Tires
Motorcycles mainly use pneumatic tires. However, in some cases where punctures are common (some enduros), the tires are filled with a "mousse" which is unpunctureable. Both types of tire come in many configurations. The most important characteristic of any tire is the contact patch, the small area that is in contact with the road surface while riding. There are tires designed for dirtbikes, touring, sport and cruiser bikes.
Dirtbike tires have knobbly, deep treads for maximum grip on loose dirt, mud, or gravel; such tires tend to be less stable on paved surfaces. Touring tires are usually made of harder rubber for greater durability. They may last longer, but they tend to provide less outright grip than sports tires at optimal operating temperatures. The payoff is that touring tires typically offer more grip at lower temperatures, meaning they can be more suitable for riding in cold or winter conditions whereas a sport tire may never reach the optimal operating temperature.
Sport/performance tires provide amazing grip but may last 1,000 miles (1,600 km) or less. Cruiser and "sport touring" tires try to find the best compromise between grip and durability. There is also a type of tire developed specifically for racing. These tires offer the highest of levels of grip for cornering. Because of the high temperatures at which these tires typically operate, use on the street is unsafe because the tires will typically not reach optimum temperature before a rider arrives, thus providing almost no grip en route. In racing situations, racing tires would normally be brought up to temperature in advance by the use of tire warmers.
Read more about this topic: Motorcycle Components
Famous quotes containing the word tires:
“The tires slowly came to a rubbery stop.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“One never tires of what is well written, style is life! It is the very blood of thought!”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)
“Sickness disgusts us with death, and we wish to get well, which is a way of wishing to live. But weakness and suffering, with manifold bodily woes, soon discourage the invalid from trying to regain ground: he tires of those respites which are but snares, of that faltering strength, those ardors cut short, and that perpetual lying in wait for the next attack.”
—Marguerite Yourcenar (1903–1987)