Tire Questions: Steel-belted vs. not, USA vs. Europe, Car vs. Motorcycle

I am attempting to make home-made bicycle tires, and so I am researching what types of metals are used. There's not a lot of info available on that, so I switched to looking at what was used in car tires.

On this page is such a discussion:

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About 1/3 of the way down, someone named "werty" mentions that unlike nearly-all US car tires, [most] European car tires do not use steel belts, and the other posters who responded after don't argue with that claim. Being a lifelong US resident, I found this rather surprising--I just assumed that pretty much all car tires everywhere were steel-belted now, except for vintage/repro tires that were still made as cord bias-ply, for vintage vehicles that were intended to use those tires.

There's also lots of comparisons between the handling of radial vs. bias-ply car tires, but not any comparisons of the different handling characteristics of steel-belted radial vs. textile-belted radial tires that I could turn up. Anybody know of any online? Most other drivers wouldn't care, but I'd expect that autocross racers must have looked into it.

When I began to search for info on textile-belted radial tires, many of the results I got were for motorcycle tires. I never owned a motorcycle, so I don't know anything about buying tires for one.... But from searching for just a bit, it seeps apparent that even in the USA, motorcycle tires are commonly available both ways, but I could not find any clear divisions between the uses. That is to say--sport bike tires aren't typically used on a cruising/touring motorcycle, and touring tires aren't used on an off-road-only motorcycle. Are the tire construction methods of each of these three types usually one particular way? That is [for example] are sportbike tires usually textile-belted, and touring tires usually steel-belted?

Also I am curious as to if there's any tires out there made totally of Kevlar/aramid... This article from 1975 notes that Kevlar was the strongest and highest-temperature fiber to use for tires, but at the time it was too expensive for regular use.

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The patents on Kevlar have expired and similar aramid fibers are avaialble from various companies now (Dyneema, Spectra, Vectran, ect). Aramid fiber isn't exactly cheap, but it is a lot cheaper than it used to be. Is any tire company using it for the whole casing?

There is currently at least one radial bicycle tire, the Maxxis Radiale. It is closer to being a "radial" than any other bicycle tire sold right now, but it's not a true radial construction like car tires use. I read a few different reviews of it, but none seem to indicate any clear advantages or disadvantages. ....Are there any?

Reply to
DougC
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I can't help with most of that except to say that radial bicycle tires suck. No matter how you slice it, bicycles don't have four wheels. Two wheel vehicles are a completely different thing from cars as regards tire design.

Please see also:

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Here's the closest thing to an all-aramid tire:
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Reply to
AMuzi

GOOGLE SHOULD ANSWER if you 'optimize' the search words. Vectran, for example, is woven polyester.

steel belted motorcycle tires came in several years ago ?

steel keeps the tire round with decreased inflation, increased reliability to puncture. With roundness comes increased fuel economy as there's less all types deformation at and around and in the contact surface areas. Deformation casues friction, release of heat ( degrading the original rubber spec) and thus releasing forward moment energy. The sum of that should produce a good touring bicycle tire but at cycle speeds steel isnt necessary, Vectran will do even over kevlar, working with kevlar I understand may be a PITA.

With reduced inflation, the contact surface finds time to move over the surface not ride on road top increasing grip and 'feel,' while not decreasing fuel economy due to ahhhhh deformation.

Kool ! a french idea in manufacture. Also the loom and textiles.

Reply to
kolldata

Yea, but that does not follow what many many people say about road-going motorcycle tires, which are commonly available both ways, and are used on both modern and vintage motorcycles.

Even on vintage bikes pre-dating radial tires it is typically observed that putting radial tires on improves the handling significantly... If you can find radials that will fit, that is.

Reply to
DougC

as with lubricants, bicyclings slowness, lack of heat, forward motive force on contact patch, and light weight, move the bicycle platform away from logical deductions or extrapolations from IC or motorcycle design. ?

Reply to
kolldata

A pneumatic tire has subtle geometry. Inflation of the tire changes its shape. The correct bias ply tire shrinks as it is inflated making it less likely to blow off the rim. A radial ply tire does not behave this way. A radial ply tire must be constrained otherwise. Typically it is constrained with a steel belt running circumferentially beneath the tread.

Reply to
Michael Press

However, trikes have 3 wheels.

Reply to
""twshermanREMOVE"

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