TIRE TALK - when the rubber meets the road

How about something in the Brat/Bobber category? You know, the big, fat Firestone style things. I'm looking for a set for my 50's inspired 750...




Anyone got any buying advice on these (buying advice, not riding advice)? Firestone is a fortune. Coker doesn't seem much cheaper...

I bet the unsprung weight and gyroscopic effect of those heavy 1952 Buick tires makes that bike a handful in the twisties. :laugh:

Hey I just wanted to thank everyone for chiming with thoughts on the tires. I'm often on a budget, but obviously riding cross country brings certain risks and el cheapo tires are not something I'm interested in 'testing' in the middle of nowhere, oklahoma (I seriously think I rode through there a few weeks back).

I worked at a Harley dealer last summer and they charged something like $300 for a new dunlop mount and balance (YIKES!) on just the rear, usually the first to go on the hogs.

For the record, though, I've easily put 6,000 miles on the Harley branded dunlops that came on the bike, and they were already looking a bit worn with some slight 'cracking' at the joints of the tred pattern.

And here's another really stupid, if obvious question raised by another poster:

Ahh, do these tires require tubes, or what? Is that just a little something extra some owners prefer in the way of 'blowout insurance'? Seems like my rims say 'tubeless' on the somewhere...

Mullineaux wrote:

bountyhunter wrote: ]The local shop here gives free mount and balance if you buy the tires there. Saves me money.

I asked the local bike shop what a new set of tires would run me if I just bring them the bike and they quoted me $428 (dunlop tires) and said it would take at least 2 days because they don't have one of the tires in stock. :blink: The Shinko 712's ran me $160 with tubes, wheel bands, and shipping. My brother in law has a motorcycle jack/stand and I'm just going to take them the rims like my Uncle did. They charged him $80 to mount and balance tires on rims he brought in.

Yep I got about the same quotes calling around the area (Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, IA). Thing is for the same tires and service, the prices were literally all over the place, and I couldn't justify saving what will apparently be ~$40 if I buy in-house when the additional cost of the tires themselves is like $60 or $70, and they aren't what I wanted anyways.

Give and take, I guess. I can't fault a place for earning a living...but seriously, $95 to dismount, change and balance a rear? All by itself? When the other place charges $50 for the pair on the bike? *scratches head Funny thing is these two shops are literally less than a mile from each other. lolz

gravit8 wrote: Ahh, do these tires require tubes, or what? Is that just a little something extra some owners prefer in the way of 'blowout insurance'? Seems like my rims say 'tubeless' on the somewhere...

From my internet research it's (mostly) no longer the tires that require tubes but the rims. You can find tube type tires but they're a small minority and generally "S" not "H" rated. There seems to be a group of people that insist tubes in a tubeless tires is a recipe for certain death. The vast majority of voices say that modern tires can be run with or without tubes. Both my 80's tires say tubeless but they're spoked wheels that obviously require tubes. I even did searches for people running Shinko 712's with tubes and there are riders that claim to ride the sh*t out of their bike with tubed 712's without problems.

Just put Shinko 705's DS on my KZ1000P. $59 each plus $40 for 2 of the heaviest tubes I've ever seen. Mounted them myself but my local shop is $30 a tire for rims off. I think they look great, not too bad in the twisties and feel like they'll last a while.

IMHO i wouldnt want to risk my life on a cheap set of tires. Its not like a car. try poping a tire going 60 and see how it turns out. My life is worth more than $60. Ive been really happy with my battlaxs. Ill def. buy them again. The shop up the road from me ripped me off the first time i went to them. when i called him i asked them if they changed and balanced tires and he said yes. So went over there and he charged me $50 plus the price of the tube and i was like dang thats kinda salty. Anyway i had him change it and i watched him change it by hand then handed it back to me unbalanced and i said i wanted it balanced and told him that i said that on the phone. He insisted that it didnt need balanced as long as the dot mark is lined up with the valvestem. It made me mad he refused to balance it and like i told him ya the tire might be balanced but how is he gonna garantee the 1980s rim is perfectly balanced? Anyway lesson learned go to harbor freight buy two tire irons for ten bucks and get some butter bowls and cut the lip for the lid off and use them for rim protectors and do it yourself its easy just be careful and use soap water.and be extra careful not pinch the tube. there is videos on how to balance tires yourself on youtube, worked great for me and you can get the stick on weights cheap also.

