Have you ever wondered if you could put custom colored tires on your car? The idea may be super cool, but how realistic is it? If the idea of colored tires appeals to your artistic or creative side, you’re not alone. We’ve all grown up with the same-old, same-old: vulcanized black tires that have always been black. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a little bit of visual variety to choose from? Yes, of course! But unfortunately, colored tires are rare and almost never seen. So what are the options for colored tires if someone decides to try them?
Here’s everything you need to know about colored tires and why you don’t see more of them out on the road right now.
Why Colored Tires Are So Appealing
Colored tires are just plain fun. What’s not to love about expressing your personality or showing off your sense of style? As of right now, you can buy bike tires in different colors, especially for kids or sports teams.
Colored car tires, however, are almost impossible to find. It’s way more common to decorate the sidewalls or lettering on car tires with different colors than it is to install an actual colored tire. If you’re interested, you can buy special paint pens to decorate your tires, which helps them stand out and match whatever else you have going on with your car’s color scheme.
Where Can You Get Colored Tires Right Now?
When it comes to colored tires for sale, the only places that seem to make and sell them are Chinese manufacturers. Colored motorcycle tires and colored tires for trucks are equally hard to find for sale in the United States.
Note that this doesn’t apply to bicycles or motorized dirt bikes. Colored bike tires have been popular for children and professional stunt bike riders for quite a while.
Are Colored Tires Legal?
While colored tires may not be illegal per se, some states may have restrictions on when and where drivers can use them. To be on the safe side, check with your state’s department of vehicles.
The good news is that you can use wheel profile configurations to install colored wheels on your car and achieve the same effect. Coloring the wheels of your car is also perfectly legal, so if you go this route, you have nothing to worry about.
Reasons You May Not See Colored Tires Any Time Soon
Colored tires are a great idea, and they look amazing when they’re installed. So why don’t we see them more often? It all boils down to engineering.
Car tires contain carbon black, which adds strength. During the tire manufacturing process, the natural rubber, which is white when it comes off the rubber tree, gets treated with carbon black to make it tougher and stronger.
Without the carbon black in its recipe, tire rubber wouldn’t be even half as strong as it is. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to color black rubber any further.
So while colored tires exist, they have some engineering challenges. And these likely would have to get solved before colored tires could be more widely available.
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