Coker Tire FWIW

My experiences with Coker Tire have been excellent as well Harold. On etime they were out of tubes for a 135r15 tire. The guy told me who may have some. I bought them at the other place. A couple of weeks later Coker followed up and called me to say they now had the tubes. Thay seemed please that i had been able to find some elsewhere so as not to be held up.
Good folks,

i would very much like to know the total inflated width and dia of the 125r15 and the 135r15 tires.

i also am trying to find out what width rim they are designed for and what width rims they will fit

thanks

tim olson

Tim,
Calling Coker Tire may be a good idea on that. There is also information to be found on the net.
If you are thinking about putting a 15" car tire on a motorcycle rim it is not advisable though. If you go look in th earchived posts here there has been much discussion on this. 15" motorcycle rims are actually larger in diameter than a 15" bike rim. There have been injuries documentd when thsi was done. Some have done it with no reported problems though but the stance of most( probably all) of the ones who have been around a whiel is not to do it.

Are you people using these tires for going down the road?
If the bike tires are anything like the car tires, I would never use Cokers for anything but display purposes.
If anyone has actually used them, I'd sure like to hear about it.

Ernie,
The tires we are talking about are good road tires in smaller sizes than are readily avaable in most places. The 135s are made by Michelin and other suppliers. The are not antique car tires if that is what you mean.
As far as the antigue car tires do go I had used a 4.50 x 17 from Cocker for a few years.Some wore good and some not. Thye had a flat tread and mounted up easily to the 17" rim on our GL1000/ wATSONIAN RIG.
No, I do not reccomend using them any longer although they are still available. First off they are antique tires even though when one is bought it is 'usually' a newly made one. Antique tires mean antique tread patterns. Antigue tread patterns mean they may no dissapate water properly in the wet.
One time in the rain I pulled out to pass a car. Yes, my speed was faster than it should have been so I can probably take some blame for this . Anyhow the rear wheel broke traction so quickly when we went to pull back in that the rig was totally sideways at probably 70 mph and I had the bars at full lock to the left to keep from spinning the thing out. We made it but not without a pretty big scare. i like to horse around as much as most but like to do so when things are basically under control Thsi was not the case here. Fun meter reading was very low.
Another time when we went to americade we had a new 4.50 x 17 on the rear. We were coming back from the event on the interstate surrounded by triucks and blew that tire. Not just a tire going soft mind you but a real 'bang' blow out. Pucker tiem again as we got it off the road hoping the driver of the kenworth behind us was not dozing at the wheel. When I looked at the tire it was toitally worn out right down through the cords to the air!! This was in probably less than 500 miles. I checked seup later on and all was fine. Mounted up a 471 dunlop after than and got many miles out of it without adjusting anything on the rig.
Only think we could figure was that tire must have been very old or it was made with inferior rubber or something. i think the brand name on that one was 'comander'.
So, we are talking about two different thinsg here. The tires like the 135s are not the same as the reproduction antique tires etc.

I have been running various Michelin radials from Coker on my EML wheels since 1992. No problems.

Jim

Jim wrote:
>>I have been running various Michelin radials from Coker on my EML wheels since 1992. No problems.<<

I hope I did not give the wrong impression in my last post. The tires that Coker sells are not all of the antique design I was speaking of. Yes, we have run Nichelin 135's from Coker and others with no issues at all and no issues shoudl be expected.

Hmmm... I don't get it. I had Cokers on my Traveler and they felt like I was riding on water balloons. I was afraid to turn the wheel. If you folks are happy- more power to ya!

Originally written by Uncle Ernie on 11/11/2006 10:28 PM

Hmmm... I don't get it. I had Cokers on my Traveler and they felt like I was riding on water balloons. I was afraid to turn the wheel. If you folks are happy- more power to ya!

Ernie,
If you had tires that felt like waterbaloons it must have been a fun ride..lol.
Please keep in mid that Coker sells all kinds or tires, tire brands etc. We don't want to give the impression that coker tires are a good or bad tire as they sell many types, sizes and brands.

Have been away from the forum for most of two weeks to come back to find I started a small storm. I didn't buy Coker tires I bought tires from Coker tire and I got very good service.
The tires I bought are Firestone F560 they were made in Firestone factory number 4 somewhere in mexico and they were made about the middle of this August. They are 125/R15 steel belted rayon and S rated. There were other choices as Claude has suggested. I could have bought the exact tire that came on the rig from a place in UK and in Europe. They were Uniroyls made in France. I could have bought a pair from a E-bay store. They were Nankings made somewhere in Asia. Of the choices helping the mexican economy was my choice.
Are they good tires??? I don't know. Ask me some time next summer after I have put miles on them. I am not expecting to be disapointed.
Harold Short

Just curious,
Why post a message/question and then leave the forum for 2 weeks?
In most forums I post questions on (motorcycles/sidecars/sailboats)there seems to be an unwritten courtesy that the poster should stick around the forum to respond to replies.
This tends to keep readers from suspecting TROLLS have posted a question on the forum just to cause discontent.

Just my 5 cents

Bruce

88VR / Calif Friendship III

Bruce,
No discontent on these Forums, we're all happy campers.
I read HH's post as "His experience", not a question.

My 2 cents (before Washington taxes).

Lonnie

the reason im looking for total inflated width of the 125r15 and 135r15 is that im looking to having a "car size" wheel made for my sidecar rig. so it becomes strictly a issue of fender clearance and total diameter.

i have found a few possible leads for wheels, some from this list. most folks that have advertized 15" car size wheels have discontinued them from low demand. the basic issue is that once you put on a car size wheel its much more complicated to remove the sidecar and ride the bike. that said, my goal by the end of feb is to have a raked tree and a radial 15" rear tire - im planning a trip with my wife to warmer climes and want to have all the possible bugs out by then.

thanks lots of the pointers on wheels

and im still looking for emperical data on inflated width of tires on various rim widths.

to

Here goes,, Tim!!! I ran up staires with my tape measure and this what I get off my EML wheels.

With the 125/R15 tire the wheel markings are 3J X 15H2 The bead measures approximatly 3 inches so I guess that it would be a 3 inch rim. The tire measures 5 inches wide.

The 135/R15 the wheel markings are 4J x 15H2 4 inch rim and the tire is 5 3/4 inches wide.

I hope this is helpful. I'm not leaving home for a few weeks now but my life doesn't center on this forum. Harold Short McPherson KS.