I am running a shinko stealth 190/50 17 on the rear love the way it handles on all surfaces. have a buddy that runs shinko on his GSXR that spends several weekends a season at the drag strip and also rides from indiana to north carolina and everywhere in between he loves em. the wear he gets is substantually worsened by the drag strip says he buys a new rear every year and a new front every other just because he travels so much.

I only have around 600 miles no noticable wear couple cuts from my limited frame mod experience but so far I'm not convinced a 260.00 conti from the local Kaw shop is a superior tire.

Well Powerstroke we all have our own comfort levels. However please don't confuse inexpensive with cheap. I've had cheap and the Shinko's are not that.

To me if a person was looking to be 'safe' all the time then riding, period, shouldn't be something they do.

Cuff wrote: Well Powerstroke we all have our own comfort levels. However please don't confuse inexpensive with cheap. I've had cheap and the Shinko's are not that.

To me if a person was looking to be 'safe' all the time then riding, period, shouldn't be something they do.

I have to agree. Nothing unsafe about a Shinko, it's no more likely to blow out that any other big name tire. There's one instance of a blowout report that keeps getting rehashed and in the end it was abuse or some other outside factor, I forget. A Battlax would have done the same thing, while costing 3x as much and offering no better characteristics.

Right on guys this is what I was hoping for - real world 'I rode them down to the threads' talk.

One of my thoughts was indeed 'If you get what you pay for...' and how that relates to my personal safety while on the road. Obviously 'off-brand' tires have something of a stigma - I worked at a Harley dealer last year, and of course the line was always 'better safe than sorry'. However, that does tend to limit your exposure to the other options. Just because I ate at McDonald's once it doesn't mean that's all I'll eat, ever again (blargh). Anyways, the dealer wouldn't mount any tires you didn't buy there, and of course if you wanted anything but the Dunlops you had to 'pre-order' and all the other BS that came along with that sort of setup.

That said, I've seen some pretty raunchy Harley-branded dunlops, just totally worn from a bad 'alignment' and balance. Not that you'd notice on one of those bikes (vibraaaaaaattttiiiiiion). lol.

Okay so an update...I got the Shinkos delivered a few days after my last post, and had to wait a minute for enough $$ to get 'em mounted. Had a bit of a moment when trying to take the rear rim off, couldn't find any shaft drive info. Yes, it's fairly straight forward, but I didn't want to screw something up in the final drive so I asked around and finally just did it. Turns out you just loosen the rear caliper after removing the muffler packs and wiggle things around enough till it comes off.

Aaaaanyways, my rear was starting to show some thread and the front was a smooth as a baby's butt by the time I got them off and down to the local Honda shop. $64 and a day later I had the Shinko's mounted in place of the old Harley-branded Dunlops. My first ride was weird, the old tires were already very worn when I got the bike and had a nice wide flat profile on the rear. So when I started to lean the bike on the new rubber, it turned in a nice, even arc and felt like the rims were loose or something. But I'd tightened everything, it was just the nice even arc of the new tires that felt weird, lol. Took a minute to get comfy on the bike again, but then I hit the highway and rode a sold 60 miles, and it was smooth as buttah.

I can't honestly say I noticed much difference as far as ride or grip is concerned, I've got a few other things to do on the bike before I go out and see what's what - new brakes/brake fluid, oil change, valve adjust, some other odds n ends. But the injection nipples are still there after my sprint down the highway, so that's cool. Also, the profile on the tires is very different than the old Dunlops, it gives the bike a more aggressive look, I can't explain it but it looks like a real sport bike now instead of an old man cruiser. A friend of mine, who isn't really into bikes, actually noticed the difference, asked me what I'd changed and didn't believe it was just the tires.

All I can say is, I can't wait to ride now, the bike just looks so much meaner and I'm all down with that.

If anyone has more tire stories it's be great to hear 'em, there are a few other tire threads out there but since they're the most commonly replaced items on these bikes, it can't hurt to get more info out there. From horror stories to love stories, road cruising or track blasting, post those tire tales! I'm off to order some new plug cables...

here's a shot of the old Dunlops...yep. rolled the dice every time I hit the road: