| Motorcycle tires are proportionally more expensive than car tires. One reason for this is a smaller market; another is a market naturally interested in performance and performance tweaks. The main reason, though, is that if a tire fails on your car, the car weaves a bit and maybe scrapes a guardrail. If a tire fails on a motorcycle you will go down, and maybe get pinned between a six hundred degree header pipe and the asphalt at sixty miles per hour. Manufacturers know this and gouge accordingly. A good part of what distinguishes good rubber from the cheap stuff is how the tire signals the rider that it's about to let go. Good tires give you a window during which loss of traction is partial and steady, and during which (if you're paying attention) you can try to regain traction before it's completely gone. Nevertheless if you ride bikes, a time will come when that sucker cuts loose and you find your rear end sliding uncontrollably along the last good vector. If you can steer the front end toward where the rear is heading, you may be able to smoothly regain control. The key word is smoothly, because the last thing on Earth you want in an uncontrolled high-speed slide is for your tire to suddenly regain its grip on the road; because all that expensive tire technology is now a fulcrum, and the suspension is now a lever arm, and you are now a projectile. Racers call that a highside. Nearby hunters will call you skeet. | 
