Car Tire

Thanks. Good info.

Dave,

Just a couple of questions: Is the diameter of the Formosa close to that of the stock tire? How much clearance is there between the tire sidewall and the swingarm? I am seriously thinking of switching to the Formosa on my GL1500.

Thanks.
Bill

Coyotex, there is enough room between the swing arm to easily accomodate this tire, it is a tight fit getting it on unless you remove the brake caliper. The Diameter is slightly less, this causes about 150 RPM increase to obtain the same speed as with the stock tires. I did not notice any decrease in gas mileage however. Running at slightly higher RPMs is actually adviseable to keep from lugging the engine on upgrades which causes a big drop in gas mileage. In my opinion it was well worth the $70.00 to try it, now that I have I will not go back to a motorcycle tire!

Thanks for the additional information. Looks like when the current Dunlop is worn out, I will be making the same change on mine. I have the tire source you gave in your previous posting bookmarked, so no problem there. I will let you know how it goes.

Again, thanks for the information.

Bill

If I can be of anyother assiatance just holler. While your here please check out my post in General on the "World Wide Ride"
I would love to see every hack there is on the road supporting this ride.
Dave

Having mounted 5 michlin auto tires on various rims for the 650 Savage, I know how hard that is to get the bead to set properly.
How hard is it to get the bead to properly set on the formosa tire and what bike and what size tire did you use?

Phelonius
BTW who makes the formosa?

I can't speak for the Formosa, but I recently mounted a Dunlop Wintersport Runflat 175/16 on my 1500. The first thing I noticed was that I had to deflate the Metzler to get it free of the swingarm, but the inflated car tire rolled right in.

We also seated the bead with a little (4 horse?) compressor. I don't think we passed 45 or 50 pounds to get both sides to pop. The bead on a 16 inch rim is about the same as a car. The 15's are the ones to watch.

The Formoza tire as not that difficult to mount or get to seat. (FORMOZA FD2 175/60 R16 82H BSW) This is the only tire available to fit the GL1500 Goldwing with out needing any rim modification. Formoza is made by the Federal tire company in Asia.

The flagman - 2/3/2011 7:42 PM The Formoza tire as not that difficult to mount or get to seat. (FORMOZA FD2 175/60 R16 82H BSW) This is the only tire available to fit the GL1500 Goldwing with out needing any rim modification. Formoza is made by the Federal tire company in Asia.

????? What makes it different then the 175/60/16 Dunlop Wintersport ROF Radial or the Dunlop SP Taxi 175R16C, or the 175R16 Federal Austone? All of these are popular for the GL1500 Goldwing. In fact, the Austone is even the same height as a Dunlop 160/80-16 bike tire.

http://www.universaltire.com/dunlop-tires/dunlop-radial-tires/175r16-austone-taxi-black.html

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Dunlop&tireModel=SP+Winter+Sport+3D+RunOnFlat&partnum=76HR6WS3DROF&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Turanza+EL400-02&partnum=76HR6EL40002&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes

I nevere heard about the Austone, but Formoza is only half the price, The Dunlop I was aware of but I have been told it is quite noisy, so I opted for the Formoza.

The Austone is popular because you don't lose any ride height, ergo no change in RPMs. It also has a very stiff sidewall, which makes it popular with the 2 wheeled Darksiders.

The Dunlops are on sale at www.tirerack.com for $109.

Hey Sidecarmike, I have been looking at the Dunlop Wintersport, the fellow that I bought my 91 Gl 1500 from told me he had checked into car tires, but he was told that the 1500 wheel had to be machined, that the rim was too narrow to mount a C/T. Did you have your wheel machined? My bike has a easysteer and I have bad knees, so I won't be taking the sidecar off the ride on two wheels. The trike guys I ride with tell me that a Metzler Lasertech rear tire works well on the front of their 1500 trikes, and gives them many more miles. What are you running on the front, and are you happy with it? Thanks for any info that you can give me, I'm new to sidecars, and still trying to learn what works best.

Hey folks.....yesterday I completed going totally "darkside" on my rig....already had C/T on rear wheel.....sidecar came with C/T and now have C/T on front!!
this information may help someone???

frontwheel..5.00/5.25 X 16 EXCELSIOR (innertube)

rearwheel....175 X 75 X 16 COMTRAC

sidecarwheel....13inch car tire ... ?? ... Mike....

