1977 KZ650 Custom, need tire suggestions please

I own a 1977 KZ650 and need front and rear tires for it. Does anyone have good cheap suggestions for it? Also, do I have a choice of tubeless tire with stock rims or only tire and tube? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dino

You do realize good and cheap usually don't go in a sentence together.
With the 77 you will have to run tubes on stock rims, but I'm pretty sure you can run a tube inside a tubless tire if you find one you like.
If your changing them yourself, don't forget to remove the bead protectors in the rear wheel first (don't ask me how I know).
As for good and cheap. I bought some Cheng Shin Hi-Maxx tires.
About $100 for both and they work fine for me. Some people love em, some people hate em.

Thanks! Being that there stock rims, what size can you go up too width wise for the rear?

130 is about as big as you can go.

I use the Hi-Maxx too, a 110/90 on the rear and 100/90 on the front. Inexpesive tire, but what an improvement in handling of the stock rib type tire,, and yes you need tubes.
Ride Safe.

Thanks for your help guys, great info! One last question. Do I need to replace the tubes or can i reuse the current ones?

Thanks again,
Dino

I always replace my tubes.

I always reuse my tubes. You can find the right size tires 3.25-19 and 4.00-18 if you want, otherwise I never had any luck running larger than a 120/90-18 and a 100/90-19. For info I read recently the original 3.25 and 4.00 size tires are a 100% aspect raio, where the /90 tires are a 90% aspect ratio meaning lower profile. I don't like low profile myself because you have to run too wide to get the correct diameter tire.

My $.02 on tires...I'm running the Cheng Shin Barracudas on front and back and love them so far. I've only got about 300 miles on them so far (long and drawn out rebuild process that just got completed) so I can't speak to longevity yet, but they're a good sporty tire, good wet and dry grip, seem to grab the gravelly spots leaving my neighborhood pretty good, and were really really inexpensive. I'm running stock size up front and 130/90 in the rear with no clearance problems.

I am running Bridgestone Spitfires. I wanted to get the best bang for my buck and these seemed to be the best for what I was looking for.

On the front I am running the stock size but on the back I stuffed a 130 on the rear. This is as big as could fit in the stock swingarm and it looks a lot better than the anoerixic 110 width that looked like a moped tire.

If I am not mistaken a few months ago Wireman suggested that if you move the rear wheel back in the chain adjusters you might be able to get a little more width on the back wheel in the swingarm.

As long as the chain is long enough I don't see why this wouldn't work.

Cheers-Colin Firth-Ontario Canada

Any 130/90 tires on the back still using the stock plastic chainguard? That's the determining factor as all 120/90s I've ever run rubbed the chainguard. A 130 wouldn't get close to fitting on my 650s. All I've ever run is Dunlop sport elites in the 120 size though and as I've mentioned tire sizes differ from different brands. 110 on the rear does look too small, as a 4.00-18 is the right tire. A 110 is the "modern replacement" for a 4.00-18 and isn't even close to right as it's too low a profile.

RonKZ650,
Way back when I switched to a Michelin 130 on the rear of my '77 KZ650C1, but it rubbed big time. Being the ingenious engineer that I was at the time, I simply cut out a portion out of the plastic chain guard and like magic, no more rub. A few months later the summer heat and some unknown stresses caused the plastic chain guard to warp at my idiotic modification and the whole chain guard was sucked into the rear wheel on a curvy road. Let me tell you, it was a lot different than baseball cards in bicycle spokes! I didn't wreck, but it scared the daylights out of me. After discarding the ruined chain guard I replaced it with a chrome aftermarket unit that doesn't rub. Ed