The Automotive Thread

Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum

Help Support Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I suspect tires are tires.  I have a car I don't drive very frequently but wouldn't swap out tires just because of age.  If they show signs of distress, that's another story.

 
Since my wife doesn't drive much her tires had pretty much dry rotted at around 3 years / 10K miles.. they were Michelin Tires..

 
Last edited by a moderator:
A lot depends on the tire. The rears that come on those bikes are usually good for around 8k miles. The one I put on there, most guys are getting about 12k. You get quite a bit more out of the fronts, some can get as much as 20k on them. I've got ~7k miles on the odometer, but the sidewalls on the front tire looked like they were pretty dry rotted. Once upon a time when I took the tank off I found out about 3/4 of my airbox was plugged up with one of those mud wasp nests so obviously it sat...a lot...before I got it.

Talk to me about age not mattering when your car is on two wheels. You get a blow out, you'll probably pull over to the side of the rode. Get a blow out on a motorcycle and you're probably going to crash and it's not going to be pretty.

 
^ Especially the front.  My dad lost the front tire on his bike on an expressway on-ramp once.  Not sure how he didn't bite it.

 
as I have bored you all with previoulsy, my wife is an ICU nurse, around 30% of all of her patients are bike riders.  I don't think I would take the chance, most of them, if they live, don't have a real good quality of life when they leave the hospital.....

If I lived in Idaho or the middle of no where somewhere I would ride but that's about the only way I think..

 
I don't criticize anyone that likes them, but motorbikes don't do much for me....pretty much for the reason already stated above.

My son bought a bike because he got a good deal on it from a friend who was being deployed.  I bite my tongue and hope he'll get over the fad and just sell it soon.  My wife is not so quiet on it, constantly throwing barbs to get rid of it.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
And of those 30%, it'd be interesting to see how many also wore the appropriate road armor. If I'm going on the hwy, it's full faced helmet and full kevlar (better impact rating than leather).

BTW, my rear bike tire is a 180/55ZR-17 and expensive. But it's good for speeds of 168+ mph. I think the published rating is something like 5,000 miles for the brand I get.

 
I'll ask her but in the past she says if it involves hitting another vehicle or object at above 45 mph your basically ******...based on the corpses they roll down to the morgue...

 
And of those 30%, how many were due to rider negligence versus some ******* who's too busy texting to pay attention to what's going on around them.

For a cruiser with a 10-in wide tire on the back, Raiders actually handle pretty well. It's one of the reasons I got one...that and being too old for a sport bike.

 
When I have asked her in the past it seems like most were just normal accidents- nothing out if the ordinary - and you know the ******** you see on bikes doing stupid stuff probably don't ever get in an accident it's just the normal people..:

I asked her about the Kevlar and she said that's just more stuff they have to pull out of your skin when you crash..

A few weeks ago she had an interesting situation. One of those "real" CA biker gangs (criminals) got into a bad wreck and the bikers "old lady" got into a fight with the "club president" over the final disposition of the guys organs. Apparently the biker club members give POA to the club president for these matters and the wife (old lady) was non to thrilled...

If you ever watched sons of anarchy she said it was not quite as glamorous as the tv show :)

They had to call the cops cause they had folks with knifes and guns and **** under their jackets to get them to leave....

 
wife's patient over the weekend..

motorcycle was struck @ 90 degrees by automobile going 45 MPH.  Motorcycle "failed to yield" through a 3 way intersection.

Motorcycle guy had helmet and "armor" but is now missing his right leg below the knee..

just be careful out there!

 
We've had 25 fatalities since July 15th and many of those have included motorcycles. Of course, it was Sturgis at the beginning of the month. 

Today is two years since my car broke down. Thanks again, RG, for helping me out when I was stuck on the side of the road. 

 
I stopped riding mine because I found myself spending more and more time worrying about getting smoked by some ******* either texting or posting to facebook while driving.  My tolerance for risk also took a nose dive after my son was born.  I just don't make the same decisions I did when I was my only dependent. 

 
wife's patient over the weekend..

motorcycle was struck @ 90 degrees by automobile going 45 MPH.  Motorcycle "failed to yield" through a 3 way intersection.

Motorcycle guy had helmet and "armor" but is now missing his right leg below the knee..

just be careful out there!
Wow! Not good at all...

 
My son decided to sell his motorcylce.  His mother is ecstatic.  I'd rather he got rid of it as well, but I wouldn't hound him to.

 
Hey @Flyer_PE, here's one for you...

http://jalopnik.com/chill-as-****-pilot-somehow-still-chill-after-terrifyin-1786875797

 
No kidding.  He could probably experience liftoff based on the suction from the pucker factor alone.

 
Back
Top