Winter Motorcycle Tyres?

Blog Date - 29 November 2012

I never knew there was such a thing as "Winter Tyres" until a few years ago when I met a tyre fitter who liked to make this point to everyone he met.  His point is that tyres, presumably summer or regular tyres, only work to about 6 or 7 degrees, any lower and the rubber can't warm up enough to get the grip you'd expect.  Here in the UK we muddle on through our winter's sub zero nights and occasional snow covered roads on our regular tyres.  I know in Germany that it is a legal requirement that in the summer you have summer tyres, in the winter you must have winter tyres.  How the law decides when summer and winter are is not made clear to me, but it would be worth checking if you ever take your car over there when it's chilly.

The ordinary rubber on my Fazer...is it up to another cold, icy winter or is there a better option?

What I don't know is whether the same applies to motorcycle tyres.  A cursory look on the net does not produce tyres specifically for winter.  Several of the motorcycle traveler website forums suggest that some of the knobbly motorcross tyres are soft enough to remain sticky even in the coldest of weather, but I doubt they'd come in fitments suitable for a modern sports bike.  Again the internet reveals nothing but confusion in Germany as to the law.  It is law that you need winter tyres on your bike in Germany, but as no-one makes them it's impractical, possibly unenforceable.  No-one seems to know for certain.  All I can recommend is that if you're going there in winter...seek proper legal advice!

The thing about tyres not working properly below 7 degrees seems to make sense.  What I am unsure of is whether that is the temperature of the tyre surface, the road surface or the ambient air temperature.  What experience does tell me is that grip changes greatly from day to day and even hour to hour.  Sometimes even in the cold and rain I feel confident in the rubber and happy to pitch, carefully, through the bends.  Other times every corner feels like the tyres are flat, the swingarm is lose and the front wheel bearings have collapsed.  I can't put my finger on a certain weather condition or a definitive temperature, this leads me to wonder just how much if it is psychological.  It really could all be in my head.

So if there's anyone out there who knows about winter tyres for motorcycles, the Germanic laws and the science of tyres, I'm willing to learn!

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