Another reason to use correct tires

Sorry for boring thread here, but about every other week we get the question "whats the biggest tire I can run"? I always recommend staying stock size. I changed my old crap tires I crashed on a week ago that were 120/90-18 and 100/90-19 for the correct sizes 4.00-18 and 3.25-19 which are both narrower tire and look better, but the best part was these tires are narrow and made for a narrow rim making inserting the tube and mounting the tires a breeze. Mounting too big tires on a crappy 1.85" wheel is a complete pain in the ass:) I didn't realize as I ran 120/90-18s ect for 200,000 miles. They are pain to mount cause too wide for the limited width of the wheel, then crown and wear in the center. So now officially I'll say "The biggest" tire that works correctly is a 3.25-19 on a 1.85" wheel and a 4.00-18 on the 2.15" rear wheel. i took the first nut off at 4:00 this afternoon and by 6:00 I had new rubber and set to ride. Smoothest tire change ever and a lot of it due to choosing correctly sized tires for the wheels.

yep! :laugh:

i did the same ...ordered new avon roadriders for the MKII and they are the same rims(wide as the 650) and the manual called for the same tires dimensions as you bought......they are pretty skinny for the 1000 but they are gonna be lightning quick in transitions and as long as im not grinding the kerker they will be fine...

I'm with Ron on this one too.

The factory had tire choices and for the most part select the best tire sizes for the bike.

On bikes like the 650's, 900's and 1000's with 19" front and 18" rear the stock bikes are very well balanced going into turns.

Putting an oversized rear tire on the bike will cause it to dive into corners.

Tire technology has improved, but the rake and trail of these old classics benefit from a ribbed or semi-ribbed tire on the front. You MUST stick with bias-ply tires. Radial tires are designed for bikes with very different steering geometry.

I personally try to stick with the same brand/series tire front and back. I've ridden some bikes with mismatches and wasn't happy with the results.

is there any kind of comitment from tire manufacturers to continue making good tires to fit these bikes are are we going to be forced to hunt down tires that have been collecting dust in a warehouse/shelf for 10 years?
or are we going to be forced to buy the latest offerings from cheng-shin ?
the main reason i hear from people switching to 17" tires/wheels is because its very hard to find decent 18 and 19" tires.

on the old zs,, i hope we are not stuck with the dust collecting tires. but it sure seems that way.

wireman wrote:

is there any kind of comitment from tire manufacturers to continue making good tires to fit these bikes are are we going to be forced to hunt down tires that have been collecting dust in a warehouse/shelf for 10 years?
or are we going to be forced to buy the latest offerings from cheng-shin ?
the main reason i hear from people switching to 17" tires/wheels is because its very hard to find decent 18 and 19" tires.

There's a lot more tires being made that you see in most of the catalogs. Out of Japan there's Dunlop tires - K87 rear F11 front and TT100's in front and rear. These are all newly made. The distributors/importers are the issue, they choose not to import these tires.

We don't typically bring them in as the price of 1 or 2 at a time is way too high. It would be about $200 for a rear TT100 - about double what most people are willing to pay.

Even if we brought 50 in of each at a time, the prices don't drop much, it would still be around $180 for a TT100 rear... ouch.

avon has em...