Vintage race tires

I'm deciding what rim/tire combination I will be putting on my dirt bike turned road racer. The front is easy since I swapped a modern front end on it I can put any good 17 inch on the front.
The back is different! Stock it has an 18 inch by 3 inch wide rim on it. I can buy a Metzler racetec made for vintage Superbikes. I have seen various vintage race tires that are good up to 140 wide 18 inch. This would fit my stock rim.

I have used dunlop slicks and various dot race tires on my other bikes. My question is will a vintage race tire designed for narrow 18 inch rims work and grip comparably to a 17 inch DOT?

 

Yo Dave!....what do you have up your sleeve here????

Be careful going 17". Check the rules, but I believe that would put you out of alot of vintage roadracing....check it out.

Im running Conti's CR3 now.....18x2.15 front and 18x2.5 rear.

Avons are good....I really liked Dunlops, but dont make em any more.

 

Do those tires grip as well as a dot?
This bike is for V6LW so my tire/rim choices are pretty open.

 

Hello Charlie!

 

Most of the Motard guys run 17" and run slicks. I have one on a CR500 running Beidgestone DOT's.

 

Bridgestone DOT's too. Got them from Stick

 

Was told recently, but I haven't checked yet, that they are going the same way as Dunlops.

 

I saw they shut down the plant where the vintage race tires were made. I haven't found anyone that can confirm if they are moving production to a new facility, or not

 

Be nice if Bridgestone did full race compound 18" 90/90 and 100/90 tyres

 

It sure would. I've been trying for a couple of years now. We pulled a bunch of info for them and told them the 4/5 sizes we needed. The response from corporate has not made me feel warm and fuzzy.

 

Hell if we are dreaming.....110 would be good too!

 

Really? Do I need to go to Nashville and explain Economics 101?

Dunlop is dead. Avon is going the way of the Dodo. Continental only make radials in strange sizes for big rims. And, they suck in the rain. The market is yours!

Bridgestone will sell every 90/90 front and 110/80 and 120/80 and 130/70 rear race compound they make. Price? Hell, charge whatever you like: YOU ARE THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN. It can't possibly be more than we are paying now, post-Covid. Do I need to be more clear?

What does a mould cost? You already have all the facilities and infrastructure. And, you are the title sponsor of the world's largest vintage motorcycle racing organization: roadrace, motocross, cross country, trials and dirt track. Really? This requires further explanation?

Apparently the message is not getting thru to Nashville. I'm your guy . . . .

Cheers,

Dave

 

Dave, are you going to be racing it in vintage classes? If not, consider a supermoto rear rim and spoke it up. My guess is you probably don't want a taller rear on it. The shorter the rear the better the geometry will likely be. I know my project is being very difficult to get the geometry in a reasonable place.

 

I told them the same thing a few years ago. Then last year I told them again, and this off season I talked to the guy in Nashville, After that talk, I have less faith now than I did before. I even laid out a plan to make it easy. Give me a current product, with rubber from a different current product. I'll be happy to start with that. Just a simple mix and match. I've talked to engineers (real ones, not ones that only get emails about tires) from our other brand and asked for the same thing. They said that would be really easy to do, you just need the right people to approve it. I want fronts 90/90, 100/90, rears 110/80, 120/80, 130/80. All 18"

The market is wide open, and nobody seems to want it.

 

I hate to hear that!! I've been patiently waiting for Bridgestone to make us some vintage rubber. There seems to be a huge market. They offer tires for only about 30% (totally made up statistic) of the series they are a title sponsor for. There is also a huge amount of vintage racing over seas. Look at the Classic GP series. Its a huge series of nothing but TZ250s and TZ350s. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but dangit! I got a vintage bike that wants their rubber, Take my money!!!!

 

Yes, it's really frustrating.

 

All excellent help. I am leaning toward going to a 17 rear to match the 17 front. This is OK in V6LW and supermoto classes of course. I mocked it up on the bike with restricted rear stroke and the SV650 forks. I'm surprised how low the bike can be made. Definitely have to be aware of cornering clearance. Since I have not said it yet in this thread, the bike is a 1985 Husqvarna XC430.

 

I've been using Heidenau as they are the only ones I seem to be able to get. The irony in this is that Stickboy is the only bloke I know who doesn't have trouble mounting them.

 

Sorry but the vintage bias ply race tire business is not as big as you think. 10 years ago, I evaluated adding vintage bias ply race tires to the mix but the worldwide volumes were too small for a decent ROA. And since BStone is a big company like Pirelli and they may feel the same way. A mold is about 10K and then you have at least 150k in development, indoor, and outdoor testing cost per size. And tire factories don’t like to make small production runs, so adding complexity means the factory manager fights to keep profitability up.

FYI Avon closed the UK plant to move it to Europe and Conti is having problems and they stopped making many tires too, so not a lot of options. Vintage racers need a niche company like Heidenau or Stinko to take up the slack.

 

I bet it's falling on deaf ears because you sell more Buffalo product?