“Holy sh*t” and “Wow” are some of the typical comments when people see the tire on the bike.
What got me started on the “search” for this tire was having dropped the bike twice on the gravel roads of our campground.
The motorcycle has so much torque that breathing on the throttle caused the $900 racing slick to break traction and “flip” the bike.
Fifty years of riding simply could not overcome this catastrophe waiting to happen.
They call it the Dark Side” when you replace the motorcycle’s rear tire with an automotive tire.
We all have our motivations, mine was stability.
All the naysayers predicted, “the bike would roll up on the sidewall”.
This video convinced me the sidewall issue was not the case.
Due to its enormous engine 140 CI or 2293 CI (give or take) the two-wheeled monster commands respect simply parked.
With that in the rearview, I talked to Danny at AmCat to do the deed and replace the Rocket’s rear tire with a car tire while updating the front tire with a new conventional design.
Car tires are way the hell cheaper than motorcycle tires, that’s for sure.
That all happened at the end of the 2023 season.
Fast forward to the summer of 2024.
I’m a recovering heart attack patient undergoing cardiopulmonary therapy at the brand spanking new Crown Point Franciscan Hospital at I65 and 231, 3 days a week.
So it’s been a great reason to put 24-mile round trips on the British beast.
A dozen miles each way in traffic is really not a good way to evaluate the efficacy of my new rubber.
Dovetailing this story with good friends over at our campground for dinner and a campfire – you all have a fire pit, right?
One of the guests an aficionado of fine motorbikes owning and riding a classic Moto Guzzi asked the obvious, “What’s the benefit of the car tire”?
I could not provide a complete answer, until now.
Danny pointed out to me the slight “sway” experienced during slow turns which I mentioned to my dinner guest, Crash (not his real name).
I felt it and upped the rear tire pressure to 42 PSI.
As the universe works so strangely, 2 days after my dinner conversation with Crash I made plans with my best buddy Dago Joe to come up and spend the night in South Bend (Granger).
Loading up the Rocket Wednesday morning I left for cardiac rehab at about 2:15 taking 65 North.
While in the center lane traveling at 80 MPH with cars passing on the left, the bike felt very stable.
For the ride to Granger, I could not find my friend’s exact address so I entered “Notre Dame” into WAZE knowing he was near the campus.
The temperature was 72 so I put on a thermal shirt with a cotton t-shirt over that for the ride and took off.
WAZE in the helmet kept me on back road Indiana highways, primarily Route 2, and into one of the Notre Dame entrances which I avoided.
I kept riding east until I found “Ironwood” Dago Joe’s road, hung a left and was there quite promptly.
I left roughly noon EST on Thursday following a similar route of back roads following the Michigan state line until dropping into Indiana and picking up the scent of my familiar Route 2.
What did I learn riding on the tire that my Ford Escape uses?
“It’s the smoothest ride I’ve ever experienced on a motorbike.”
Motorcycle tires allow you to “lean” into turns.
But they have no “give”, they “follow the road” and although air filled may as well be solid rubber.
The rear car tire offers “elasticity” so you don’t feel the road, the crevasses, the tar snakes, only the hum of the 3 cylinders and their “chirpy” counterbalance.
I learned a couple of other valuable motorcycle riding lessons.
One fundamental truth is that you “steer your motorbike with your eyes”.
The bike goes where you are looking – that’s a given.
The other fundamental truth is motorcycles are “gyroscopes”: they will stay upright as long as the motor is rotating.
Conventional training has you opening the clutch about halfway to enable the engine to keep the bike upright through a turn.
I now keep my hand entirely off the clutch when turning or going through roundabouts and just “power through” each turn aggressively.
I maintain total stability on the bike and avoid any roundabout issues.
Written by Mitch Rezman
