Automobile Tires on BMW Rims

Posted by: @douglas-laird

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I have a 2020 GSA with a LBS Stepler sidecar. Had car tires on my last DMC rig and want to put car tires on this rig.

The rear wheel is a modified BMW cross spoked 6" rim with a 170/60 R 17 Anakee Adventure tire. (Terrible mileage)

The sidecar has a 5" rim (BEHR 36.31.7 494 4 00X 17 MI H2 whatever this all means) with 150/70 R 17 Continental TKC tires. (Terrible mileage)

The front wheel has a 5 1/2" rim (GLM 36.31 - 8  552 164 - 17x MT 4.0 HT MC what ever that all means) Now with Metzler Tourance tire.

My previous GSA had a DMC sidecar and the sidecar and drive wheel tires were motorcycle tires.

We are high mileage folks and don't want to burn through tires every other month of three, thus I want to go to car tires.

Any ideas as to which tires these rims could be mated with?

Comments would be greatly appreciated.

If too much to try to explain my mobile is 202.415.2324 (Don't let the prefix confuse you, we live in Reno, NV

Thanks.  Doug

Doug, the guy you want to contact is Mike Paull, as he has the same bike and sidecar that you have,  and he owns LBS-USA, in Poulsbo, Washington,  and he usually has an inventory of the car tires you are looking for. 

He is on these forums,  but rarely.  Look up LBS-USA, and you will find him.

I was at LBS sidecars in the Netherlands a couple months ago,  meeting with Ad Donkers,  and he had one of the Stepler sidecars he was shipping to someone in the US.

@miles-ladue 

I purchased my rig from Mike. Ordered it last November and finally got it last Saturday. Already have 1,800 miles on it. My former rig, a DMC, got really great mileage on car tires. Over 20,000 on the front wheel. The current bike does not have car tires and after only 1,800 miles there is already serious wear on the tires.

Somebody on this site is really an expert on going with automobile tires so I hope he responds to my post.

1. Doug, there are several of us here that run car tires on our rigs, myself included, however you are needing specific information on a BMW R-GS  w/LBS Stepler rig, and the most knowledgeable person for that rig is Mike Paull.
2.  If you have adverse tire wear in only 1,800...then you are running too low if tire pressure.
3. Try as I might, I tell people to run the right tire pressure, but....the dealers and manufacturers post the wrong tire pressures, and they are wrong. They sell more tires, at the expense of the bike owners. 
4. For some known reason, I get very high mileage out of my tires, and do NOT get adverse wear in them.

My wife also has a LBS-USA sidecar (2017 R1200GS) and had similar issues with tire wear.  She was getting only around 3-4K miles on the sidecar tire as well as the pusher.  I bought two 175/65-17 automotive tires from an Italian dealer on eBay.  The tires are not sold in the USA or Canada; many were searching at the time.  The tires cost a little under $300 each.  The wear was a bit better, but still disappointing, so given the price and the lack of practical availability, we decided to go another way.  There is a lengthy thread on the ADVrider Hacks forum about the search for tires that will fit the BMW wheels. I has been idle for quite awhile so you will need to dig for it.

I have a DMC (the old Washington business) rig (2019 R1250GSA) that came with 15 inch car wheels and tires mounted.  It gets very good mileage on the pusher and sidecar.  6-7K on the pusher and 8-10 on the sidecar are the norm.  I contacted DMC of Texas and bought two adapters for Annie's LBS rig so I could mount the same 165/80-15 tires that are on my rig.  This size tire is readily available on Amazon and other online suppliers.  I've seen prices as low as $65 for some off brands, but I have consistently used Nexen.  I've paid as much as $110 for a Nexen, as little as $76 a few months ago and I see they are selling for $96 now.

We recently got back from a ride up to the Yukon and Alaska.  Annie had new Nexus mounted when we left..  We put 5K miles on our rigs, heavily loaded and much of the trip on chip seal surfaces.  Since getting back she put another 1K on the tires and I'm debating on whether to change both tires before we make a 700 mile trip in two weeks.  This solution has resulted in using les expensive and readily available tires that are lasting a reasonable number of miles.

My rig ('95 R1100 GS /Dnepr combo) originally came to me with the esteemed ATR-K Ecoterrorist 17" rear tire.  Had 8,976 miles when I replaced it.  About 1,000 miles of that was off road, and about 300 of that 1,000 was pretty aggressive rocky trails.  Great mileage, and road traction.  A bit stiff causing a slight harshness on the road. Smaller diameter than a properly sized motorcycle tire.  Off road it was pretty bad all around (as would be expected of a street tire), but it didn't get torn up like I expected.  What did surprise me was how easy it fell off the rim bead once the air was removed. The tire bead literally fell off the rim bead on each side.  Made for a very easy removal, but gave me pause as to what would have happened if the tire lost pressure during a ride. 

Replacement tire was a Motoz Adventure GPS.  Tire had 4,930 miles when replaced. Much smoother running with none of the harshness exhibited by the car tire.  Excellent for off road traction (mostly dry rocky, rutted trails).  Pretty marginal on dry pavement for traction.  Amazing during a down pour on the freeway.  Picture of tire at 4,435 miles.  Did another 500 miles before replacing.  Had to break both beads with substantial force to get them off the rim.  Based on the amount of force required I feel pretty comfortable it would have stayed in place during a sudden depressurization event. 

New tire is a Tusk 2Track.  Extremely off road focused, and not something I'd advise for any type of spirited street riding.  But pretty darned effective at ditch digging.  I'd put it up against a Ditch Witch for any shallow trenching work needed.  lol

I'm thinking my next tire might be the Metzler Tourance.  Had them on an Africa Twin AS (oem equipped), and was pleasantly surprised by their overall performance (no sidecar mounted). 

Horses for courses.  Definitely worth seeing what others who ride similarly are happy with.  

Good luck on your search.  🍻