Lloyd - 2/4/2011 9:30 PM Hey Sidecarmike, I have been looking at the Dunlop Wintersport, the fellow that I bought my 91 Gl 1500 from told me he had checked into car tires, but he was told that the 1500 wheel had to be machined, that the rim was too narrow to mount a C/T. Did you have your wheel machined? My bike has a easysteer and I have bad knees, so I won't be taking the sidecar off the ride on two wheels. The trike guys I ride with tell me that a Metzler Lasertech rear tire works well on the front of their 1500 trikes, and gives them many more miles. What are you running on the front, and are you happy with it? Thanks for any info that you can give me, I'm new to sidecars, and still trying to learn what works best.

Those same people will tell you that radial tires are dangerous and that you should never run tubeless tires on any motorcycle and you should never carry a passenger.

I've always been told that only the 15 inch motorcycle rim needs to be machined unless you want extremely wide tires. I've never had a problem with a car tire on an unmodified 16 inch rim, whether riding on 2 wheels or 3. I did not measure the cross section of either tire, but can say that I had to deflate the Metzler Marathon to get it to clear the swingarm, but the inflated Dunlop car tire rolled right in.

Another popular front tire is the Bridgestone Battleax.

Some people say to mount the tire backwards when putting a rear tire on the front wheel, so the braking stress is applied in the same direction as the driving stress is on a rear tire. That can cause other problems if the tread pattern is designed to force water away from the center of the tire, as it rotates.

If the tread pattern is kind of V shaped and you put the tire on backwards, the tread will force water into the center of the tire instead of away from the center. That would increase the possibility of hydroplaning when you ride through standing water or heavy rain.

If the tire has a block or verticle rib tread pattern, put it on backwards and don't worry about it. If the tire has a vaguely V patterned tread and you're a fair weather rider, then put it on backwards and remember to avoid wet roads.

Now you'll get someone who will tell you that a tire is built to roll in one direction only and will unravel if you roll it backwards. Bull!

I found this response in a magazine. It is more eloquent than I would be.

"While the braking stress is in the same direction, no matter where the tire is installed, a rear tire has continuous stress on it during riding, from pushing the machine against the wind resistance on the highway. That's why front tires last so much longer for long distance riders. The rear tire is under constant acceleration stress, while the front tire is just coasting along. The theory is, since the rear tire is constructed to withstand constant acceleration stress and front tires are not, turning it backwards before mounting it on the front will enable the rear tire to withstand the braking stress better. This theory comes from back when all bikes were standard bikes and had more weight on the front tire than today's cruisers do.

When you get hard on the front brake on a standard bike, the weight shift will probably not be enough to do a 'stoppie', but it will put much more weight on the front tire during braking than even the heaviest cruiser bike will. That extra weight is what allows the braking stress to be increased far beyond what a cruiser front tire experiences. The braking stress on a cruiser's front tire is unlikely to unravel any rear tire, no matter which way it is mounted. After all, the rear tire is made to be able to handle constant acceleration stress and braking stress, which are in opposite directions, and under much more weight than the cruiser's front wheel experiences during braking.

Consequently, it would seem to be best when mounting a rear tire on the front of a cruiser, to mount the tire in the normal direction if it has angled rain grooves. The angled rain grooves would tend to pull water into the center of the tire, if mounted backwards. With the classic tread patterns of vertical grooves or squared blocks, it doesn't matter which way the tire rotates in the rain.

All theory aside, I have looked at the front tires on many cruisers ridden by people like me, who ride long distances routinely and never let rain stop them from riding, no matter how bad the storm is. I find rain grooves running in all directions and tires mounted both with and against the arrows. Since everyone slows down in heavy rain because of reduced visibility, it doesn't seem to make any difference."

From Motorcycle Cruiser magazine, dated Oct. 2009.

Makes sense to me.

I have not yet changed out the front tire. In fact, I'm in the process of mounting the sidecar so I have almost no miles on my Dunlop, though I ran car tires on my Valkyrie all the while I owned it.