Tomahawk Tires Suck! Do not purchase them.

Pirelli is Italian and Metzler is German but they are one. I forget if Pirelli bought Metzler or vice versa. Not sure where your car tire knowledge came from but I've never met anyone who thought Pirellis were Asian and pray tell what "looks" you were referring to...

what would make you think Pirelli is Asian?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BlackHawk &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just call me an old timer; I don’t trust these new companies (tomahawk, metzler….and so on). I stick with the ones that have been in business for a long time like Michelin, Dunlop, Pirelli.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

well a recap on a bike tire is a stupid idea, and colored at that, but other tire companys also have problems. My front Michelin pilot cracked on the tread block with less than a 1000 miles, called Michelin and they sent a new Power with absolutely no questions.

Honestly I did know that Pirelli was an Italian brand, but since yesterday when Phil corrected my I started looking around before I “open mouth insert foot�. I made a search on Pirelli and all I could find was Asian links to there plants in Asia, and I jumped to the conclusion of them being Asian, hence “from the looks of it!!!� Still knowing that they started by building tires for Ferrari (P Zero). I was just concerned since I know that Pirelli deals with much more then just tires and that they started in 1884 (121 year is busness), that it might have originated some where else. But still I haven’t seen any link to them tow companies being one or even merging (Pirelli, Metzeler)!

Here, call them, they answer the phone Metzeler Pirelli tire.

Metzeler - Pirelli Motorcycle Tire
100 Pirelli Drive
Rome, GA, U.S.A
30161-7000
Work Phone: (800) 747-3554
Fax: (706) 368-5879

Metzeler makes Pirelli motorcycle tires, not their car tires. Trust me, I'm old.

Hell if you still think I'm full of shit, just look up Metzeler Pirelli tire Rome Ga in google.

They are re-treads. I read somewhere it's the company that produces re-treads for trucking and airline industries. Just go up and down any interstate and see what happens when re-treads explode. Not worth your life.

"Trust me, I'm old"
Your killing me!!!!
You got no reason to lie anymore!!

Straight from the horse's mouth:

http://www.us.metzelermoto.com...2.htm


1986 - Since the 1st January 1986, Metzeler had been a member of the Pirelli Group. A restructuring period of the existing different branches into independent companies took place, and in 1989, Pirelli founded Metzeler Reifen GmbH. In the same year Metzeler introduction of the arrow parabolic tire to the rear wheel - the ME 1.


We don't make this stuff up. Honest. There's tons of knowledge on this board. Just ask.

-Bob

Okay. I found some hard evidence after some search:
“Since the 1st January 1986, Metzeler had been a member of the Pirelli Group. A restructuring period of the existing different branches into independent companies took place, and in 1989, Pirelli founded Metzeler Reifen GmbH. In the same year Metzeler introduction of the arrow parabolic tire to the rear wheel - the ME 1.�

Metzeler merged with Pirelli (bought up by) not the other way around. Pirelli is a huge corporation mainly specializing in building energy cables and tires. Yes, Phil you changed my opinion on Metzeler, but still Pirelli is a much bigger name and its well known throughout the entire tire industry for building a vast choices in tires. That is why I mentioned there name as a tire choice that I would ride on and have trust in, and now that I know that Metzeler has Pirelli to back them up (same corporation) I’m sure there products are well tested beyond the normal standards. Plus they are German; those guys’s always have good stuff, hands down.



Modified by BlackHawk at 8:28 AM 5/8/2005

Ups..thanks ryanr256

Back in the mid seventies when I raced MX, if you didn't have Metzeler tires when the track got hard enough to leave blue streaks on, you were going to lose. Metzeler has been making outstanding motorcycle tires for a very long time. While they were bought by Pirelli, it is the Metzeler plants that make Pirelli motorcycle tires. Pirelli is so big in the car market that is probably why they just bought a company that only makes bike tires instead of trying to develop bike tires themselves. Metzeler has always been a premium name in motorcycle tires...........now if you said Kenda, Cheng Shin, etc, ......well.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Phil 998 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> they just bought a company that only makes bike tires instead of trying to develop bike tires themselves.</TD></TR></TABLE>

So Pirelli didn't make bike tires until they merged with Metzler in '86?

Yes they did, but for what ever reason they had, they bought Metzeler to make bike tires. Just guessing, but maybe they wanted to use the bike tire facility for more car tire production. On that point I really don't know.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DucatiHooligan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">They are re-treads. I read somewhere it's the company that produces re-treads for trucking and airline industries. Just go up and down any interstate and see what happens when re-treads explode. Not worth your life. </TD></TR></TABLE>

A lot of those re-treads on trucks have over 1,000,000 miles on them.
Look at the number of trucks and the amount of miles they drive - the number of tires on the road is a very small number. Plus it is due to the fact that if you have 18 wheels and one goes flat, you may not feel it and keep on driving.

I have feelings on these tires. I wouldn't buy them but I thought that colored tires were the kewlest ting ever when I was riding my BMX bike.

I can't say for sure about rubber tires, but I can tell you that for skateboard wheels (which have no rubber) that the darker the wheel the softer it is. White wheels are the hardest because that have no dye's added....

I have seen rubber trees...and can say for certain that the sap isn't black. I also know that the new Michelin power race's are synthetic so they must add a dye...

Interesting thread...in my mind Tires are Black, women should be Blond and Ducati's should be Red.

Not to sway the thread away from the Tomahawk debate, but on a humorous note..
A few years ago at a party I ran into a guy that proudly worked for the re capping company Bandag.

He was having a conversation with another guy who was an owner of a multi state trucking company. The discussion centered around Mr. Bandag citing the savings in his recaps over a cap job that someone else may do. After a while I piped up and stated, oh,, Bandag.. I see your advertising all over the highway shoulders.

The owner passed beer out his nose laughing, and Mr. Bandag got red as a beet.

Yeah, recaps work fine, road going vehicles have recapped since the 30's. General and commercial aviation tires have used it since 1950, and av tires are the most heavily loaded tires there are. But not on my bike.

"Gotta ask though, since the rubber compound is colored,does is leave colored lines on the pavement"
Yeah, What ever color your bike is!

This guy was rockin' on them at Gratton last weekend.

http://ducsunlimited.com/galle..._tire

http://ducsunlimited.com/galle...s_WTF

I have a lot of previously used oil (Redline 20W, pretty green color) that I ran through an old coffee filter that only had a couple of small holes.
I'll only sell it to the frugal types who would use freakin retreads on their motorcycle!

How about trusting your life to recaps on an airplane? All the airlines use retreads, gonna stop flying?