Can-Am's position on tires

[askitee]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFr7...TheSmoaksVlogs

Go to 7:50
Comments?

I havent seen the clip yet, but I've heard SmoaksVlog talk about car tyres. Someone else here rightly points out, being a mechanic doesnt make them highly informed on tyres. The dealership where I bought my RTL from, the head BRP tech made the comment - "you could run bald tyres on these cause with all the safety systems, they will take care of you". I thought he was kidding initially, but then I pointed out to him and later in an email to the Group GM of company that if a tyre cant get grip VSS will only respond by acting on the grip it can get and if that's none then you continue on your merry way until you hit something or inertia washes off.

I for the 1st 12 months viewed the idea of putting car rubber on my RTL as insanity, believing all the spiel I was given by various people. The crunch came when a comment was made about car tyres upsetting the ABS - I called bull**** on the comment. ABS works the same way as it does with a crap tyre or the best tyre - it will grip the brake disk as hard as possible until traction is lost, release a little then grip the disk tightly again. Put better rubber on and grip is maintained longer and can allow the better gripping tyre to do its part of slowing the bike down. Its a fundamental of ABS no matter who makes or bakes it.

I don't doubt there are some brands of car tyre out there that may make wet weather grip worse, and I have only had one brand of car tyre so far, but I ride in all weather conditions and on the current car rubber love the way it grips, gives feedback to the rider, and after my near miss with a tree falling across all lanes on a down hill corner in the rain, I am so very thankful for the wet weather grip car tyres have provided. And yes the ABS was working to help stop me in time.

Apologies of this sounds condescending to any one.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Wow Mike, five posts in a row! Did I find a button? Actually it's all very enlightening. I'm leaning heavily to the car tire camp, especially if Can-Am has no technical support for their position.

Well you haven't been here too long yet ..... My position on tires is #1.- Safety , #2- performance , #3.- longevity ..... So no you didn't find a button, it's been there for years and years .............. Mike

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

My guess it that HD probably buys a lot of Dunlop m/c tires. It would have been easy for them to strong arm Dunlop into working with them, or even forcing Dunlop to act on their own, to get NHTSA blessing for their use on HD trikes. One thing we can be sure of. HD ain't ever going to tell us why they can mount CTs at the factory. Is Dunlop the only brand of CT HD uses?

" only Brand " , back when I delved into this topic, that was the brand they were using .... Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd they didn't have any wording about " motorcycle use or recommendations " on the sidewall !!!! .... back when I first posted about this, I listed the what model they were but that's not something I committed to memory or I did but can't remember now ...... Mike

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

I havent seen the clip yet, but I've heard SmoaksVlog talk about car tyres. Someone else here rightly points out, being a mechanic doesnt make them highly informed on tyres. The dealership where I bought my RTL from, the head BRP tech made the comment - "you could run bald tyres on these cause with all the safety systems, they will take care of you". I thought he was kidding initially, but then I pointed out to him and later in an email to the Group GM of company that if a tyre cant get grip VSS will only respond by acting on the grip it can get and if that's none then you continue on your merry way until you hit something or inertia washes off.

I for the 1st 12 months viewed the idea of putting car rubber on my RTL as insanity, believing all the spiel I was given by various people. The crunch came when a comment was made about car tyres upsetting the ABS - I called bull**** on the comment. ABS works the same way as it does with a crap tyre or the best tyre - it will grip the brake disk as hard as possible until traction is lost, release a little then grip the disk tightly again. Put better rubber on and grip is maintained longer and can allow the better gripping tyre to do its part of slowing the bike down. Its a fundamental of ABS no matter who makes or bakes it.

I don't doubt there are some brands of car tyre out there that may make wet weather grip worse, and I have only had one brand of car tyre so far, but I ride in all weather conditions and on the current car rubber love the way it grips, gives feedback to the rider, and after my near miss with a tree falling across all lanes on a down hill corner in the rain, I am so very thankful for the wet weather grip car tyres have provided. And yes the ABS was working to help stop me in time.

