new to me 06 gs500f needs rear tire

[sappy13]

I just bought my first motorcycle, a 2006 gs500f.  Best part is that i only paid 2k and it runs great, just a little bit of fairing damage and needs a back tire.  After reading through the forum i keep reading about people changing tire size from the 130/70 17 to a 140 or 150.  What would be the advantages of going up in tire size.  I am just using my bike as a commuter and i am not going to push myself to the limits on twistes.  Should i keep the oem size or go up.  I am looking at the Avon roadrider and the bridgestone bt45 right now, but are there any other tires that might serve me better.  I want a decent tire but i dont want to spend to much.  The front tire has a lot of traction on it still, but will it matter if they are from different manufacturers.  Thanks in advance for the help, im new to the motorcycle world so i have a lot of questions, lol

[werase643]

130 or a 140 will be fine
the 150 is mostly for looks
if a tarded pinched rear is the look you are going for

i don't get why people want fat tires....they cost more??

[LOUiE]

yeah mostly looks.  You can most likely get the same grip in the twisties with either size tire.  However the rubber that makes up the tire can make a big difference in traction etc.

[DoD#i]

Stick with the stock size. You can scrape hard parts with that tire size and a decent tire, so bigger is really just looks and spending money you don't need to spend. Plus getting to hammer on parts of your bike if the fat tar runs into them....

[PachmanP]

Also, it won't matter if you do different brands front and rear as long as you don't mix bias ply and radial.  Both the roadriders and the bt45s are bias, so you should be good.
Having just put on a set of roadriders, my understanding is the bt45's and the roadriders are both pretty good for the price.  You can get better but they start costing more scratch.  But take a look at the wiki.  It has most of tire info you could want.

[qwertydude]

I like my 140/70 Kenda K671's 140/70, my favorite Kings KT-9872 tire is next to impossible to find but is cheaper. The 140/70 offers a better selection of tires.

[sblack]

The only real advantage of going up to the larger tyre size is that it opens up tyre choice quite a lot. The stock 130/70 tends to be limited to the sport touring type of tyre rather than serious sport rubber. For the usage you indicate the sport touring tyres in stock size would be your best choice. I personally have stock size Metzler Lasertecs on mine and find them quite good. In Australia they're cheaper than the Avons and BT45s but this seams to vary country to country.

[sappy13]

After looking on a bunch of websites, i am looking at the bt45 for 86.99 before taxes shipped, and cheapest avon roadrider is 96 before taxes shipped.  Do yall think it is worth the extra 9 bucks for the roadrunner? 

[respite]

I recently replaced my tires after 8500 miles on them. I went with a 140 bt45 on the rear. No issue fitting it on our stock rims and you can find them for a great price.

[gsJack]

........I am just using my bike as a commuter and i am not going to push myself to the limits on twistes.  Should i keep the oem size or go up.  I am looking at the Avon roadrider and the bridgestone bt45 right now, but are there any other tires that might serve me better.  I want a decent tire but i dont want to spend to much.  The front tire has a lot of traction on it still, but will it matter if they are from different manufacturers.......

That says Roadrider to me.  I put a pair of oem size BT45 on my 97 GS about 10 years ago to replace the Excedra oem tires and got 9500 miles from the rear.  Put another rear BT45 on later when I was pushing it harder and it was half worn with only 2k miles on it when I changed to radials.  Just replaced a 140/70 Roadrider with a 150/70 Roadrider after putting about 15k miles on the 140/70 rear Roadrider.  Think it's the ultimate commuter tire and it handles too.       Wouldn't worry about that BT45/AM26 mix.

yeah mostly looks.  You can most likely get the same grip in the twisties with either size tire.  However the rubber that makes up the tire can make a big difference in traction etc.

Amen to that.  I've run 110/70, 110/80 front and 130/70, 130/80, 130/90, 140/70, 140/80, 150/70 rear tires on my GSs.  The difference in handling due to tire size is hardly noticeable compared to the difference due to type of tire, stickier is fun but long lasting is more economical.     I've run bias, bias belted, and radial tires on my GSs.

If my 110/80 front Roadrider ever wears out I think I'll replace it with a 120/70 front Roadrider just because I haven't tried a 120/70 front yet.

Nothing wrong with looks if it doesn't cost too much.