Choosing the Right Tires For Your Motorcycle

• Table of Contents
• 1. Tread
• 2. Rubber Softness

The importance of gearing your motorcycle up with high quality tires that are specific to your riding can't be stressed enough. Some argue that a bike's tires rank as high as the engine in terms of performance. Many factors go into the construction of a tire and because of these variations there are tires for all types of riding. Whether you're cutting lines through some dirt trails, racing on the track, or cruising down for your daily commute, there are specific tires you should be looking for.

Although there are many facets to a tires construction, most of whats going to make a real difference in performance and safety is going to come from the tread and how soft the rubber is. I'll outline the details of why these two things are so important below:

1. Tread

Not all roads were created equal, and so you have a wide variety of tire treads to compensate for certain driving conditions. For a smooth road on a sunny day at the racetrack, a tire with very little tread will be sufficient for a street bike. As weather and bad roads start to become a factor that's when you start to need fuller treads with busier patterns.

Dirt bike or adventure bike tires have even deeper treads to navigate through dirt and mud, but beware, some of these tires aren't street legal. There are hybrid type tires for both the street and dirt trails if you are going to be riding through both. To sum it up, the most important thing is to match the tread style to your bike and the kind of riding you'll be doing.

2. Rubber Softness

Tires can come with either soft or hard rubber compound which affects how the tires adhere to the pavement. It also affects how the tires work in different terrains if you're off-roading through some adventurous trails, like when you travel roads like these ones. For simple street riding, a softer tire is going to adhere to the road better than a hard one, especially while taking corners. But a hard tire with thick, off-road tread will crawl through the dirt and the mud like nobody's business. Although softer or harder rubber in the make of your tire can be beneficial to different types of riding, a harder tire is usually considered to last longer as a general rule. So the key is to find the sweet spot for your bike.

Tires are what put the power of your engine to the pavement, and having the wrong tires, or shoddy tires, can have dangerous results. As a rule, don't be cheap. Take the time to research your bike, find the specs it requires and make sure to consider what type of riding you're going to be doing. If you follow the advice here you should be able to find a set of rubbers last a long time and perform well.

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