Harley Davidson Tire Question?

I liked Eleanor the minute you introduced us. Do you wanna ride or are you going to turn in your paper for a grade in your literature class? Seriously, you write like life itself coming off the paper, and that's good to read.

Now for the ride-while-you-are-still-able story. If you have friends that you once rode with, just ask for the loan of one of their reasonable-condition back tire, sprocket, brake and all, put it on as a "test of the beast" and go back for Elenor. For only the investment of your wrench time, you can find out if the old flame still burns for that Panhead. Eleanor won't always be there and she would have a story to tell, like no one else in the place, and you can take a photo to show to the non-believers.

A flat tire under your lady would be more than you could live with, so get a "loaner", take the ride and use your Christmas fund to get new tires. Put that caulk gun away! Cheers.

LOL! What a great post! Thank you!

I rebuilt a 'barn find' BMW a few years ago. The tires were hardened and cracked, and I asked the mechanic if I shouldn't replace them. He said the cracks were only on the surface, that they couldn't penetrate beneath the top layer, so the tires would be fine. So I used them until the tread wore out. The only problem with them was that they weren't very grippy and sometimes in a sharp turn the tires would break loose and slide sideways a foot or so, then grab again and go on as if nothing had happened. Scared the crap out of me but I never actually crashed. Once those tires were worn out, the bike handled lots better with new ones. I would have changed them out right away but I'm a cheap SOB.

Also did you know that truck tires are regroovable after the tread wears out? A few years ago there was a big scandal when it was learned that Greyhound was regrooving tires on their busses. Greyhound quieted fears by pointing to their safety record, which is the best in the industry.

Bridgestone makes some excellent tires this present day, however you're looking at backside-of-the-line units. Go for Metzelers. They've an first-class mixture of handling, grip and put on traits. You shouldn't have any main issue with eight,000 miles from the front, but that's a number of miles to ask from a rear tire on a 1200 Sportster. Harleys are usually not mainly easy on rear tires, both given that of the energy pulses of a V-twin and the rearward weight bias of cruisers. You could get it if you are normally convenient on the gas, but what fun would that be?

Back when your pan was new we used the same shoe polish we used on our white buck shoes to brighten up our sidewalls for saturday night profiling down at the malt shop.

You didn't mention anything wrong with Eleanor's wheel chair wheels so I don't understand why you didn't just whip out your belt to attach her chair to your chrome tail light guard and motorvate on down the road to the local casbah.

I don't know about where you hang out but around here its considered very bad form to disappoint a lady.

Your old tires are overdue for a change. They have hardened and no longer will grip the road surface and are also very prone to sudden failure. Change them out for new tires before you take Eleanor for a ride or perhaps the next time you go to visit her she may be in traction resulting from sudden tire failure and a 'high side' spill!

what a bummer old fruit what you need is a new set of boots as the others have rotted away the old water has gotten into the rubber aided by the sunshine so time to spill the gold stuff and replace your boots.

White latex paint is rubber based and should fill in the cracks nicely

YOUR STUPID GO AWAY