Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Hot Wheels tires.....

Since this site is mostly frequented by those my age I figure if anyone knows you all will. Recall the tires "back in the day" that you'd see on some of the hot rods that had a red stripe on them as opposed to whitewalls? I had them on an old Chevelle and later an El Camino when I was much MUCH younger and know for sure that one set was made by Goodyear. Well I would LOVE to find a set of these tires for my bike but am having no luck at all. I did a Google search and checked all the major mfgs. and wasn't able to find any. Anyone ever see them or know where they can be had?
I think they would look cool as hell on the bike but I don't want to sacrifice safety for looks as in I don't want some second-rate tires that look good. Any links or leads would be appreciated.


Steve

I remember there was a special dye or paint that you could get to change the color of the existing white wall. If I remember right, that stuff would last about a month or two depending on the weather. That was many many years ago, so I do not know if you can still get it.

Soren

You're in luck. Recently I had red stripes applied to the new tires for my '65 Vette. Not cheap, but very nice. Check with your local tire shops first. I finally found a co. called BRITISH WIRE WHEEL in so-cal that did them. They cut a 3/8" wide x 1/16" deep groove into the sidewall and vulcanized the stripe into the tire with no loss of integrity. They also do blue and gold stripes. Had to ship them my tires of course. The stripes were $25.00 each. Shipping was $100.00 each way. Total was $300.00, but well worth the cost for the results. The point is, it can be done to auto tires, don't know about bikes.

Goodyear made "Redlines" and I think it was Goodyear (or Goodrich, or Uniroyal,or....) that made "Bluestreaks", which were cool too but not as popular. The Suzuki 500 Titan came with redline tires stock, as did the Triumph TR250 sportscar.

You might check out Coker Tires. They make vintage looking tires for old hot rods. They might make them for bikes too.

Thanks for the replies....
Soren, that may be an option, not that hard to find decent whitewalls but wondering how that would look with the paint.
No luck with Coker Jason, none on their site and an unbelievably quick response to an email stated they did not have any available for motorcycles.
And finally, Yo Boogie... I bet the tires look awesome on the Vette, (post a pic, eh? ) but man, vulcanized or whatever I just would feel really really wierd about having my sidewalls cut and an inlay done. All I can think about is all the tire shards laying all over the interstates from recaps that blow apart. I prolly wouldn't hesitate one sec on doing it to my car tires but the bike scares me.
Oh well, I will keep looking.....

Yeah glazer, I had the same reservations about the Vette. That is until I got to do a couple laps around TMS (the local NASCAR track) at a Corvette function. Up to 120 MPH with no apparent problem.The red stripe was installed in the thickest part of the sidewall and is about 1/16" deep. Not enough to adversley affect the tire performance. I had my tires done because the tires from COKER are just plain junk, designed for the restoration, never drive the car around croud. That's not me! I don't do restos. In fact, a lot of Corvette owners sneer at me for not having a restored time capsule car. I tell them that if they don't like it, buy it from me and restore it yourself. That's shut-up quite a few of them. They consider me a piriah. Fine by me. Good luck on finding tires. I've tried the red treatments, none of them work.