big tyres on small wheels

[flatyre]

hey all, a lot of café racers seem to have big chunky tyres on their rims, are these safe to ride on or are they just for show? My MZ Ts150 has the standard 300x18's front and rear but I want something that looks a bit less bicycle like. what would be the biggest tyre I could get away with? at least on the rear? cheers

 

[SONICJK]

Most of them are just for show.

The gray areas are okay to run. Check your rim width and put the widest one that's grey on there and call it a day.
Generally speaking you can go 1 size over stock without any issues, 2 sizes you may see some rubbing and slight handling worsening. Any more than that is just asking for trouble IMHO.

 

[o1marc]

Depending on the speed you right they might be safe. Generally the only advantage is cosmetic and that's an opinion also. Are they as good at performance as stock size tire, seldom if ever. Putting larger tires on that little bike may over tax other parts such as spokes, swing arm, etc.

 

[flatyre]

cheers guys, yeah at 150 cc, the MZ won't be putting out any crazy HP so handling issues shouldn't be affected by slightly larger tyres. I hadn't thought about stressing other parts of the bike though. I'm not building the bike for performance, more for looks, but don't want it to handle like a total pig (or piglet)!

 

[o1marc]

"Slightly larger" won't hurt things drastically, going too far will. Go by the provided chart and don't exceed what is recommended for your rims. Are your tires 3.00-18 or are the rim?

 

[flatyre]

"Slightly larger" won't hurt things drastically, going too far will. Go by the provided chart and don't exceed what is recommended for your rims. Are your tires 3.00-18 or are the rim?

Hi o1marc the tyres are 3.00-18, yeah i'll try to keep the new rubber fairly close to the originals.

 

[xb33bsa]

paint the rims black makes em look bigger
that said NOBODY is going to look at your bike and think "ewe what skinny tires"
it is all in your head
the idiot failed ladies fashion clothes designers that put cartoon clown tires on small bikes that are taking over your brain
remember that

 

[Tim]

big tyres : small wheels :: square peg : round hole

 

[o1marc]

3.60 is the largest tire recommended for a 1.85" rim if you just must go with a larger tire on the rear.

 

[crazypj]

You may have trouble finding a 3.60 tyre, 90/90 will be better and looks bigger when fitted to correct rim. Even with low power bike oversize tyres can make handling real strange at certain speeds.
The worst I've ever seen was a CBX550, going from a 110 to a 120 front tyre made the bike almost unrideable at 30mph (so scary no one wanted to find out if it was better at higher speed)

 

[SONICJK]

You may have trouble finding a 3.60 tyre, 90/90 will be better and looks bigger when fitted to correct rim. Even with low power bike oversize tyres can make handling real strange at certain speeds.
The worst I've ever seen was a CBX550, going from a 110 to a 120 front tyre made the bike almost unrideable at 30mph (so scary no one wanted to find out if it was better at higher speed)

How is that?
Adverse effects on handling yeah, going up 1 cm in width shouldn't make a bike unrideable or scary at 30? Out of balance yeah...

 

[crazypj]

Absolutely nothing to do with fittin or balance (balance has little effect below 60mph unless something is seriously wrong)
16" front wheel, bike was designed for a specific size tyre and just didn't work with oversize one.
If I hadn't ridden it I wouldn't have believed it either