Dummies guide to buying new tyres.

From scraping knees to scaling those hills of rocks and rubble, the right set of tyres brings a world’s difference to your ride. There’s lot more to those black, sticky rings wrapped around our rim than we pay attention to.

First, let’s talk about the type of tyres. There are the tubeless tyres and the one with tubes. The best part about the tubeless tyres is that they won’t go flat in case of a puncture. This is very crucial for riders as a tyre deflating rapidly at high speeds will cause you to lose control of your motorcycle. Also, elimination of the tube means no friction between the tube and tyre, which could have caused tube explosion due to increased temperature.

Next is choosing the right tyre family. Generally, four types of tyres are available in the market- Cruisers, street, ADV/Dual sport and dirt. This is probably the easiest part and gets complicated once you get into the specifics.

Now comes the geeky terminology. Tread is the rubber on the circumference that makes contact with the road. Noticed the fancy cuts and grooves cut into the tread that makes your tyre look so “oh damn sexy”? That’s the Pattern. Treads keep you planted on the surface and the pattern’s only function is to channel the water and preventing it from losing grip in the wet. Racing slicks have 100% tread and no pattern to provide maximum grip on the track.

Now that we know about the treads and the patterns, let’s decipher those numbers printed on the sidewalls of the tyres. These are very crucial in choosing the correct tyre.

Section Width: It is the measurement of the width of the tyre’s tread, from one side to another. Bigger the number, fatter the tyre.

Aspect Ratio: The ratio of the tyre’s width as a percentage of its height. Bigger the number, taller the tyre.

Speed Rating: A code index that tells us about the maximum speed at which the tyre can carry the load indicated by the load index.

Load Index: This indicates the maximum load a tyre can carry at the speed indicated by the Speed rating index.

Rim Diameter: The measurement of the rim, from one point to another, through its centre. Measured in inches.

Born-to-date: This will be a four-digit code denoting the week and the year of manufacture. For example, a tyre with the code 1517 denotes that the tyre was manufactured in the 15th week of 2017.

That’s quite some things to remember when you go shopping, eh? Hold up. There’s more.

Construction of the tyre is another important part in getting the perfect tyre depending upon your usage and preference. Bias-ply tyres generally last longer than the radials but at the cost of reduced traction. Radials, on the other hand, ride “harder” and provide excellent grip but wear out faster than bias-ply tyres.

If you are wondering about slapping on a fatter tyre for more grip and stability, sorry to burst your bubble, but that won’t be the case.

Putting on a fatter tyre will in no way make your motorcycle more stable. Fatter tyre equals more mass, which in turn will cause the rider to put on more efforts to maneuver or flick the motorcycle out of corners.

The suspension will take a beating. The added weight will need better dampening to keep the wheel from bouncing more after it hits a bump or a pothole.

Now that you are all set to buy the correct tyre for your motorcycle, here are few tips

Break in your tyre gently: Ride easy for 150km or so with no harsh braking or acceleration. Take your bike to roads that have great curves to break-in both the sides as well.
Maintain the pressure as per the recommendation of the manufacturer. Overinflation will result in less contact patch and under-inflated tyres will cause uneven wear.
If you don’t use your motorcycle often, keep it on stands to avoid flat-spotting. If you don’t have a stand, you could roll the motorcycle few inches once in few days. (else you could just ride your motorcycle often :P)

Ride safe. Ride hard! (once you have broken-in the new tyres :D)