ride like silk, and they are much lighter than motorcycle tires, which are completely unnecessary, and require under-inflation on a motorized bicycle to have enough compliance of the contact patch, especially if they are rated for a heavy dirtbike which weighs around 300 lbs without rider.
Under-inflation means tread squirm, and more susceptibility of the bead popping off or the tube getting a snakebite from the wheel on those potholes you complain about so much. The tire compound used on motorcycle tires is much more rigid than compounds for bicycle and moped tires, containing more silica. This means unless you load it up with 450+ lbs they're not going to grip the road around corners well. The stock 4.25 Schwinn chopper tires have too much silica like a all season motorcycle tire and are too stiff for a motorized bicycle, and wear forever, but have absolutely no grip. Of course motorcycle tires will wear better, at the tradeoff of grip that keeps you from washing out and tumbling across the pavement and becoming a human tire. I think you oughta try them out around some corners and hard braking before you try going at high speed (93 mph, hahaha, please) on pavement with dual-sport tires that have a tread pattern meant for mostly riding on dirt and gravel.
I wouldn't want to have to pedal those heavy motorcycle wheels, tubes, and tires around, it kinda defeats the purpose of a motorized bicycle. Might as well get a plated dirtbike off of craigslist at that point and put supermoto tires on it for the street, then you'll have hydraulically damped front and rear suspensions, a comfortable seat, severe acceleration, hydraulic brakes, and something that can eat up cars for lunch rather than getting run over by them. With a couple of my bikes I've run up against the motorized bicycle/motorcycle boundary, and have backed away from that idea and have focused on getting the most out of bicycle components, because they work much better than simply adding more big and heavy stuff, as its a point of diminishing returns.
Most slick or street treaded bicycle tires are more than sufficient for speeds over 45 mph, if properly inflated. Using big fat tires for suspension on a fixed frame bike is in my opinion a poor band-aid for a real suspension system. Putting all that rotational inertia on a motorized bicycle means more mass the engine's gotta sling around and accelerate, rather than putting compliance in the front and rear suspension so you don't hammer the crap out of your wheels and tires.
When I was in SoCal I thought the roads there were some of the best paved in CA, they even smooth out the curb cuts for skateboards and lowriders entering parking lots, I have no idea why you'd need dirtbike tires and wheels to ride the street there.
Whatever, I can see you're justifying your decisions to yourself by debating with me, to each his own.
Here's some good reading for ya. I don't need to read it, cause I live it every day. LOL
Study: L.A. Streets the Worst in the Country
http://www.lapotholes.com/
L.A. full of roads to ruin for cars
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pavement-20130505,0,4119436.story#axzz2paoNOtsC
Road conditions in L.A. region judged worst in country
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-worst-roads-20131003,0,2992841.story#ixzz2patbfbiS
"The roads in Greater Los Angeles are the most deteriorated in the United States, costing drivers more than $800 a year, according to a national transportation analysis released Thursday."
What part of L.A. were you driving in? Please don't tell me Beverly Hills either, cause that ain't L.A. LOL
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16v4nrbrgr
Active Member
I didn't spend much time in LA, just Hollywood for a night, then went north for a couple days, then back to a hotel by LAX before I flew out, so I'll take your word for it.
miked826
New Member
40+ MPH at night, in L.A., on a motorized bicycle with 2.6" bicycle tires. You don't know what terror is until you've tried that at least once, even with a headlight lighting your way. Not because of any cars that might run you over at any time, but because of hitting any myriad of things in the road. I did it all the time, but being lucky will only last you so long. My luck almost ran out one time. Oh so close. LOL
miked826
New Member
In the Hit and Run & Pedestrian Killing Capital of America (Los Angeles), I can actually say that I'm more afraid of the road conditions than I am of being run over by a car.
16v4nrbrgr
Active Member
Yeah that does sound very dangerous, I don't ride my bikes at night since my cert restricts riding to the daytime, and it is really hard to see potholes and other road hazards at night. It gets 30 degrees colder at night here too and I don't really want to ride freezing my butt off, lol. I'm sure if I started riding my bikes at night around my neighborhood, there would be a lynch mob with torches and pitchforks and sheriffs with taser guns chasing after me!
