White wall tires?

[DeerWrangler]

I an looking for a set of 2Each whitewall tires to put on the trike. I have looked everywhere i can think of and so far no such animal seems to exist.

Size 245/50R16

There are retro portawall that can be used but the maker advises against using them on a radial tire ( due to flex of sidewall). AND with everything on the tail end of the trike being fiberglass etc id hate to have it all ripped of due to a portawall coming loose.

So if anyone knows for absolutely sure who physically has such an animal as what i am looking for i sure would appreciate a heads up... Drop me a PM, reply to this post me if you know of the whereabouts of 2 each white wall tires 245/50R16

Not that i need new tires back there but i think whitewall would look damn cool on my trike!

[John Luciano]

Confused by this : but the maker advises against using them on a radial tire ( due to flex of sidewall). AND with everything on the tail end of the trike being fiberglass . I have radials on back BW not WW no problem

[americanbadass]

Confused by this : but the maker advises against using them on a radial tire ( due to flex of sidewall). AND with everything on the tail end of the trike being fiberglass . I have radials on back BW not WW no problem

I have radial whitewalls on my trike, and a vintage truck I own. The whitewall is purely a cosmetic application and has no effect on the structure of the tire as far as belt, plys etc.
They can be found on eBay, sevral companies produce them-Goodyear, Firestone, Michelin etc.

[Bill1BigDog]

Attachment 5925 Is this what you are talking about? I have a Harley wide whitewall tire up front and wide whitewalls in the rear too! They are vintage car tires.

[DeerWrangler]

There seems to be some confusion regarding my post. I never stated that whitewall tired were a hazard nor that whitewall tires came apart. I was referring to the portawalls that are an add-on to tires.

PORTAWALL is a stick on wall just like thay use to make 50 years ago NOT to be confused with a whitewall tire. And i did state " Retro portawall" in my post.
for those not familiar with it they are portawalls and they are not a full tire but something that is like how they did white sided tires( before there were real white wall tires).
They can and did come loose from the tire that they were stuck to and did whack the inside of the wheel well ON cars & trucks... Back then cars were metal so seldom was major damage done.

BUT to use them PORTAWALLs on the tires of today is advised against by the maker of those same portawalls.

Many size tires come with whitewall but again i am and was specifically talking the Size 245/50R16 as i stated in my post. many other tires come whitewall and i have seen them on HD and other bikes. There might even be a whitewall tire for the front on my GL1800 trike. Dont know as again i was specific in my talk as to the size of tire that i could not find a whitewall for Size 245/50R16

[Pegasus1300]

Try white wall tire paint. Don't laugh it works.check out the website
Ranger Tire Paint — Welcome

[DeerWrangler]

After many mnths of searchng for a whitewall tire in the Size 245/50R16 with no luck i though of the portawall that were on some of the old tires back in the 50's. but the maker of them advised against putting them on a Radial tire due to the diff flex of the sidewall on radial ( more flex) vs the bias ply ( more rigid).
Even ran across a site where a guy ground down / sanded the outer side of the tire to make it white **** But that only works on tires that have raise white letters as there is a white undercoat on those tires.

Called old custom tire folks from my past life and even they say that no manufacture makes a whitewall tire of Size 245/50R16.

Then i heard of DBtires.com & gave them a call.... They agree that there is no such animal as a whitewall Size 245/50R16 as no tire of that size was ever made. BUT there is good out of this as they do some custom work regarding tires,

My trike came with a certain size Rim and tire on it and very probably i could use a different size of tire on that rim. Or even go to a giff style of rim and tire as long as i didnt go tall or wider where tire would be in conflict with fender. Just dont know but i figured it was easier and cheaper to find plane ol whitewall tiers of size Size 245/50R16,

[DeerWrangler]

Yet that is ecavtly what i have been looking for. I have run across a bunch of vintage tire places but the down side is that so far no one has a tire that is equivilant to the Size 245/50R16 that is on my ride.

