Motorcycle, scooter & ATV tyres

The 17 inch radial pairing is the default on almost every modern sports and sport-touring machine. 120/70ZR17 front with 180/55ZR17 or 190/55ZR17 rear covers a very large share of the parc, and those are the sizes worth holding rather than ordering.

Sport, sport-touring and touring patterns in the same size are different tyres. A sport compound reaches temperature quickly and gives away mileage; a touring construction runs cooler, lasts considerably longer and does not want to be ridden hard from cold. Ask what the customer actually does with the bike before recommending on price.

Fronts and rears are designed as a pair. The profiles, compounds and carcass stiffnesses are developed together, and manufacturers publish the combinations they approve. Selling a rear from one range against a front from another because that is what is on the shelf changes how the machine steers.

Scooter tyres work through frequent acceleration and braking, carrying high loads on a small contact patch. Regular pressure and condition checks are important. They are also the fitment most likely to be replaced because of a puncture rather than wear.

Most scooter sizes are bias construction, shown by the dash in the designation: 120/70-12. Reinforced versions of the same size exist for heavier maxi-scooters and for two-up commuting, and they carry a higher load index. Check the machine’s plate rather than assuming a size implies a rating.

Small-capacity motorcycles use the 17 inch radial sizes at the lighter end — 110/70R17 front with 150/60R17 rear is a common learner and commuter pairing. These are volume lines for anyone supplying training schools or delivery riders.

Adventure fitments are defined by how much of the mileage is genuinely off tarmac. A 90/10 road-biased tyre gives grip and mileage on road and very little in mud; a 50/50 gives real off-road bite and gives away wet road braking, noise and tread life to get it. Most adventure bikes in the UK spend well over 90% of their life on tarmac, and should be sold accordingly.

The 21 inch front with an 18 inch rear is the traditional dual-sport pairing and remains the one on most large adventure machines. Road-biased adventure bikes with 19 or 17 inch fronts take a different, more road-oriented range.

Many of these machines have spoked wheels, which decides the tube question before the tyre does. Cross-spoked rims with the nipples outside the tyre bead area run tubeless; conventional spoked rims with nipples through the well need a tube regardless of what the tyre is marked.

Motocross and enduro tyres are chosen by terrain rather than by machine: soft, intermediate and hard terrain patterns differ in knob spacing, height and compound, and the wrong one wears out or loses drive within a session. Sand patterns are a separate thing again.

Competition motocross tyres are not road legal and carry no E marking. Enduro tyres exist in both road-legal and competition forms in the same size, which is the distinction that matters when the machine has to be ridden to the trail.

These are tube-type fitments in almost all cases, and the tube specification matters — a heavy-duty tube is standard practice for anything running low pressures off road, and rim locks are usual. Include the correct tube when quoting a tube-type fitment.

Cruiser fitments are the ones most likely to be catalogued in an unfamiliar designation. Alongside the metric sizes, older and American-market machines use alphanumeric designations, and a size on the sidewall of the tyre that came off may not be the size the manufacturer originally specified.

These are heavy machines, often ridden two-up with luggage, so the load index is the figure to check. Cruiser tyres are frequently bias or bias-belted rather than radial, because the construction suits the weight and the riding style better than a sports radial does.

Whitewall and custom fitments are order items rather than stock items, with lead times confirmed on enquiry. Establish the exact marking, including any manufacturer-specific code, before quoting a date.

ATV sizes are given in inches as overall diameter by section width on rim diameter: 25×8-12 is a 25 inch tyre, 8 inches wide, on a 12 inch rim. Fronts and rears are usually different widths on utility quads, so a set of four is rarely four identical tyres.

Pressures are the thing that gets missed. ATV tyres run in single figures — pressures a normal forecourt gauge cannot resolve and a normal airline will overshoot in a second. A low-pressure gauge is not optional equipment, and the figure moulded into the sidewall is a maximum rather than a recommendation. The machine handbook gives the working pressure, and it is often different front to rear.

Agricultural and estate use is the volume end of this market: utility quads doing gates, feeding and fencing all winter. Those buyers want a 6-ply utility pattern that resists punctures from stubble and flint, not a lightweight sport tyre.

Side-by-sides are heavier and faster than quads, carry payload and often tow, so they take a stronger casing and a higher ply rating. The 14 inch rim sizes dominate, and the machines are increasingly used as working vehicles on estates, shoots and construction sites rather than as recreation.

Tread choice follows the ground. An open mud pattern self-cleans and drives well in wet clay and is loud, slow and short-lived on hardcore; an all-terrain pattern is the right answer for a machine that spends its week on tracks and yards.

Check whether the machine is used on the public road. Road-legal UTVs require appropriately marked tyres, and many of the aggressive off-road patterns are not marked for road use.

Trials tyres are a specialised item: a soft, flexible carcass run at very low pressure so the tread can conform to the surface, with a tread block pattern designed to deform rather than dig. They wear quickly on road and are not a general-purpose tyre.

Enduro sits between trials and motocross, and the road-legal question is the one to settle first. A road-legal enduro tyre and a competition tyre in the same size are different products with different approval status.

Both are low-volume, order-in items for us. Tell us the machine, the class and whether it needs to be road legal, and we will confirm what is available and when before you commit to a date.