Britbike forum Forums General discussion The Rod and Tappet Tire availability

I just spent some time on the Dennis Kirk site looking at tires. Seems that most of the major brands are out of stock, but they have plenty of Kenda, Shinko, et al.
I understand the COVID supply chain interruptions, it's just odd that it only seems to have happened to the top line suppliers.
Do the Koreans know something that we don't?

I've noticed the same thing. Tried to get a set of Avons for my 2017 Triumph last spring and none anywhere. Maybe it has something to do with the UK lockdowns?

The tire vendor at ahrma events told me that Avon (Cooper) has had all the race rubber in the states sent back to England. Thats what I have been using mainly on the race bikes. Continental makes some very good tires for classic machines. And Bridgestone has pretty impressive stuff, too. The BT46 I put on my 650 race bike is their street compound but it handles as good as the 10 year old Avon AM26 design I'd been using.
It would be a shame if Avon stops supporting their motorcycle lines as they made a great product IMO. But maybe it is time to look elsewhere for rubber to use on our old junk. In the end, most of us don't use half of what modern tires are capable of.
And I've ridden Kenda street tires. They work great.
2c.

I tried a Kenda K81 copy once on my old Trident. Totally useless in the rain!
I ended up getting a Dunlop K81 from J&P. Made in Indonesia, we'll see how it works out.
Can't say how long 19" rears will be available for the Trident, but that was always a problem.

I ordered a set of Avon Roadriders MKII from Dennis Kirk on 8/07/2021, plus tubes and rim strips. They showed up in less than a week, and are sitting in my garage waiting for me to put them on. These are for my R90/6, but are the same size as a lot of Britbikes -- 3.25x19 front, and 4.00x18 rear. So . . . the only problem here is taking the time to do the install.

American Motorcycle Tire aka AMERICAN MOTO TIRE

like forget everybody else in the whole freakin world, these guys are the shi... er I mean stuff.

best price
fast ship
massive amount of tires in stock

nobody and I mean nobody beats American Motorcycle Tire. I personally wouldn't buy Moto tires from any one else- UNLESS from a local dealership with their additional guarantees & coverages.

RR, 100/90 x18 "notify me."
K81, 4.10 x18 $133

Well, Tom, I wish I had seen this sooner. AMT comes in at $65.36 less than Dennis Kirk for the same pair of tires. Dennis Kirk advertises that they will not be beat on price and will beat any advertised competitor's price by a dollar, but I think that only applies before the sale. I sent them an email anyway. If you have gotten good service in the past from AMT, that looks like the way to go for tires. It looks like they have a minimum order quantity of 25 rim strips, which would be more than a lifetime supply for me, but they only cost a dollar each at that quantity.

Tom.......how about the manufacture dates?

Gordon.....who's been burnt once on that....shame on me if I let that happen again.

I apologize for quoting my own post -- just did it for clarity. I heard back from Dennis Kirk within the hour, with this reply:

• Yes I can price match this. I will get that taken care of and you will see it in your account in 1-3 business days.

The date codes on the tires they sold me are 8th week of 2020 on the front, and 7th week of 2021 for the rear, so very fresh. I have always had a good experience dealing with them. I have actually called them with questions before, and an actual, intelligent human being picked up the phone. That is almost unheard of in today's world.

p.s. Thanks for the heads up, Tom. You saved me $68.00. I'll buy you a couple virtual beers!

Thank you for that Ray. I've been a loyal Dennis Kirk customer for years ( not just for tires) and unless the world blows up.....I'll still be. BUT finding out they will actually match prices is nice to know. Just going to make me do a little more homework before I hit that pay button.

For what's it worth.......I've always received fresh tires from them.

Now that I have a set of those SUPER bead busters MM talked about I'm itching to give them a try.

Take care......thanks again for the follow up.

Gordon in NC

Dennis Kirk was just used as an example in my original post. At that time Road Riders in my sizes seemed to be out of stock everywhere.
I ended up getting a K81 from J&P. It'll be interesting to see if I still like them as much as I used to.

Me too! I've purchased many tires, tubes, and rim strips from them over the years and they are always at the top of my list when I start my search.

Me too, most of my vintage tires have come from there. They offer lots of sizes and brands. And, they ship tires to Alaska, which many of the internet sellers won’t do for some reason.

Maybe they don't know geography, so confuse "Alaska" with Albania, Austria, and Australia.

Probably graduates of big-city public schools.

Hi Gordon, sorry to have missed this- I've been in Deep Work Mode since July 19- just now waking back up to the (so-called) "real world"...

I've used AMT for ages... ya know man I've never once looked at tire manufacture dates! SO.. can't speak to that but as big and prevalent as they are, I cannot imagine they'd be shucking off old tires onto their customers. But I guess one can't take things for granted, we all know it never plays to do so,

That said, I am well pleased to hear Dennis Kirk will honor their pledge to beat or match other prices- and I heretofore advise everyone to uphold
American Moto Tire
as THE price to match!

Cheers guys, shiny/rusty/patinaed side up and Happy Motoring!

Tom, I purchased a tire from a well known Brit Parts Dealer ( now out of business).......well known and respected. I was searching for a hard to find size for one of my unit singles. It was sold as new and was some type of replica of a vintage tire. At that time I didn't pay much attention to manufacture dates.........but that tire was over 10 years old when I got it and it's the one that came off the front rim of my B44 at speed.

I got to researching and the tire was so old that it was manufactured BEFORE they started dating them. Kinda pissed me off they would sell it and not state "NOT FOR ACTUAL ROAD USE". It would have lasted forever on a static display, could have killed me.

Folks have different ideas about what's usable and what isn't. IMO tires don't get better with age. The manufacture date is located on the side of the tire.....in a sort of code but it's easy to decipher.

If you are just starting on a project......don't buy tires first and then take 5 years to complete the project.

Just my opinion, worth what ya paid for it. Gordon in NC

what Gordon said. Years ago I ordered a TT100 for the rear of the Norton through a local britbike dealer. He got it from a well known britbike suppier and when it arrived it was all of 10 years old.... I think he ended up eating it and got me a fresh one from the same supplier. Trouble is, we don't even know how the tire was stored for ten years. Some people must live under a rock or at least think that we do.

Cheers, Wilf

Damn, Gordon!

yeah that's seriously some kinda BS for them to sell that tire without a warning on its age

Well to be honest.......I should have known better. You could almost put the tire on the rim barehanded. It "should" have been rock hard and the tread probably was. The sidewalls were just not very strong at all and that's probably by design.....or lack of.

Once it'd been around the forks several times......(sort of wadded up as it passed the by fender braces) it REALLY showed it's age. I have some photos of it around here some where. The tire had splits and cracks all over it after that......not one before that I noticed and I'm the one who payed for and mounted them.

I pay attention to manufacture dates now.

Hope you and yours are safe and healthy. Gordon

I ordered 2 tires and 2 tubes for my T-140 2 weeks ago from American Mototire. They shipped them in 3 separate shipments. Still waiting on the front tire, but UPS told me the address I gave them was incorrect. I’m at 475, and gave them 465. This is why I’m not allowed to maintain commercial aircraft anymore.

Gotta be careful with those UPS folks. Even when the address is correct they'll likely leave the package on the wrong porch. I guess it takes a Postal Person to understand that all the mailboxes are on the right side of the street, but the odd numbers are on the left.

The side wall lists week and year of manufacture. I have a set of Dunlop's in the loft of my garage. Less than a 100 miles on them, stored in dark trash bags out of the light (uvl kills them) I wouldn't give them away. One of our members here was given a set of tires for his track bike, he went down hard, while unused these tires were old and hard