Power Kite Forum

What 17" tires are you using?

shehatesmyhobbies - 1-12-2014 at 07:24 PM

I'm thinking of switching over to the 17" sysmic rims and want to know what others are using for tires on the beach. I know several of you use the skinny's on Ivanpah
And I know a few of you use them on the beach as well. I was chatting with Van and he was using motorcycle tires, what are you using?

I will be using these at WIldwood and if you don't know, it does have a huge hard pack when the tide is low but also has soft sand in areas as well. There is a decent base under the soft stuff and many use the barrows there and make out ok.

I want to get more stability for speed in the end. I have Kenda beach racers on 4" aluminum rims at the current time.

bigkid - 1-12-2014 at 10:25 PM

Go to a motorcycle shop and tell them you want the cheapest 17 moped tire they have. I use the 17 inch IRC NR-53 tires, 16 bucks each. I use the smallest and narrowest they make for the lake beds, 2.25-17. I did camber the rear tires about 18-20 degrees to make them bite. You can run the 3 sizes, 2.25, 2.50, 2.75.
Or get the smooth tires from Sysmic.

BeamerBob - 1-12-2014 at 10:51 PM

I tried my Landseglers at Sunset beach in Oregon and the contact area was too narrow to offer any advantage. The tires left an impression in the beach which resulted in rolling resistance. I think they would be fine on sand that is hard like at Jekyll Island. Landsegler makes a beach wheel that apparently floats over anything you wouldn't call "soft". The rim looks to be about 4" wide with a wider tire I think is made by Kenda. I'd like to give those a try.

A friend bought a set of the smooth Sysmic tires and said they wore out very fast. He was running them on a high end Standart landsailer, but the demands placed on the tires would be similar to my buggy.

On a separate issue, he noticed a marked drop in speeds he would expect for a given wind speed. He usually has an edge on me speed wise up to the point I'm perfectly overpowered. After the wheel change, he sometimes had trouble keeping up with me and was rarely able to pass me. I suggested that one changed variable that made the most sense was the air resistance of the wide spoke blades spinning through the air at twice the wheel speed on the top of the wheel. Dirtslide had some clear spoke covers made for his Mystic buggy and he hooked up Gary who is ordering a set to see if it solves his problem while not covering up the bling wheels. Anyone run the Sysmic wheels at speed for a comparison? I know high performance bicycles many times use flattened spokes as well as fewer spokes to minimize this drag and the spokes on these 17" wheels are at least a half inch wide if memory serves me right.

shehatesmyhobbies - 2-12-2014 at 04:37 AM

Thanks for the input guys. I will think about getting my Kenda's trued first then possibly try the 17" afterwards

RonH - 2-12-2014 at 07:36 PM

Quote: Originally posted by shehatesmyhobbies  
I'm thinking of switching over to the 17" sysmic rims and want to know what others are using for tires on the beach. I know several of you use the skinny's on Ivanpah
And I know a few of you use them on the beach as well. I was chatting with Van and he was using motorcycle tires, what are you using?

I will be using these at WIldwood and if you don't know, it does have a huge hard pack when the tide is low but also has soft sand in areas as well. There is a decent base under the soft stuff and many use the barrows there and make out ok.

I want to get more stability for speed in the end. I have Kenda beach racers on 4" aluminum rims at the current time.


Squeezing BR's onto 4" rims is not going to give you any stability...

People put on the skinny rims to get the profile they think they need but in the end it isn't the best.

I have gone to the high 40's with the duro's on 8" rims... There is a bounce that happens at 20 but it does go away at 30 ->

We need better tires!

I would try the balancing beads or similar if you have issues with the BR tires. They all distort too much at speed to balance them like regular tires.

Ron

shehatesmyhobbies - 2-12-2014 at 08:14 PM

I really believe that something maybe wrong with one of the tires and I believe I will send it back to have it looked at and possibly exchanged. I was going to try and balance it with balance beads or something similar or even try and have the tire true'd.

I am going to give a few things a try as soon as we get good enough weather to go out and give it another go at it.