Riding in the snow , help with tires?

Fastjoe,

This tire has a look of being almost a knobbie, this could be improved by sharp knife or carton cutter. Dirt track recers and tractor pullers have been cutting tire treads to improve traction since the invention of the sharpened cutting edge.

One thing, if you open the tread by making the groove wider at the tread surface then the tire will become more self cleaning.

mrmustash

Of course ... you could always chain up. I've done it, but it was a long time ago.

You don't mention which Harley is being used. A more agressive tread pattern for the front tire will enhance steering control and stopping in the snow or slush. No help on ice. Studs, chains or traction enhancing elements in the tire tread itself are about the only things that will help on ice.
If the bike also has a 16" front wheel and the rear Duro tire is used it is common to reverse rotation on a designated rear tire if used as a front tire or as a (slave) sidecar tire since you are not interested in pulling traction but are interested in stopping traction on these wheels.

Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars

I use that tire on my Honda GL650/ Dneper. It's not too noisy or squirrelly at freeway speeds. It's a vast improvement over normal street tires, but I was disappointed to find that the sidecar induces so much additional drag in snow that I could not get out of a flat parking lot with 4 inches of fresh snow. I put studs in the same tire. What a difference. I can now get around pretty good in the snow but I am very conservative in my expectations of performance. Plan far ahead. If you come to a hill, don't expect to make it up. Have a plan on how to get turned around when you fail. Expect the worst. You might be better off using a full on knobby. You can put studs in those as well. If you have swing arm clearance, try some chains. These would be more aggressive both moving forward and equally important, stopping. Watch out for the other guy. He's driving with frost on his wind shield and doesn't see you.

How do you stud a tire like this? Sounds like a great idea!
Thanks,
Joe

Unfortunately on this flhtp there is no clearence for chains in the rear.
Pretty tight back there I believe but I will have to go and take another peek.

The bike is a flhtp an 1988.
Not much room for chains unless the fenders are changed for winter.
Then I am not sure about the swing arm etc. Loose chain could really make a mess down there in a hurry. I'm thinking studs now.

I did not realize that that all my replies would lump together on the bottom of the tread. OOps...
Sorry for the mess.
Joe

Looks like a decent tire. You will more than likely have more issues with steering than traction depending upon the condition of the road surface of course. Not sure about reversing the front tire in this case.
If you stud the rear you will probably end up studding the front too.
So much depoends on the road surface as far as handling goes. Moving your weight around front to rear etc can help a lot for steering control. You can also induce oversteer with practice to help steer the rig using the throttle. This will keep the front end from losing traction.
Going up hills can be rough as steering can be difficult. Moving forward over the front wheel helps but will reduce traction some at the rear...it becomes a balancing act of trade offs sorta. Passengers if active can help too.
Riding in snow can be fun. riding in slush can be awful. Ice is not much for my fun meter.
It will all come down to your experiences telling you what to do and when. Again, road surfaces vary a lot in winter so many things you will see written here may or may not apply.

The first time I studded a tire I went to a well known tire chain store. The manager told me that their policy prevented him from working on motorcycles. He then went in the back and came out with the compressed air stud gun and a box of studs and asked if I had an air compressor. He told me to drill 3/16ths of an inch into the tread for each stud. The next day I returned the gun on my newly studded sidecar. He didn't charge me anything. By spring time half the studs had fallen out but by then the ice was gone. The following winter I found a small mom & pop tire store that drilled and studded my tire for $20. The studs stayed in much better when the pros did it. By the time the studs had fallen out, the tire was shot. By the way, the stud gun retails for around $300. As for studding my front tire I haven't found a 19 inch tire that has enough tread to drill (3/16 inch)without going into the cord.I use a flat profile sidecar tire and adjust my direction with my throttle.
Riding a sidecar is an adventure. Riding a sidecar in the snow is a real adventure.

http://adventuresidecar.com/hackdchains.htm

You are pretty limited in tire choices with a 16" that is presumably fairly wide. You can probably go down in rim width about 1" and still get away with it, if the bead will seat. THis should flatten the profile putting more tread on the ground.

I would go with the most aggressive dualsport tire you can fit. The ones that look like knobs or trials patterns will work way better than the ones with wider flatter treads. But you will need to go with what fits. Some of the "classic" treads were made of square checkerboard like tread patterns and might work too.

Since you have spare wheels, go ahead and get them studded or use screws. You probably wont have the clearance for chains or cables and if you care about the appearance of your swingarm, you don't want to use them anyway.

shop some other tire suppliers to see what is available. I have had good luck with Chaparral and also at my neighborhood hole in the wall motoshop!

And you most definitely want good tread on the front, too. Other wise steering and stopping can be very tricky. If your sidecar has brakes consider the tire on that too, tho'. in my opinion, it isn't nearly as critical as the bike tires.

Hello Joe,
the spikes help a lot on ice and compacted snow. Front and back tire should have spikes. The tire thread should be quite open or with an angle so that the snow get thrown out. Normal Trike block as I used gets clogged up very fast. A soft rubber is essential at frost temperature. Summer tires with standard rubber become hard as stone and have no grip even with a goog open thread they become useless.
If fender space in your bike is limited think about a special construction for a chain substitute. A flip over spanner with 2 steel bands and a piece of chain. 5 - 10 units per tire would work well.

I used for the few occasions simple rope wraped arround the back tire.

One thing that you should consider as good improovement is a deflecting sheet metal below the sidecar frame. (in summer it helps in the forrest too for not to grab branches) For me it was THE big improovement for winter. In deep snow it simply lifted the sidecar and prevented me from getting stuck or and makeing circles.
You get warm blood from adrenaline though,... when the sidecar gets lifted by an unexpected obstacle. But that is still better then recieve the full hit on the sidecar frame.

Best regards from somebody who misses snow and his rig (Dough and Geo said that at the end it will have to be dismantled anyway. - They were right!).
Sven Peter Pan

Ice racers use screws. Screw them in and let the head stick out. I like the idea of the rope. Easy, good emergency thought process.