What's next? Tire decision season + Pics

[South East Rocket]

Got a flat and about 10k on these Azon Azaro's  (great tire by the way)
Pics of the bike ready for its winter overhaul...

Anyway, I'm wanting to go with something more sticky, because I'm planing to try to do some trackdays.   I also wanna stay with the bigger look the Azon had.   Any suggestions ?

[gsJack]

Got a flat and about 10k on these Azon Azaro's  (great tire by the way)
Pics of the bike ready for its winter overhaul...

Anyway, I'm wanting to go with something more sticky, because I'm planing to try to do some trackdays.   I also wanna stay with the bigger look the Azon had.   Any suggestions ?

I've got about 11.5k on my AV45/46 tires and expect maybe 14k before I replace.  Like them better than the 2 sets of Z4/Z2 tires I had.  These are sport touring tires of course, so if you want stickier tires you want sport tires and there aren't a lot of choices for the GS500 or EX500 bikes.

Most of the good sport rubber starts at a 160/60 and goes up from there in width.  Too wide for us.  There are a number of good choices in the 150/60 sport tires though.  These are not approved for fitment on our 3.5" rims, but many are using them.

The Avon AV49/50, Dunlop D208, Mich Pilot Sports, Metz Sportecs, and Pirelli Diablo all have a 150/60/17 tires that are good sticky sport types, are used by many on the track, and will fit our bikes even though they are not approved by their makers for this fitment.

I have not tried these personally yet, but Pablo tried the 150/60/17 Pilot Sport and felt like it was getting dangerous towards the end of it's life.  Felt like bike was falling out from under him as I recall.  I'm thinking of trying the Pilot Sports this year myself.

I like the looks of the bigger tires also and the 150/60 sport tires will look as wide as the Azaro ST, but will be smaller in diameter.  About same dia as OEM size 130/70 tires.

Here's some pics of a 150/60 size D207 on a racing EX500 with 3.5" rim:

http://www.classicbikes.com/ex500racing.html

[sprint_9]

Ill post up a pic of my 150/70 on a 4in. rim tomorrow for comparison to the 3.5in.

[Mk1inCali]

I've been running Pilot Sports since new, had the shop swap the stock POS's out before I even took it home, so I've gone through 2 rear 150/60's and one stock size front.  I like 'em, I do notice the falling in feeling, but I've gotten used to it and if you aren't commuting a lot and have the edges worn down as much as the middle then you shouldn't notice it too much either.  I'm due for another full set of treads and I'm either going to find more Pilot Sports (starting to get rare) or the replacements, Pilot Powers, which I hear are even softer...could be good or bad, depending on your mileage wants/traction needs.

All picts of my 2000 GS are with the Sport's installed, Daniely's 2001 with the small fairing on it, that had AV45/46 combo with 140/80 out back.  Good comparison of the size difference, I think.

EDIT: Picts mentioned above can be found in the link in my signature.

[gsJack]

Thanks for the input, Mk1.  If you bought the 00 GS new and have about 9k on it now and wore out 2 rear Pilot Sports,  looks like you get maybe 4-5k out of a rear PS.  

As much as I would like to try the Pilot Sports, that is way too much difference in tire life for my annual milage.  You are probably pushing it a bit harder than I do now    and tire life can vary considerably on how the bike is riden, but it still would be twice as many rears a year.  I recall how my BT45 tire life was cut in half a few years ago when I picked up the pace on my 1st GS.

Guess I'll be sticking with the sport touring radials on my 02 GS, but I'll probably try some of the newer bias ply tires on the old 97 GS when the present ST type radial tires wear out.  I only use it 1-2k miles a year thru the winter months here in NE Ohio.