The first trike i saw with whitewall was a HD and man it looked fantastic. Not every ride would look good with that whitewall , Just the same as not every ride looks good with chrome everywhere. But i think that the whitewall tires give a ride that something extra that nothing else can match....

LIKE the looks of your ride.

Attachment 5925 Is this what you are talking about? I have a Harley wide whitewall tire up front and wide whitewalls in the rear too! They are vintage car tires.

[Rick Kay]

Coker Tire makes replicas of vintage automobile tires. Did you try them?

[Bob Witte]

I'm a wide white wall fan myself and am putting a set on my 82 SilverWing GL500i trike conversion I'm doing right now. Over the years I have become familar with any number of sources for the whites. The best place to start of course is eBay. Search on "white wall" and "whitewall" and scan thru the listings for anyone who may have your somewhat oddball size.

If you are not married to your present rear rims, know that a 2056515 and a 1957514 both have the exact same height and therefore won't change your original gearing. And with the narrower tread of the 205 and 195 you'll likely get better handling and with the 195 a bit softer ride because of the extra side wall flex available. Those are more popular sizes for whitewalls. I have found that a smaller cross section tire works better on trikes. Big tires may look cool, but do little to enhance the ride and make your trike work all the harder to move around.

I did a quick look around and found you a 2155516 wide white at:

Results for 16 INCH TIRES

It is down near the bottom of the page. My chart tells me that this size is only a couple of percentage points almost exactly the same sizing as your 245. Hope this helped.

[DeerWrangler]

Bob..

A slightly narrower tire would certainly give me a liitle more breathing room between the tire and the fender. Not a whole lot of clearance back there.
No i am not really married to those rims but as they are 4 hole ( for Ford) centerline rims i hate to have to fork out $1000 _1500 or more for a tires and rims. Just to get whitewall tires on the back of the trike.... Either way its not a cheap process to get what one wants when it comes to the NOT OFF THE SHELF item.

I have spoken to the men over at DBTIRES.COM about what they can do for me regarding 245/50R16 whitewall.

Coker is said to be one of the best for classic car tires and i will also talk with them regarding what may fit.


Many thanks to all that have brought forth ideas and suggestions

[ea81slush]

Here in Oz I ordered Atlas flappers. These are the same as portawall you talk about.

They broke but I'm bertain they are not meant to be on radials and my tyres (tires) are 295/50r15. But they look great and will test another set. or the paint is the option but its takes 3 or 4 coats.

The front tire is a 600-16 hot rod double sided white wall

[adaptolife]

Try Coker Tires

[DeerWrangler]

Think those are like the portawalls and have the tendancy to break free from the radials due to the fles in the radial sidewall.

I finally ran across a place that does some kind of remanufacturing of tires and has done a set for me. Place called DIAMOND BACK Tires OR DB.COM

With many sizes of tires there are no such thing as them being made with a whitewall side. And like many of the GL trikes there is a limited space back under the rear wheel wells. HD had whitewall tires that will fit many of their bikes and possibly other trike kits use tires that might have stock whitewalls avail but for certain NOT all.

Even the rims * Centerline* for the Lehman trike are 16" X 7" with 4 hole 4 1/4 centers. Stock rims for Ford which is the rear end of that Lehman trike uses an 8" rim. This i only found out after chatting with Centerline after not being able to locate rims that i THOUGHT would fit.

In the end all is solved with DB tires providing me with whitewall tiers and centerline getting me straight as to what size of rims Lehman has used on their GL1800 trikes.


Your trike looks really great......

Here in Oz I ordered Atlas flappers. These are the same as portawall you talk about.

They broke but I'm bertain they are not meant to be on radials and my tyres (tires) are 295/50r15. But they look great and will test another set. or the paint is the option but its takes 3 or 4 coats.

The front tire is a 600-16 hot rod double sided white wall

[ea81slush]

Thanks Deerwrangler.

As a contrast, watch this wideo of my Tweety trike. It was taken without the whitewalls. The white walls is worth the effort to get them whether its from paint or other means.