1978 KZ650 B2 tires

Just recently bought and been working on this kz650. It has Eagle G/T rib ML90-19 tires on it and i was wondering if anyone here knows the years those tires were made and sold. ... Don't know the history of the bike ( bought from a fella that got it from the old original owner) .. odometer says 8850 miles and i'm starting to think it may be the original mileage.. 437 is the tire code and i guess there is no way of knowing if it is '77 or '87 or '97 .. I imagine when these bikes were new they probably had a variety of different brand tires on 'em.

They're old. Replace them. I run these.
Steve
www.chapmoto.com/shinko-230-tour-master-...re-parent-369-874170

They are old and they are not original. The original tires on the 1978 KZ650 would have been Dunlop F68 front and Dunlop K87 rear. Replace them for sure! I have used many tires on my 1977 KZ650 over the past 41 years (61,000+ miles) and have found the current Pirelli Sport Demons to work exceptionally well. Ed

437 is (NOT) your tire date
You need to find a 4 digit number that is in an oval
The first two numbers are the week and the second two numbers are the year
I just picked up some tires for my wife's bike, this one reads 1318 which means it was manufactured in the 1st week of April 2018
I personally would not trust taking a corner fast or stopping in a hurry on tires that were more then 5 years old

The rubber gets hard and looses it's grip of the road

bluej58 wrote: 437 is (NOT) your tire date
You need to find a 4 digit number that is in an oval
The first two numbers are the week and the second two numbers are the year
I just picked up some tires for my wife's bike, this one reads 1318 which means it was manufactured in the 1st week of April 2018
I personally would not trust taking a corner fast or stopping in a hurry on tires that were more then 5 years old

The rubber gets hard and looses it's grip of the road

Yea that's the code for tires from 2000 thru now... the old codes were 3 digit. .. tire codes

650ed wrote: They are old and they are not original. The original tires on the 1978 KZ650 would have been Dunlop F68 front and Dunlop K87 rear. Replace them for sure! I have used many tires on my 1977 KZ650 over the past 41 years (61,000+ miles) and have found the current Pirelli Sport Demons to work exceptionally well. Ed

Thanks for the info on the original tires and recommendation on the pirelli's. .. i just put their route 66 tires on my 550 and have been pleased with the ride and handling...

Yea, the 3 digit code was long ago before we knew old tires were dangerous, and most just rode til they were worn without worry or problem. The Goodyear Eagles were long ago though. I would guess 80s on the date. As said, time to go.