sources for 175/55/17 tires in US

[transalpian]

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.

[DRONE]

Hack Vendor thread here

[transalpian]

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

[DRONE]

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?

[kailuasurfer]

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/...,R17,81,W.html. With shipping, it is outrageously expensive!

[kailuasurfer]

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

[Bobmws]

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.

[Brendan J]

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.

[transalpian]

Originally Posted by DRONE

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?

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.

Originally Posted by kailuasurfer

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/...,R17,81,W.html. With shipping, it is outrageously expensive!

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.

Originally Posted by Brendan J

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.

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...

[transalpian]

Originally Posted by Bobmws

I couldn't find anything smaller than 195/45/17 when I was looking for a pusher tire...

Originally Posted by Brendan J

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.

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....

[transalpian]

And here is my rig:

[AviatorTroy]

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

[transalpian]

Originally Posted by AviatorTroy

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.

[kailuasurfer]

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

[transalpian]

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?