HELP...i'm so confused

[Frost]

I read the thread about tires...and i'm all confused    now...i even read Pablo's site about tires...can someone kindly explain this to me?

Why wider tires? (advantage/disadvantage)
Will wider tires fit stock 03 GS rims?
What are my options for tires...best choice??

any other comments is appreciated...

THANK YOU!!!!

[GRU]

well, the reason people put wider tires is because of traction (biger tire print on the road) and looks...

you can't put a huge tire on wheels that are now wide enough for the wider tires....because the tire will hot expand when put on a stock rim, it will just increase in hight....

i recomend guying a rim off of a biger bike that already has a tire on there so you know that the tire/wheel combo will work good, and put that on your bike

i havent done this because i don't need it yet...once i get sick and tired of doing burnouts i will get a biger tire / wheel combo

[JamesG]

The topic hasn't been beat to death enough for ya?

To regurgitate...

All else being equal, a wider tire gives a greater contact patch with the ground and so, better traction.
A 140 is really the widest you should go on a stock 3.5 wheel. You can squeeze a 150 on there if you tinker with the chain and caliper linkage but its not much good because you are distorting the tire out of shape.

Whats best? :dunno:
For leasurely putting around town. Anything that will hold air will do. To the extreme which is race tires, specificly BT096 (which is the only race tire that will fit a GS). Do a search on tires and you will find lots of opinion. But remember its mostly that... opinion.

[Frost]

so a 140 is what most people put on their GS right?

waht's the difference between a radial and a bias?

[Frost]

i don't want to mess with anything...just replace and go kinda thing...

so a 140 tire will fit perfectly on a stock rim right?

should i get a bigger front with it?...or is stock fine...

sorry...i'm still a newbie at this...

[chimivee]

I read the thread about tires...and i'm all confused    now...i even read Pablo's site about tires...can someone kindly explain this to me?

Why wider tires? (advantage/disadvantage)
Will wider tires fit stock 03 GS rims?
What are my options for tires...best choice??

any other comments is appreciated...

THANK YOU!!!!

Check it:  http://www.sportrider.com/tech/tires/146_0206_size/

I think part of the confusion w/ the GS is that some are going wider, but are going w/ RADIALS, which are generally better than bias ply.  So going wider, in that case may be an improvement.  And since there are few (none?) street radials in the stock size, you have to go w/ 140's or 80 series to get radials.

[pattonme]

BT-090's are rather better than the -96 for racing purposes. Can't comment on wet-weather racing and I don't intend to find out.

modern bias are really quite good so it's now a matter of personal taste if you want radial or bias-belted. 140 size radials do exist, just not a lot of them.

[Frost]

what's the difference between radial and bias?

[pattonme]

radials = wire wrap goes left to right across the tire
bias-belted = wire cross at some angle.

best to google it or go to like the tire manufacturer's websites. they normally have a pretty good technical discussion about it.

[john]

I like BT45's in stock size.  Stock sizes work fine and are right for the bike.

And thats all I have to say about that.