I have a 2014 Harley Heritage and was wanting to have a 16" auto tire installed on the rear for more wear mileage. Do any of you know what tire and where i can buy one that would work for my application. Being new to sidecars, i never even heard of something like this, but saw a bunch of them installed on bikes at the rally in Corning, NY, but none on a Harley. If this is not possible for me, do any of you know a motorcycle tire that you are getting good mileage with as i have Dunlop's on it now, but was told they are not going to last long. Any replies will be appreciated as i am trying to learn from all you out there.
Checkout the web site Darkside Tire or something like that
I have car tires on both my bikes but they are Hondas
I am also registered on the STOC ( ST Owners Club) where a number of members run car tires on there Honda's. I should think that any of the information there would apply to your Harley, with the exception of tire pressure.
http://www.st-owners.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?484-Darksiders
I have ridden with a few of the "Darksiders" and I can assure you the car tire doesn't slow them down much, if at all.
Jim
here's the darkside site. I don't see anything specific to your model and year, but you may be aware of your rim sizes matching some other harley models.
I'm not a Harley guy, but I think your rim is 3x16. Might be 3.5x16. Either way, that's pretty narrow for a car tire. Looking on eBay, it seems like there are a number of aftermarket 16" rims that are wider and marketed to Heritage owners but, again, I'm not a Harley guy so I have no idea what a "Heritage" is or what other names it might go by. In any event, I'd suggest you talk to some knowledgeable Harley guys to see if a wider width rim will fit your bike.
Your OEM-supplied tire is a 150/80B-16. If you can find a 4.5" or 5" rim that fits your Heritage, then you'll be shopping for a 195/60-16 size tire. This tire will be just about the same diameter as your OEM moto tire so your ride height won't change and if your speedometer is driven off the driveline then your speedo will remain reasonably unchanged. Looking at the darksiders page noted above, it looks like lots of Harley guys use that size tire. But I would not try it on a 3.5" rim--too narrow.
Any tire will do, but better tires have a temperature rating of "A", a traction rating of "A", and a treadwear rating the higher the better. An Avid Ascend, for instance, in that size has a 740 treadwear rating. That's really really good. A Kumho Ecsta PA31 (the tire I'm currently using) has a 500 treadwear rating. Also pretty good.
Have owned 5 rigs but Rig #2 is my current one!
