Motorcycle Tyre

About Motorcycle Tyre

Motorcycle tyres (tires in American English) are the outer part of motorcycle  wheels, attached to the rims, providing traction, resisting wear, absorbing surface irregularities, and allowing the motorcycle to turn via countersteering. The two tyres' contact patches are the motorcycle's connecting to the ground, and so are fundamental to the motorcycle's suspension behaviour, and critically affect safety, braking, fuel economy, noise and rider comfort.

History About Motorcycle Tyres

The history of motorcycle tyres is a clear progression of steady improvement of steady improvement in grip, allowing better acceleration, braking, and turning, along with improved comfort, safety, durability, and reliability. This progression has generally meant a steady increase in tyre width, so much so that Kevin Cameron noted the assumption among riders that "bigger must be better in every way", leading to, "the tempetation to overwhelm motorcycles with the biggest tyres the owner can find." While many advances in tyre materials and construction have yielded unalloyed benefits, at a given level of technological sophistication, every design choice, such as tyre width, diameter, cross-section curvature, and the geometry of the motorcycle the tyres are intended for is a trade-off and a compromise.

Pneumatic tyres were invented by John Boyd Dunlop in 1888, and were in widespread use on bicycles and some early motorcycle prototypes by 1895. They were used on the first production motorcycle, the 1894-1897 Hilderbrand and Wolfmuller, and have been on nearly all producttion and special motorcycles ever since. During this period tyre sizes were usually 22 to 28 inches (560 to 710mm) diameter and 1and half to 2 in (38 to 51 mm) wide.

A: Typical outer casing a tyre.

B: Continuous, one-piece, or open-end inner tube assembly, where first a joint is made where one end slips into the other, with the collar member forced out tightly against the inner face of the retaining member.

C: A butt-end tube, where the tapered, closed end fits into the open end, expanding to seal when inflated.

The Modern Bike Tyre

This basic design has undergone many chnages and mutations during the last century. These developements have led to the modern tire. One of these developements is the radial tyre. The first radial tire designs were patented in 1915 by Arthur W. Savage a successful tire manufacturer and inventor in San Diego, CA. Savage's patents expired in 1949. However Michelin in 1946 further developed this type of tire as well and also made a commercial success of it. This new design was an added asset for a motorcycle as oit enhaanced thee road grip and tacttion while driving. The differnce between the earlier tires and the new radial tires and the new radial tires was in their  construction. Earlier tires had cross-ply structure, where the threads were woven across one another. Such tires did have endurance but the sidewalls were turgid and the tire could not flex easily, especially while negotiating corners or turns.

Michelin improved on this and produced the rubber threads which were woven radically and this problem was to a great extent solved. The bike thus had better control and improved traction for cornering and braking.

Major Manufacturers

Most of the tire manufacturers have become house hold names like Dunlop, Michelin, Pirelli and Bridgestone etc.

These are global corporate and have their plants spread from China, India, to Europe and the USA. Some of the important bike tire manufacturers who have molded the tire industry are worth a look.

To start we have Michelin, a marque name in the tire industry. It was incorporated way back in 1889. Michelin tires have a global presence and as part of their expansion acquired the American BF Goodrich Company in 1988. Incidentally Goodrich also traces its lineage to 1870. To the further buttressits numero uno position it also took over Uniroyal Inc. in 1990, a business founded in 1892 as the United States Rubber Company. Michelin is the world's largest manufacturer of tires and can trace it's history to 1830 in vulcanized rubber.

However the pride of place muss go to Dunlop Tires. Its first factory opened in Dublin in 1889. Dunlop Tires makes a large variety and types of motorcycles tires for all vehicles. Dunlop also has a close association with motor sport including motorcycle racing. Dunlop tires are now available all over the world. It's important to remeber that the heritage of Dunlop will live on forever in the "(inch)" measurnment still used all over the world as measure for the diameter of a wheel.

Breathing down the neck of Dunlop is the Bridgestone tire company. This is a japanese company and started manufacturing tires much before the advent of the second world war-1931 to be  precise. As Japan manufacturers and markets some of the marquee motorcycle machines in the world like Honda and Yamaha it stands to reason that a large percentage of bike tires will emerge from Japan. The name Bridgestone is derived from the Japanese word Ishibashi which translates tto stone bridge. Currently it's the wrold next to Michelin. Bridgestone has a vast range of motorcycle tires and are found all over the world.

The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is another name that has history behind it. It is over a hundred years old when it was started by Harvey Firestone. They have digressed into manufactured of motorcycle tires and are in a class themselves.

The Future

However with recession trends surfacing trends surfacing all around the globe with resultant reduction in the production of motorcycle the two wheeler divisons of these companies have to look to new and innovative methods to get out of this economic quagmire.