Tires

Not sure if this is the right category. Please advise if it is not. I am hoping to find suggestions for a replacement rear tire for my 1975 Z1B. The original rear tire is a Dunlop K87, Mark II, H rated, 400/18, 4 PR. The Dunlop K87 is no longer available and I am being advised to go with either a lower "S" rated Dunlop K70 400/18 or an IRC H rated 400/18 tire. Any suggestions recommendations are truly appreciated.
Randall1

I'm using the Tour Master be Shinko. Getting close to 5000 miles and handles great. $75/80 at Chaparral.
www.chaparral-racing.com/product/shinko-...tire/369-874170.aspx
Steve

Forget using a K70, I've used them and they really suck. They didn't even work well at all on my BSA and it was much lighter and had far less power than the Kawasaki. In fact, I have used 3 or 4 different model Dunlop tires, and none of them are very good. Bridgestone, Avon, and Pirelli make some excellent tires for our bikes. I'm on my second set of Pirelli Sport Demons, and I love them. I've been using them for 6+ years (more than 12,000 miles) so that's why I'm on the second set. They really are excellent tires. I run 100/90 V 19 up front and 120/90 V 18 in the rear using Metzeler tubes. I will continue buying them as long as they are available. If you try them you will really like them. Ed

This may not apply to the 1000's but how many miles on a rear tire?
Steve

Had a nice talk with Andrew at Chaparral and in the end for the kind of general cruising my wife and I are starting to do on our Z1b we settled on the Pirelli, which is on sale for $119.00 with free shipping. I tis V rated and was recommended for it's greater life and strength. I just hope it has the rain performance the DeShinko does. The Metzeler tube was not available so I ended up with a Bridgestone tube and also a rim strip. Thank you all for the great advice and freely sharing your experience and knowledge. It is what makes this forum such a wonder benefit to be part of. Chaparral got the sale because of advice from this web site. Maybe they could consider contributing a small finder fee to the administrators.

Our Z1b still has the 1975 original Dunlop K87 Mark II 400/18 H rated rear tire mounted on the bike., It has never been off. It has a lot of small sidewall cracks. Now I know this will sound hard to believe but I have owned and ridden this bike alone since March 17, 1975, except for some short rides with my wife, like 20-30 miles or so. My first trip was the summer of 1975, and was 8000 miles across 30 days, all over the USA. My only regret was not having a windshield but I got used to it. That tire and the bike now have 24,800 miles and it still has some tread in the center. It is not bald and we rode it just last night for 23 miles. No problems but the side wall cracking bothers me and so we went with a new Pirelli today.

I recommend you replace the front tire at the same time with a matching Pirelli. Doing that will give you the best performance and handling. Mis-matched tires can cause problems. , Ed

I don't deal with SALESMEN.
Steve

I did ask about mismatched tires and I may end up with a Pirelli front tire too. I am a little concerned that the Pirelli being a high performance V rated tire may have a stiffer ride than the former H rated Dunlop K87. Hoping I/we won't notice a differEnce in ride quality. My brother-in-law has a huge bike. It's a 900 pound, fully decked out, Yamaha cruiser and honestly, After riding that huge bike, I felt like I was on the Enterprise. Very smooth, very quiet but I prefer our Z1B.

With good suspension and my HP upgrades, it does all I can ask of it.
Steve

Got my new Shinko tire mounted and balanced. 120/90-18 Shinko, 1 1/4 OZ weights. Cleaning and lubing the brake cam among other things. Taking my time. Noticed a little play in the swing arm. While I'm at it I'm going to size up the swing arm I cut. I'll post those results in my swing arm thread.
Steve


I think I got my moneys worth. :whistle:


Held pressure for 20 minutes.


I'm going to weld me up a new stand. This one is 30 years old.

I would not go with a Dunlop K70 under any circumstances. I have new ones on my 73 Triumph Tiger fitted by the PO. While they look the part period wise, they are not tires for any sort of performance IMO. The worst trait of the tires is following grooves in the road, we have some pavement on one road in my area which has parallel grooves running in the direction of travel, the first time I rode on it I thought my rear tire was flat as it fishtailed along. I would suggest that would be even worse on a Z1/KZ900/KZ1000 or similar.

I would buy tires in a pair and would second Swest's thoughts on the Shinko 230 Tourmasters. I recently fitted them to my 78 KZ1000A2 and am very impressed with the construction and grip. Reviews I've read also show them to be impressive in terms of the wear mileage. While a more modern style of tire, they still have enough tread etc. to look right on a KZ IMO. They are very competitively priced which also is a factor for me because I have several bikes and tires get changed for age and safety reasons often instead of just wear. While the price is low I do not believe you are sacrificing safety or grip over the other alternatives.