Caution ! Metalworking Content

I made one recently in about a half hour. 4 small bearings supporting axle, mounted to some short stubs of angle on the tips of 2 X 4 legs. Works beautifully. I'll use the time saved to cackle about Trump gaffes while working on larger projects.

Damned tootin, it is.

Cool! Use sewing machine oil or silicone/dry lube (instead of grease) on the bearings for less stiction.

Absolutely, and especially so at highway+ speeds.

I hope Conti doesn't void the warranty because of them. They look like they'd always imbalance the wheel after the tire hits any rut whatsoever. Stickons and spoke wraps both work pretty permanently. Well, until the tire decides to go OOR or find a flat spot after a skid. My recent experience is with friends with bikes. I haven't owned one since 1969.

What's with the idiots on YouTube who burn all the tread off their superbike's rear tire while straddling it, holding the front brake on? Damn, that'd get expensive in a hurry.

None of the tires listed are designed for a heavy touring bike like mine . I was accustomed to getting 10,000 miles or more from a rear tire and about double that from a front . The only thing that has changed on my end is where I live ... I could deal with getting 8k from a rear tire , but less than 3500 is just totally unacceptable . The only thing I can think is that the rubber compounds have been changed . Reviewing my logs , it looks like each tire (based on several sets of Elite III's) has gotten fewer miles ... the first set of EIII's I bought when they were first introduced got 15k+ rear and nearly 32k front . It's all been downhill from there .

"Terry Coombs" fired this volley in news:np0i9p$c1v$1 @dont-email.me:

Just think what the wear would have been if you'd been going UPhill!

Lloyd

This data confirms, on bikes, my own experiences with these brands of car/truck tires. I got 60k on the OEM rears of my '90 F-150. The lousy, loose OEM Michelins which came on my Tundra lasted just 22k and wouldn't haul me up a 10% slope on wet grass!

I've put more miles on Bridgestones than on any other tire brand, by a wide margin. Love 'em. My newest Tundra feet, Dueler A/T Revo II tires, stick to wet asphalt like glue. Worth the exhorbitant price of $970/4 installed, despite the near heart attack the price caused.

I switched to the "dark side" (car tire instead of bike tire)long ago. Fully loaded 1800 'wing with my fat ass on it and I get closer to 50K on the rear tire, for less than half the price of the bike tire it calls for. No flats, no abnormal wear and MUCH improved ride and braking. A lot of the big bikes can be fitted the same way.

Gunner Asch on Tue, 16 Aug 2016 18:52:56 -0700 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

My response to any time someone "burns out" is "Must be nice having someone else buy tires.""

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."

Does "Canyon Chasers" sound like a mild touring group to you? Most of the Bridgestones were touring tires, though, and got good mileage with the racers. I remember seeing the guys on bikes damnear horizontal on the curves of CA-74 between San Juan Capistrano and Lake Elsinore in CA. There were many wrecks every month, usually with at least one death. You'd see them pass you on the inside corner in the other lane with their knee scraping. Luckily, I never saw a wreck. They're gruesome. Speaking of which, look at this guy's luck:

Yeah, that's crap. I noticed an extreme change after moving from CA to OR. The roads up here are much coarser and handle water better. Tire mileage is a bit less, but I put just 6k on annually, so I haven't really paid that much attention to it. I do like my corners, though, so I burn through a bit more rubber than many folks would. It's hard to break these loose in the Tundra, though.

How's the difference in roads where you used to live and where you live now? Up here, when trucks go down the road, the whitewater is minimal. In CA, you had to follow one from 1/4 mile back just to be able to see the road in front of you. Needless to say, I prefer these roads to CA's.

Man, that's a tall mountain. Oh, you meant...

Let's just say that you need to be careful if you run your hand along the bottom edge of my footboards ... My 1990 Harley Ultra Classic has some mods to the stock rear suspension , including chromoly steel/aluminum bronze swingarm pivot bushings of my own design in place of the steel/rubber/plastic/silicone composite OEM units .

The roads up here are a little coarser than down in the Memphis area . Here they use chip/seal surfacing on the roads using crushed rock rather than the plain asphalt surfacing . I could see a reduction of up to 20-25% in tread life , but not a reduction to less than a third . Car and truck tires don't seem to have the same shortened life ...

I miss the meaning here, unless you sharpened them in turns.

I'd miss the slightly softer ride with the rubbery hinge there, myself. You Harley riders are tough, and have to be, between the unmuffled exhaust noise, engine vibration, hard tails, etc. You have to man-up to ride one for long. I'm just a wuss, preferring an enduro style of bike, so I could ride it anywhere.

True, luckily for us. But you only have to buy 2 at a time, max.

This sounds interesting - and I've heard before about using car tires on bikes . What size do you use ? Are you running a radial ? My front is a bias ply , Dunlop EIII , so I assume I need bias ply on the rear too ... My bike runs 16's (130/90's FWIW) on both ends , are car tires sized the same as bike tires ? Do they handle like the bike tires in the twisties ? We got a lot of really windy roads around here ...

'06 GL1800 Rear - 195/55R -16 Kumho Ecsta PA31 from Tire Rack Front - 130/70ZR-18 Bridgestone Excedra G851 from Amazon

Radials on both ends. You can run a radial on the rear and bias on the front. BTDT. BUT it does make it handle different.

Never had an issue with the tires when I drag the pegs but I don't get to do that often these days. More distance rides these days. I do know a few folks who ride darkside, who go through foot boards yearly from grinding them down though.

Think about the technology of tires today. How many flats have you had on your vehicles from crap tires or rough roads versus the bike? How about the tire wear? When you put a set on a car you figure that 30K is poor wear but accept 10K on the bike. The current rear has around 22K on it and it's maybe 1/3 gone.

Usually the issue is side clearance. What bike do you run? Maybe it's on the list

Side clearance ... I figured that would be a potential problem . My ride is a 1990 FLHTCU , normal tire is a 130/90-16 . I've got a new Dunlop Elite

3sitting out there to install , by the time it's worn out I should be able to figure out what will work . I agree on the technology thing and have wondered why it is that bike tires get so few miles . I always thought the rubber compounds were more formulated for stick rather than mileage and that that's just the way it is ... money's not exactly tight here , but why throw it away if there's an option ?