As a winter experiment, a car tire on the rear of my Vee was a total success with the exception to the slimey salty conditions it allowed me to ride in and the resulting corrosion
I've gone thru the progression of riding a streetbike in winter, first with knobby treads, then studded knobbys, now studded knobby in front w unstudded winter car tire in back, I will go anywhere with my bike that I will go with my 4wd Jeep Cherokee, any conditions, snow, sleet, freezing rain
enuf of winter, my darkside experiment although originally intended that it would be winter only until after my tire was mounted, they told me to get another wheel if I wanted to go back to a bike tire in the spring and I haven't snaged a spare wheel yet
right now I'm running the CT in back and in front, a TKC80 with about 35-40% tread, gravel road riding is awesome, even loose freshly graded, I can clip right along, I find myself in corners sometimes crossed up like a flat tracker :mrgreen: in mud, front tire is the limitation, the rear gets such good traction, its easy to push the front tire faster than the mud will alow it to roll
but sadly to say on pavment, in the twisties, I'd rather have a bike tire, not that the CT doesn't perform more than adequately, and I think, the think I don't like about it has really anything to do with the fact that its a car tire, I think that if I put a 200/50-17 or 210/50-17 bike tire, I'd be as equally disapointed, the wide tire just makes the Vee handle a bit cruiserish :beatnik: is that a word, unfortunately there are no skinny car tires in 17" the narrowest ones 185s & 195s are only 35/40/45 height, wouldn't protect the wheel from potholes and would loose a couple inches ground clearance
but sport riding on pavment is 2-3% of my riding at most, I'm keeping my eye out for a spare wheel, maybe 2, one for a bike tire one for a studded winter tire and another for an unstudded winter tire, spare wheels for the front as well , ya see how this can get eeekspensive quick,
another alternative is to get a wider bandit wheel as a spare , work some spacer magic, I'm going to loook into this one further, a bandit wheel width is within the range spec'd for the car tire I would feel more comfortable if it wasn't pinched so much, but maybe cause it is pinched, is the only reason it clears the chain by less than 1/8 inch
I might add, with new suspenders, my Vee is better ride & handling than ever before, so theres a whole new excitement about the sport riding capabilities of the Vee
