Hello again,

Now that I've installed my car tire onto my bike, ran into a bit of a problem...

I put on a General Gmax 205/55ZR16 on my stock rear wheel under the impression that it clears the belt. After researching that this was a tire and size that others have run on their touring bike, I went with it. Unfortunately, as with most of my projects, there's always a hiccup, and now the belt rubs the sidewall. It doesn't rub hard, just enough to brush the dust off the sidewall of the tire.

I don't want to appear like I'm leaning on you all to get me out of my situation, but if anyone has any reasonable ideas for how I can fix it and make it work, I would appreciate it. Has anyone ran this tire successfully on their touring rig?

 

The widest I see on this list are 195 but no personal knowledge on it.

http://darkside.nwff.info/?p=tires


Edit: After scrooling down I did see a few 205's

 

That's the list I used as a reference too. The Gmax AS-03 is a great tire in the reviews I read as well, which is why I chose it, and the 205 is the most common size for that tire.

 

if it's just touching the sidewall take a grinder to it ever so gently.

 

For the last 20000 miles my 205 has not rubbed, so it can be done.

Where on the tire 2 oclock, 7 oclock...etc exactly is it rubbing.

Are you sure that rear tire is perfectly in line with the bike frame?

 

Check the rear wheel alignment.
Possibly you need a shim under the real pulley or front pulley.
I have read that about using a 205, but I can't even get a 195 to fit on my 16RGU.
If you have to go to a 195, it's only 5mm smaller on each side which is barely noticable.

 

I have used 205 Michelins and Bridgestones on 2012 Ultra classic without a problem and I just bought a 205 for my 2014 Ultra Limited but haven't put on yet. I only use run flats which have a very stiff sidewall, I'm not formiliar with that tire don't know if its RF

 

So I put a straight edge against the side of the rear pulley, and measured the distance from the straight edge to the closest part of the sidewall. I see my tire is actually 1/8" farther at the front. This will pull the tire away from the belt, but now it's not aligned with the frame. This measurement was taken while the bike was on a lift at full droop. I can adjust it to be true in the frame, but then I will exacerbate the belt rub problem.

I'm not sure what you mean as far as where it's rubbing... since he tire rotates, giving an "X"o'clock location will vary depending on what position the tire is in. Based on the marks on the tire, it rubs the belt all the way around.

This is not a run flat tire, and I have it set at 40psi right now.

Thanks for all the help so far. I'm going to adjust the tire to true to the frame and see what happens, but I suspect it will make the rubbing worse. I'll let you know.

 

So as suspected, when I aligned the wheel to the frame, the rubbing problem got a lot worse.

I checked the alignment with both a straight edge against the pulley, and measuring from the swing arm to the axle. The wheel is definitely true now, and the adjusters on both sides are back to where they were before removal. I marked them both.

I see there a quite a few people using this tire in this size, even here on the forums. What could I change to make this work for me, or what am I doing wrong? PFWiz, you haven't had any issues with this set up, and I see Kerr8005 who just started the "tombstone" thread is also running the same tire.

I will add that I've installed the progressive touring link and all my measurements have been while the bike is raised up on the lift. The tire rubs when it's on the lift and the suspension is at full droop.

If need be, I'll have to decide if I'm gonna do this again using a smaller tire, or just say to hell wth it and go back to a motorcycle tire...

Thoughts?

 

Aaaand another update:

I took the rear wheel off and cleaned everything up again. Made sure everything was installed correctly, which it was, and then reassembled everything. I trued the wheel to the frame again, and it rubs intermittently now, which is better than before. I would say about half of the rotation rubs on the bottom side belt for sure. I took a look at the front pulley in the transmission and I can see by the wear that the belt usually runs along the outer edge of that pulley, but isn't right now. It's moved almost 1/4" inboard which could be my problem.

Not sure how I adjust the belt to run where it clearly used to.

*edit- when I turn the wheel in reverse, the belt migrates to the outer edge on the front drive pulley and gives plenty of clearance at the tire. When I turn it forward, the belt moves inboard on the front drive pulley, and thus, closer to the tire.

I thought that maybe the progressive touring link might be causing an alignment problem, so I disconnected it, but it made no difference.

Anyone have any ideas?