sources for 175/55/17 tires in US

I'm looking for a 175/55/17 tire to put on the front end of my Rocket 3 rig. Does anybody know of a US source for this (or a similar size) tire?

FYI, the Rocket has a 17" x 3.5" wide front rim.

Hack Vendor thread here

Tried that with a pm and email. No response yet so I'm checking around.

Just to be sure we're on the same page, yer talkin about a car tire for your new rig, right? Not a moto tire.

Did you ping the previous owner to see if he had a source?

Hey transalpian, looks like you are almost ready with the new rig - can't wait to see it! I guess I should start looking for options myself. Will get to it as soon as my work slows down and let you know if I find out anything new.

In the meantime, here's a UK supplier: http://www.tyres-pneus-online.co.uk/car-tyres-BRIDGESTONE/POTENZA,RE,040/175,55,R17,81,W.html. With shipping, it is outrageously expensive!

BTW, here's an interesting tire size calculator to find possible substitute tire size: http://ejelta.com/tiresize/index.ht...&maxratio=&minwheel=17&maxwheel=17&maxdelta=3. I entered the Rocket III factory front tire size (150/80-17) for you.

I couldn't find anything smaller than 195/45/17 when I was looking for a pusher tire.
FWIW, I've been extremely pleased with a ME880 bias ply on the front of my K-bike rig. Around 4k miles and it's only worn 1.5/32ths. About 1000 of those miles were in the Arkansas twisties.

I would be concerned about fitting a 175/55-17 on a 3.5" width rim. A tyre of that size and aspect ratio would be more at home on at least a 4.5-5.5" width rim if not even a bit wider. I've seen guys fit 195-205 width tyres on standard V-strom rims which are only marginly wider and it doesn't look like it's doing the tyres sidewall much good.

I'd be inclined to find something narrower with a higher aspect ratio to fit the rim better.

Yes, a car tire for the front of my new rig. The bike is coming with a well worn moto tire on the front, I'm preparing to replace it.

I've seen a lot of those price range options too. I was hoping for something closer -or- to arrange a group buy to reduce the per-tire shipping cost.

Here's what that tire looks like on kailuasurfer's Rocket rig with stock front rim:




Seems to fit well and has been a great tire, according to kailuasurfer. Now to be fair, Claude did warn of difficulty sourcing a replacement...

I was also looking at a Yokohama S-Drive in 195/45/17. It looks to be about 1" wider than the 175/55/17 on kailuasurfer's bike above. I'll need to measure closely, but it looks like it might fit and is super easy to find here in the US. Here is that tire on a FJR1300 stock rear rim:




This rim is 5.5" wide (+2" than mine), but it looks like it might work? More to come....

And here is my rig:

Not that I know anything about hacks, but, did you look on Tirerack.com? I think they have just about anything.

I've looked at all the major (and minor) tire suppliers. It seems this tire is not used on any US-spec cars so it's very hard to obtain here.

It is used on a Euro Spec Lotus Elise so my next idea is to call a Lotus dealer and see if (and for how much) they can find the tire.

I understand that the U.S. spec Lotus Elise uses 16 inch front wheels.

Yep. The Euro-specs get the 17's, we get 16's. I'm hoping (probably falsely) that my local Lotus dealer can get parts for both?

Have you talked to Claude about suitable replacements?

Looks great! Is it a 2005?

Yes, its a 2005 with a Champion Escort car. Hydraulic Brembo on the car wheel with Jay's TILT mechanism between the car and bike. I'm thinking its an upgrade from my old GL1000/Velorex 562.

Nowhere near as nice as your rig though! I'd love to know what your conversion cost....

That will be an excuse for us to get together . Rocket III is an amazing sidecar pusher but I see very few Rocket rigs around. Did you make any steering modifications?

Not yet. I talked to Brock at Steerite and will likely go that route this winter.

I had Unit leading links on my wing, but never really got it to where I wanted it to be. Have you seen any hub-steering setups for these? I was seriously Jonesing for a BMW GT1300 rig with a Hannigan HPS car, but at $19k I couldn't justify it yet.

Here is the Yoko on my BMW 5.5" rim. It was a real bitch to mount, I think a 2" narrower rim will distort the tread alot, the side walls are short and stiff. Even wit 6mm additional spacers the tire grew with road heat and rubbed the corner of the BMW swingarm, had to sand some rubber from the inside edge of the tread. I will probably go with the adapter from Claude and 15" wheel in the future.





Want to buy a slightly used (4000 miles) tire?