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Red Tiger Racing
Dirt/Snow'ized Streetbike??
I got this idea as I find the riding in Saskatoon to be too short so I am going to try using it all winter. The first step was to see if I could find tires that were going to work so I would like to that "Recreation Supply" for helping me and letting me look for tires that they had put away for the season in the back. I found the widest 17" dirt bike tire I could that was a "Cheng Shin" being 5.6" wide which is about 140mm vs. my streetbike tire of 190mm. This was OK though as I needed the tire to sit a bit shorter than it usually would on a dirtbike. For the front I just used a normal 17" dirt bike tire (good 'ol Chen Shin again) which I chose to use because it had the most lugs possible so that I could have the most amount of rubber on the pavement for the most grip yet could still put studs in it. The interesting part was putting the tire onto the rim though. I didn't want to use tubes as they are way too much hassle so Steve and I managed to get the tires on both the front and back to mount using a large blast of air. Amazingly enough the dirt biker rubber is still holding air with no tube.

I haven't studded the tire yet as I haven't had time, but the tires seem to work OK. Had the bike up to 150 km/hr with no problem and handles good. Haven't tried turning it deep into any corners as I don 't trust the front dirt bike tire to grip into the pavement all that much. Pushes and handles great in a couple inches of snow and really hooks up in mud and wet gravel. With the lug flex on the back tire, it almost feels like you have a bit of a low tire in the back as it feels like the tire is moving sideways a little. I will stud the tires later on this week and see how they work once it snows a bit more and get some ice on the streets. If all is lost and it doesn't work all that well in the winter I got pictures that make the bike look pretty damn tough. Here are the pictures of the bike.
Front Knobby Tire
Rear Tire
(Studded it with automotive studs later on)
Me and my bike enjoying the weather
Shooting a roost in summer fallow field
Pulling a catwalk with all the grip