Larger Profile Back tire for Street Bob?

[R_W_B]

I have a 2007 Street Bob. When looking at the rear tire from the rear position it is plenty wide enough to suit me. But when looking at it from the side position it has too low of a profile to me.
I am wondering if anyone has mounted a larger profile tire on a Street Bob and roughly how much can you go with out fender hitting tire on bottom out. (from looking I would imagine not much)
I'm thinking the Fat Bob tire might work ?

 

[bwalsh22]

I have the wide tire kit, 180 in the rear, which I believe is as far as you can go without changing a bunch of stuff (I am no expert, but it has been discussed on here). In general, you do not really need to wide tire kit unless you have lowered the back end and stuff, all it does if give you a 180 SE tire, and has you remount the wires under the bike, but there is still plenty of clearance even with the 180.

Overall, it does not change much of the profile of the tire and do not think you could do too much in that case.

 

[R_W_B]

I have the wide tire kit, 180 in the rear, <.......> Overall, it does not change much of the profile of the tire and do not think you could do too much in that case.

Thanks for the reply. Yes it is only the higher profile that I want. The rear width looks fine to me. I'm old school and just never warmed up to the newer low profile tires on bikes and autos now.

In fact Honda's new Fury (chopper) would look great if they put a higher profile rear tire on it (and also gave it a real gas tank)

 

[bwalsh22]

I do like the fatter tires on the Fat Bob, particularly the front one.

Since that is what you liked, I looked up the specs on the Fat Bob, the rear is a 180/70B16. The wide tire kit tire is a 180/60B17 (Compared to stock 160/70-17), so pretty close only a 10% difference in tire profile and the wide tire kit would actually reduce your profile. The difference in look may be aligned with the 1" rim width difference combined with the tire width.

 

[Admiral Nelson]

I do like the fatter tires on the Fat Bob, particularly the front one.

Since that is what you liked, I looked up the specs on the Fat Bob, the rear is a 180/70B16. The wide tire kit tire is a 180/60B17 (Compared to stock 160/70-17), so pretty close only a 10% difference in tire profile and the wide tire kit would actually reduce your profile. The difference in look may be aligned with the 1" rim width difference combined with the tire width.

I don't like the front on the FB and I imagine it would make the steering slower. I like my wheels and tyres just as they are. I especially like the 19" front.

 

[R_W_B]

I do like the fatter tires on the Fat Bob, particularly the front one.

Since that is what you liked, I looked up the specs on the Fat Bob, the rear is a 180/70B16. The wide tire kit tire is a 180/60B17 (Compared to stock 160/70-17), so pretty close only a 10% difference in tire profile and the wide tire kit would actually reduce your profile. The difference in look may be aligned with the 1" rim width difference combined with the tire width.

Thanks for the reply, I'm kinda ignorant on tire nomemclature. Can you elaborate on what the numbers mean ? I.e. are you saying the Fat Bob rear tire has a slightly higher profile than the wide tire kit OR the Street Bob rear tire or both ?
Additionally I gather (correct me if wrong) that I would have to buy a different rear wheel to mount the FB tire to ?

 

[Jack Klarich]

Thanks for the reply, I'm kinda ignorant on tire nomemclature. Can you elaborate on what the numbers mean ? I.e. are you saying the Fat Bob rear tire has a slightly higher profile than the wide tire kit OR the Street Bob rear tire or both ?
Additionally I gather (correct me if wrong) that I would have to buy a different rear wheel to mount the FB tire to ?

The first number is the tire width, the second is the aspect ratio the third is the actual size wheel it will fit hope this helps

Tire size conversion - Harley Davidson Community take a look @ the charts here this should help clear it up, Capital Jack

 

[R_W_B]

Another person gave me some info and I found I would need to install the 1" bearings in the FXDF rear wheel. However, while he believes the 1" and the 25mm bearings both have the same OD, the 1" bearings are slightly *thicker* than the 25mm bearings, meaning to have a competent machine shop slightly increase the depth of the bearing pocket in the FXDF wheel.

Overall, it would be easier to just change the rear axle from a 1" to a 25mm, and use all the stock FXDB parts (unmodified wheel, bearings and spacers) as-is.

This is not something I will do anytime soon but when my current tire wears out I might think about it since I would love to buy some cast wheels anyhow to get away from polishing all those spokes in tight places.

 

[bwalsh22]

Thanks for the reply, I'm kinda ignorant on tire nomemclature. Can you elaborate on what the numbers mean ? I.e. are you saying the Fat Bob rear tire has a slightly higher profile than the wide tire kit OR the Street Bob rear tire or both ?
Additionally I gather (correct me if wrong) that I would have to buy a different rear wheel to mount the FB tire to ?

Jacks got you covered. I did a quick search to find out before posting the above which was quite educational. In the formula 180/70B17, the 180 is the size of the tire width wise, the 70 is the percentage of the sidewall height as a percentage of width(the profile) and then the 17 is the diameter.

So to answer your question yes the fat bob has just a slightly higher profile then the wide tire kit. Greater the percentage greater the sidewall height.

This is not something I will do anytime soon but when my current tire wears out I might think about it since I would love to buy some cast wheels anyhow to get away from polishing all those spokes in tight places.

Number one reason I switched them out when the dealer told me there was a slight wobble in the front tire. Seemed like a good enough excuse for me to drop some money to change out to the typhoons which are so much nicer to clean

One more thing, here is my wide tire install, found it looking for something else, forgot I put it out here You can see from the install how minimal the wide tire kit changes are (just a bracket replaced to route the wires better, something Harley should have done in teh first place IMO.

Wide Tire Kit Installation - Harley Davidson Community

 

[blademan]

If your wanting the old school look you may need to change to a 15 or 16 inch wheel and then you can go to a 90 series tire. Thats what I am thinking of doing.