Apologies of this sounds condescending to any one.

askitee, .... you get it , ....thanks .... Mike

[ButterSmooth]

... after my near miss with a tree falling across all lanes on a down hill corner in the rain, I am so very thankful for the wet weather grip car tyres have provided. And yes the ABS was working to help stop me in time.

!

Experience is good. I don't want that particular one, however. Elk, deer, and antelope keep me scanning the roadside around here. Saw a car get bombed by a borate bomber once -- talk about out of the blue...

[BajaRon]

!

Experience is good. I don't want that particular one, however. Elk, deer, and antelope keep me scanning the roadside around here. Saw a car get bombed by a borate bomber once -- talk about out of the blue...

Borate! That was a LONG time ago! Borate was sterilizing the ground. Not a good look down the road. Nor was it a hit with the tree huggers. It was replaced with a mixture that actually encouraged regrowth. Did prevent fires in that specific location for several years though.

[ButterSmooth]

Borate! That was a LONG time ago! Borate was sterilizing the ground. Not a good look down the road. Nor was it a hit with the tree huggers. It was replaced with a mixture that actually encouraged regrowth. Did prevent fires in that specific location for several years though.

It may well have been something else. I drove through the red spot (with a car silhouette) on the highway for months after that, though. It was an A26 and absolutely spectacular to watch.

[Tango]

As BLUEKNIGHT has said. HD puts car tires on ALL of their trike from the factory. Also, every trike kit from the major manufacturers also come with car tire mounted on them. Out Spyders come from the factory with CAR rims from the factory. It's all about the money! Buy a car tire from a tire shop? BRP makes no profit from it. The dealer makes no profit from it. I'm on my third Spyder. All have or had car tires on them. Save money, get a better handling, better quality made tire. A win all around. Tom

[WDAVEY]

FYI, just found Kenda tires mounted on my zero-turn lawn mower!

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

See my post from 6 years ago!

https://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/...n-good-company!

[BajaRon]

It may well have been something else. I drove through the red spot (with a car silhouette) on the highway for months after that, though. It was an A26 and absolutely spectacular to watch.

If it was an A26, it could have been borate. It would have had to be in the early 60's though. They only used borate for 2 or 3 years in the early 60's. But the new method of dropping retardant out of converted military bombers caught the public's attention. So when someone coined the phrase 'Borate Bombers', it stuck. People continued to call them this long after the short lived borate solution was changed to a non-sterile mixture.

tankerdrop.jpg

[ButterSmooth]

If it was an A26, it could have been borate. It would have had to be in the early 60's though. They only used borate for 2 or 3 years in the early 60's. But the new method of dropping retardant out of converted military bombers caught the public's attention. So when someone coined the phrase 'Borate Bombers', it stuck. People continued to call them this long after the short lived borate solution was changed to a non-sterile mixture.

tankerdrop.jpg

WHAT A PICTURE!!! I can hear the roar of those radials now!

[askitee]

!

Experience is good. I don't want that particular one, however. Elk, deer, and antelope keep me scanning the roadside around here. Saw a car get bombed by a borate bomber once -- talk about out of the blue...

Yes and it didn't sink in till some hours later. I was home for a few hours and explained it to my wife.

[Gwolf]

I ran 15 inch light truck tires on the back of my old Sportster for almost 20 years. The tires would last up to 100,000 miles without showing much wear and they had 10 times the grip of a single OEM back tire.

[RudyB]

I havent seen the clip yet, but I've heard SmoaksVlog talk about car tyres. Someone else here rightly points out, being a mechanic doesnt make them highly informed on tyres. The dealership where I bought my RTL from, the head BRP tech made the comment - "you could run bald tyres on these cause with all the safety systems, they will take care of you". I thought he was kidding initially, but then I pointed out to him and later in an email to the Group GM of company that if a tyre cant get grip VSS will only respond by acting on the grip it can get and if that's none then you continue on your merry way until you hit something or inertia washes off.

