Sports tyres of the past

**Crasherfromwayback** · 20th July 2010, 09:50

Originally Posted by Katman

I could never figure out how Yokohama could have such a good name in car tyres while their bike tyres were such crap.

They were far from crap mate. I won my 250 TT title on 003 Yokohamas in 91.

**jellywrestler** · 20th July 2010, 09:53

Here's an old ad from the NZ motor and cycle magazine from 1917.
These were the ducks nuts around world war one, you can still buy them new now, in either black or white

**Katman** · 20th July 2010, 10:11

Originally Posted by Crasherfromwayback

They were far from crap mate. I won my 250 TT title on 003 Yokohamas in 91.

I was thinking of the early 80s.

I gave up on them fairly quickly after that.

**Crasherfromwayback** · 20th July 2010, 10:13

I think R110's were mid 80's and the start of good tyres from them?

**nudemetalz** · 20th July 2010, 10:22

Originally Posted by Crasherfromwayback

They were far from crap mate. I won my 250 TT title on 003 Yokohamas in 91.

I used to race on the Yoki Sprints. They were bloody good sticky tyres.

**DEATH_INC.** · 20th July 2010, 10:37

Originally Posted by avgas

I miss the old Battleaxe's the ones that had lightning for tread. Way too soft and dissolved like water - but man did they stick.
First gen Shinko's were a bit of fun too.

You mean this one? they were pretty good orright, ran 'em on a kr250 for a bit (till it blew up) and a srx250 (the only pic I could find of this tyre)
I used the old bt17, it had dual compound (and you young fellas thought it was new...ha!) used to be able to drag the fairings of my first turbo on the road with these. Tho it would wheelspin in any gear in the wet...
When radials came along I liked the mez1 metzeler, very predictable, even if they wore too fast and were a little heavy feeling.
I think the biggest advances are the way they stick in the wet, the old stuff I used never did.

**BMWST?** · 20th July 2010, 10:52

Pirrelli Phantoms were the shizz,although supposedly for smaller bikes i liked Pirrelli Gordons on the 2 CB900's I had ,although i think i used phantoms later.

**sugilite:Me** · 20th July 2010, 11:22

The phantom front on the 1st gsxr750 was a disaster waiting to happen (Headshake city), though they were awesome on gpz900's!

**roogazza** · 21st July 2010, 08:41

Originally Posted by Grumph

Triangulars were developed around Bob McIntyre's style - throw the bike onto full lean immediately - no transition roll - in. There's an old Castrol (I think) film around, a lap of Oulton or Mallory Park with Bob and shit it's an eye opener. If you tihink Gardner's style was committed, you should see Bob Mac.
If you didn't ride like this they felt edgy at part lean as they were just as the name says - triangular section. The works bikes used to wear out the narrow center of the tread on the IOM.

I was road racing (started in 1970) when it was all TT100s, but I do remember seeing Triangulars on TD and TR Yamahas (forrunners to TZs).

Originally Posted by Crasherfromwayback

They were far from crap mate. I won my 250 TT title on 003 Yokohamas in 91.

Oh you young thing! 1991 !!! ( Bugger, I was racing when you were probably hatched ?) Gaz.

**Grumph** · 21st July 2010, 14:19

Triangulars were the thing to have on your TD or TR - or for that matter anything serious.
But as I said earlier, Avons suited more people better - hindsight is wonderful.

I did a season on a new T350 Suzuki and left the OE Inoue rubber on it - red line on the sidewalls and all. Never beaten by any of the Dunlop or Avon users locally. traded it in with good tread on the centers but the sides were worn out....Back then tyres were a state of mind - and what you could afford. TT100's were quite expensive at the time.

**Pixie** · 21st July 2010, 19:06

Originally Posted by roogazza

Late 60's gave us TT100 Dunlop. Another leap was probably Pirelli Phantoms in about 1980 or there abouts. G.

Aaah,The era when Pirelli named their tyres after comic book characters.

There was also the Gordon and the Mandrake

**HenryDorsetCase** · 22nd July 2010, 21:18

Originally Posted by Grumph

Trev Kirby recommended a pair of sticky Michelins - ME?? - in the mid 80's for a Norton twin in the early days of the Register. I'd raced on Triangulars not that many years earlier but those road tyres were head & shoulders better. So much grip you could feel the featherbed frame wind up on the sweeper at Ruapuna.

Me33 or ME 77 ??

had kind of a chevron-y pattern?

i had those and continental TK somethings (TK11?) on my GPZ750 in the 80's.