I have a 2002 harley fatboy that I converted to a trike using the Frankenstein trike kit. It has a 16 inch front tire. Does anyone know if I can run a car tire on the front of it and if so what size?

 

Avon- Cobra has a trike specific front tire that I ran on my TriGlide, and liked it. It has a flatter profile and thicker tread than standard Mc tires. Consider the Avon Cobra Trike tire.

https://www.avontyres.com/en-us/tyre...a-chrome-trike

BTW, There are very few car tires that fit the front.

 

While I have never road a Trike ( side car yes ) so maybe Trikes are different, but many years ago I had a car type of tire on a 1945 45". Handling is different to say the least. For me the question should not be if you could, you can. The question is why? Just some thoughts. Good luck.

Jeff

 

Yes it can be done . But not with your front end. The cost to go wide front end is very high and will buy a lot of front tires.
You would also need a different 16 inch wheel the 2002 would not work right with a 195 or 205 16 car tire.

Front tire wear on sidecar rig or trike varies depending on the build and how you ride. Try the tire you have if not to worn and see how it goes. The Avon trike tier works a little better for some. But is it worth the cost ?

 

Yes you can run a car tire on the front end of a trike. A trike is very similar to a sidecar in that the bike no longer leans so the flatter tire profile will work on the front as well as the rear. Not sure you really want to do that as front tires already last about twice as long as the rear. The HD front tire is already a pretty good size and to do the conversion properly is very expensive. At the very least you should at least do the triple tree rake mode ( if the bike is triked permanently ) that changes the front end, makes the trike much easier to steer.

I had a sidecar rig in anther life and many in that crowd had tried a car tire on the front and most went back to a slightly bigger motorcycle tire over the stock tire size. The consensus was that the rig handled better overall with the motorcycle tire on the front. Both sidecars and trikes push the front end out in turns, so the profile of the mc tire worked better. All of these bikes had some form of the triple tree mod or they went to the leading link front end. I haven't see very many leading link front ends on trikes as most seem to change the triple tree.

 

Trikes and sidecars Going the raked tree route when done right works just as well now and is a lot lower cost . For most.
You can purchase very well made Raked trees and extensions .
Hannigan does some amazing front end work mostly on BMW and GW to allow the use of a car tire on the front of their trikes and sidecar rigs.
Harley Touring bikes seems to work just fine with the right raked tree. For trikes and sidecars.
I run their machined 4 1/2 degree tree on the Twin classic rig. Same tree used on trikes..
IMO there Tree is better made and a good value compare to some of the Cheap ones I looked at in the past.