I for the 1st 12 months viewed the idea of putting car rubber on my RTL as insanity, believing all the spiel I was given by various people. The crunch came when a comment was made about car tyres upsetting the ABS - I called bull**** on the comment. ABS works the same way as it does with a crap tyre or the best tyre - it will grip the brake disk as hard as possible until traction is lost, release a little then grip the disk tightly again. Put better rubber on and grip is maintained longer and can allow the better gripping tyre to do its part of slowing the bike down. Its a fundamental of ABS no matter who makes or bakes it.

I don't doubt there are some brands of car tyre out there that may make wet weather grip worse, and I have only had one brand of car tyre so far, but I ride in all weather conditions and on the current car rubber love the way it grips, gives feedback to the rider, and after my near miss with a tree falling across all lanes on a down hill corner in the rain, I am so very thankful for the wet weather grip car tyres have provided. And yes the ABS was working to help stop me in time.

Apologies of this sounds condescending to any one.

I have met Mr YouTube he can’t say anything else but that car tires are scary anything else he would be looking for a job

[Three]

This is a great discussion about tires. Can those of you running car tires suggest which car tires and what size?

Thanks.

[RayBJ]

You may want to do a search for that info. But better pack a lunch before you start!

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

This is a great discussion about tires. Can those of you running car tires suggest which car tires and what size?

Thanks.

As RayBJ suggests, do a search. Using the terms car tire will bring up hundreds of discussions! You'll have reading material to keep you busy for two weeks! Nothing that anyone can/will offer up here will be any different or better than what you'll find already posted. Searching with Google [car tire site:spyderlovers.com] brings up almost 9000 hits.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

This is a great discussion about tires. Can those of you running car tires suggest which car tires and what size?

Thanks.

If you want the very best auto tire currently available I suggest the Vredestein Quatrac 5 ..... for the front they have sizes in 14 inch and 15 inch wheels and for the rear 15 in. 205/60 and 205/65 .... older models of the V-twin ( GS, RS and RSS ) might need the rear fender raised with spacers for good clearance ..... Mike

[bikerbillone]

Mike, I notice you are high on the Vredestein Quatrac 5 from several comments, I saved one to file so I could remember. Do you order them on line on line, if so, where? Also, what kind of mileage are you getting? Thanks.

[RayBJ]

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...odel=Quatrac+5

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Mike, I notice you are high on the Vredestein Quatrac 5 from several comments, I saved one to file so I could remember. Do you order them on line on line, if so, where? Also, what kind of mileage are you getting? Thanks.

The three distributors that I know of are Tire Rack , Simple tire, and Vulcan tire. You may have a store on your area .... otherwise they all can be accessed on-line .... As far as how well they wear - I discovered this tire about 8 Mo. ago, so they haven't been around long enough to give long-term wear results. I think " teninospyder " has about 10,000 mi. on His. He rides double and according to Him, He is at the Max load allowable ..... Mike .....PS, one of our Canadian members reported that He bought the Q-5's at a store near Him.....

[Steve W.]

I was going to order my Vreds from Vulcan. I checked with the muffler/service shop where I get my car work done to see if they would mount them if I brought them in. He checked, he could order them for me, the price was less than $5 more, so I let him get his cut on the profit, too.

Any decent tire shop should be able to get them, many will not mount what they did not sell, so shop around.

By the way, I have 175/55-15 on the front, 205/65-15 on the rear of a '17 RT-S.

.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...odel=Quatrac+5

Thanks for posting ........... Mike

[Fearless]

My guess it that HD probably buys a lot of Dunlop m/c tires. It would have been easy for them to strong arm Dunlop into working with them, or even forcing Dunlop to act on their own, to get NHTSA blessing for their use on HD trikes. One thing we can be sure of. HD ain't ever going to tell us why they can mount CTs at the factory. Is Dunlop the only brand of CT HD uses?

Mate of mine just did a 16,000km (10,000 mile) trip in Australia. Ran out of rear tyre in Alice Springs. Tiger 1200. Only tyre available was a Dunlop tyre branded HARLEY DAVIDSON. We gave him a lot of grieve over that.

Car tyres for me