tire advice and suspention

[mach1]

I was up in the twisties both sunday and monday and my bike felt like it was going to slide out from under me during the leans. Im using stock tires, katana rear shock (raises the rear about 2inches) and the front is a bit lowered( around the same if you take off the top triple clamp and install clip-ons above the top triple about a inch and a half) whats a good tire for canyon riding Im thinking a 140/80/17 rear tire for more tire surface, and a stock front. After the ride I looked at my rear tire and I was leaning to the edge of the tire, my buddies gixxers used all their rear rubber also and they leaned alot more than me and took the turns a bit faster than me. I wanna fix this but not sure how.

[NiceGuysFinishLast]

Stick with the stock 130, going to a 140 won't benefit much... get yourself some sport demons in stock sizes. If you're taking the turns properly, hanging off, you won't use all of the rubber on the tire.. hanging off gives you more of a safety margin, rather than getting all the way to the edge of your tire.

[mach1]

So what would the benefit of swapping a larger rim and using a 150 rear tire? I'll try leand off more next time due to the heat my seat got a bit stickey and adjusting seat postion was a bit annoying.

[Jarrett]

The benefit of going with a larger wheel is you have more tire options.  Most manufacturers have 150 options for the stickiest of the sticky tires.  150 on a 3 1/2 wheel is not a good idea. 140 on the stock wheel is ok, but not the best option.  Another benefit is that the bike looks more anatomically balanced with the 150.

[mach1]

so how hard was it to add the bigger rear rim and what exactly did you have to modify? I dont understand the wiki all that much.

[Jay_wolf]

There has been many people using a 150 on a stock rim , just not all tires will fit , im sure theres a list somewhere of Tires that Will fit for sure ,

The 98+ Katana *Swept Spokes* Is a direct bolt on according to the Wiki , Bandit 600 is Tougher as i found out , needing a custom Spacer

For the less amount of Wrenching id go for the Katana 98+

[pbureau69]

look at the wiki

http://cgi.stanford.edu/~sanjayd/gs500/Upgrades/RearWheel

[gsJack]

I was up in the twisties both sunday and monday and my bike felt like it was going to slide out from under me during the leans. Im using stock tires, katana rear shock (raises the rear about 2inches) and the front is a bit lowered( around the same if you take off the top triple clamp and install clip-ons above the top triple about a inch and a half) whats a good tire for canyon riding Im thinking a 140/80/17 rear tire for more tire surface, and a stock front. After the ride I looked at my rear tire and I was leaning to the edge of the tire, my buddies gixxers used all their rear rubber also and they leaned alot more than me and took the turns a bit faster than me. I wanna fix this but not sure how.

I've run both 140/80 and 150/70 sport touring radial rear tires on my GS500s on the stock 3.5" rear wheel.  Ran the 150/70 Lasertec for 10k miles with no mods and the then put on my current 150/70 RoadAttack which just touched the brake torque rod.  After some miles I took the torque rod off and bent it for a bit more clearance.  Had enough clearance to the chain and chain guard on the other side and I think there is enough for any 150/70 tire but they do come close.

I haven't tried any 150/60 supersport tires on my 3.5" wheel and won't because of their shorter life span, will be sticking to/with the sport touring tires.  Some like Pablo for example have expressed some handling problems with worn out 150/60 tires on the 3.5" wheel.  He went to a 140/80 Avon and was happy with it.

The 150/70 RoadAttack is the stickiest of the sport touring radials I've tried and would be my choice for the kind of riding you describe.  Have over 9k miles on it now with quite a bit more to go.  Took a pic of it at 8k miles and as you can see there is a bit of tire left at the edges due to the nice round shape  of the 150/70 on the 3.5" wheel.  I like it that way but would expect someone a half century younger than me to maybe use it all.     The tire is holding it's shape nicely with very little flat spotting:



All of the tires I've used on the GSs have been approved for fitment on the 3.5" wheel by the tires mfg.  Tire I've use so far with about 53k miles on the 02 now:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/GS500tirelog.jpg

[RobTheTyrant]

I went from a 140/70- Avon to a 150/60- contiforce.  It IS pinched but not to the point where it will effect the bead.  It's kind of bottle-ish until you lay it over a little bit.

[Chuck]

Does the Katana shock really raise the rear 2 inches?  I haven't noticed this with my Kat shock.  Adding two inches in the rear, and then lowering the front can really screw with the swingarm geometry, and cause an oversteer condition.  I've ridden the track with my Kat shock and BT45's (stock fork height) and didn't notice any bad traction characteristics.

[toyopete]

I was up in the twisties both sunday and monday and my bike felt like it was going to slide out from under me during the leans. Im using stock tires, katana rear shock (raises the rear about 2inches) and the front is a bit lowered( around the same if you take off the top triple clamp and install clip-ons above the top triple about a inch and a half) whats a good tire for canyon riding Im thinking a 140/80/17 rear tire for more tire surface, and a stock front. After the ride I looked at my rear tire and I was leaning to the edge of the tire, my buddies gixxers used all their rear rubber also and they leaned alot more than me and took the turns a bit faster than me. I wanna fix this but not sure how.

I've run both 140/80 and 150/70 sport touring radial rear tires on my GS500s on the stock 3.5" rear wheel.  Ran the 150/70 Lasertec for 10k miles with no mods and the then put on my current 150/70 RoadAttack which just touched the brake torque rod.  After some miles I took the torque rod off and bent it for a bit more clearance.  Had enough clearance to the chain and chain guard on the other side and I think there is enough for any 150/70 tire but they do come close.

I haven't tried any 150/60 supersport tires on my 3.5" wheel and won't because of their shorter life span, will be sticking to/with the sport touring tires.  Some like Pablo for example have expressed some handling problems with worn out 150/60 tires on the 3.5" wheel.  He went to a 140/80 Avon and was happy with it.

The 150/70 RoadAttack is the stickiest of the sport touring radials I've tried and would be my choice for the kind of riding you describe.  Have over 9k miles on it now with quite a bit more to go.  Took a pic of it at 8k miles and as you can see there is a bit of tire left at the edges due to the nice round shape  of the 150/70 on the 3.5" wheel.  I like it that way but would expect someone a half century younger than me to maybe use it all.     The tire is holding it's shape nicely with very little flat spotting:



All of the tires I've used on the GSs have been approved for fitment on the 3.5" wheel by the tires mfg.  Tire I've use so far with about 53k miles on the 02 now:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/GS500tirelog.jpg

Hello my old Friend,
I like to thank you very much for this relevant information good pictures too ,Ime on 130's  wanted to wear them out first but Ime using the sides already  hope to swap them for 150's soon repaint the wheels in silvemetallic same time.
we can shake hands too just became 50 still enjoying the ride as ever.
greetings from Brasil.