Tires Tire help needed badly!!!!

HGaither

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Apr 27, 2008
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OK I give up, I have searched and searched but got no answers. I need a rear tire to work with my friction drive Honda engine that will last more than an hour. I know I need a kevlar one but which kevlar one?
 
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What bike? What size tire? These are questions we need to know.
 
Where are you located? Are you near a Wal Mart? They have Kelvar tires pretty cheap too.
 
I live about three miles from a Wal-Mart but I just assumed that they would not have kevlar tires , I'll give them a try.
 
They have them all wrapped up funny like it's on a roll. But it unrolls pretty well.
 
Kevlar's not going to help tread life much. It'll help against flats, but not tread life. (I bought one of those wally world kevlar cruiser tires for the front wheel on my bike but haven;t installed it yet - I'm waiting for the original to get worn out...)

NOTE: ANY tire should last longer than an hour. I got about a thousand miles out of the original tire on my bike. I would guess that you have your friction drive either misaligned, or not pressing down on the tire enough to get good friction between the roller and the tire.

The friction roller MUST be at 90 degrees to the tire, when viewed from the top (critical,) and from the rear (not so critical.) Any misalignment will reduce the tire life. And, the greater the misalignment, the greater the tire wear.

Now. As far as pressure. Your rear tire should be (if it's a standard cruiser tire) at about 50 psi. Then, lock the roller down when it deflects the rear tire enough to avoid slippage when driving. I put my weight into the frame when locking. Probably around 50 pounds of force. The trick is to have enough tire surface in contact with the roller to avoid just grinding the rubber away. For a starting point, I would go for a center of tire deflection of a quarter of an inch, or maybe a bit more. Make a point of noting the deflection each time, and the pressure, until you get a good feel for it. And, every time you change the tire, check it again a few times.

Finally. When driving and the tire gets wet - let up on the gas if you hear or feel the tire slipping. If you keep revving the motor, you'll wear a hole in the tire.

BTW - I just put an Innova Swiftor 26x2.0 on my Staton friction drive cruiser, and I'm VERY happy with it so far. With the almost slick inverted tread, it's a MUCH smoother ride, as the roller vibration is completely gone. And the rolling friction is quite a bit less - I'm noticing between 1 & 2 MPH higher top end.
 
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I have a giant mtn bike with a robin/subaru friction drive with the original tires on the bike. I now have over 600 miles on it with the friction drive and over 2400 miles total and the tire hardly looks worn at all. I can't say the same for the roller tho. It's really getting worn.
 
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Cog shape.

To my way of thinking it also helps if u have the drive cog concave for max surface area against the tyre.
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