Originally Posted by Rickl

Is a black bike safer then a yellow bike or an orange bike? Let the debate continue!

Originally Posted by reh13

No need to debate, a black bike is absolutely much more safe than a yellow/orange bike. Let me splain it to you.

Say you decide to ride your bike to work one morning. A half a mile from the job, a dump truck runs a red light and leaves you and your bike nothing but a greasy spot in the road. You're looking down, or up (depending on how you've live your life) wondering what the hell happened. Well, the lord/devil (once again, depending on how you've lived your life) decides to give you another chance, just to see if the results would be different on a black bike. They too have been wondering which color was more safe.

OK, here we go again. You're back on earth headed to work on a black bike. You get to the intersection where you got splattered, and you cruise right through, no dump truck in sight. You arrive at work safe and sound. You spend the rest of the day wondering how the hell you avoided the dump truck. You get on the HD Forum website looking for an answer. You know you're gonna' find it, the guys here know everything.

And there it is, you finally find the answer. You see, black is the fastest color. If you don't believe me, use the search feature. I've seen it posted here many times, 'black is the fastest color'. Anyway, what happened was, because a black bike is faster...
BY THE TIME THE DUMP TRUCK GOT TO THE INTERSECTION...YOU'D DONE COME AND GONE ! ! !

Originally Posted by Rickl

My lord, where do you people come up with this stuff? Let's talk about hydroplaning. Hydroplaning is nothing more then the tires adhesion being broken from the road surface. The tire starts to ride on the thin film of water resulting in the tires inability to have control with the road surface. Now why does this happen, only 2 reasons and ONLY 2 reasons. First the speed of travel is too high for the tire to properly maintain contact. Second the LACK of tread depth (or specifically non skid). The design of the tire is to evacuate water out to the side or rear of the tire.

Having a wider tire within reasons increases the contact patch laterally on the tire (side to side), whereas a narrow tire has a contact patch front to rear, everything being equal as to load on the tire. So it stands to reason a wider tire will provide increased traction when cornering as there is more surface to help grip the road surface. (how many vettes or porsches do you see with narrow tires). Narrow tires will work well in snow and mud as they will dig down providing better traction.

When it comes to car tires on a motorcycle there are too many people that lack the knowledge to do it properly so information is squewed. Putting a tire on a rim too narrow changes the characteristics. Every tire has a designed rim width that optimizes the foot print and enables the tire to carry its designed load. Too narrow of a rim pulls the sidewalls in thus increasing the diameter of the assembly over its normal specs. Too wide pulls the sidewall out lowering the rolling diameter. Either way will affect the carrying capacity of the tire.

The size of the air chamber dictates the carry capacity of the tire. Every tire manufacture has to comply with RMA specs. A P195/60R16 has to carry a specific weight regardless of the manufacture. It is the size/volume of air that dictates its carrying capacity. Over inflating past its posted limit does NOT increase the tires ability to carry more weight. Lowering the pressure does however reduces its abiltiy to carry its max load.

The discussion of "I talked to a buddy, who has a buddy that his buddy's friend knows another guy that is an expert" is why these discussions get over the top. I am not stating that I am the resident expert but I have been in the tire industry over 35 + years so I have a little working knowledge whens it comes to these round things that roll. A car tire properly fitted will work on a bike with ZERO negative impact. Yes some characteristics will change slightly, but you are not going to crash and burn just because you installed a CT. Quite frankly if I could find a run flat CT to fit my SG I would install one tomorrow as my piece of mind would be greatly enhanced. It all comes down down to personal preference. Is a black bike safer then a yellow bike or an orange bike? Let the debate continue!