Hi all, I have been reading up on lots of posts here, and many posts on tires. Loads of good info. I bought an 02 about 3 months ago with 3,000 miles, and have since doubled that. It has the ORIGINAL exedra on the front, and a 130/70 maxxis promax street on the back. I have replaced the front springs with some .80 sonics which has done wonders and also made me realize how crap the tires are. besides the fact that they are really really old and hard and I am getting nervous just driving on them.
so from reading many posts here and many other places, i am beginning to think that the conti attacks are the rubber gods gift to the motorcycling world.
this is the only site where i have found anyone running them on the gs500, and i have not seen a post where someone ran one on the front as well as the back, but i could have missed it. maybe i will be the first?
a few others are under consideration that are mentioned in these forums and elsewhere
the avon road riders 110/70 and 140/70
the avon storm st (used to be the azero?) 110/70 and 150/70
also my wife just got an 09 ninja 250 running 110/70 and 130/70 in an IRC road winner. any info on these? i have found very very little, but the sizes are right and they seem to run well on her bike. the variety on her bike were made in thailand, but i guess some are made in japan. my guess is these are sub-par as they came on the bike.
in terms of traction and tire life, how do the above 3 and the attacks sit?
also in terms of suspension and steering geometry, the 150/70 is a taller tire than a 130/70 by 1/2" or so, is my understanding of the numbers correct? will this change in ride height only at the rear adversely affect handling? i ask, as the 110/80 lasertec that many run also raises the front ride height by nearly the same amount.
thanks! great forum!
as far as figuring out tire height, I like to use the calculator on this website http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html
I havent ridden on a 150 on the stock rim, I have one on mine with a 4.5 inch rim swap, and it handles great.
That's a handy calculator jeremy and I saved it to use but one must remember that some tires vary a great deal from the nominal calculated sizes. The Roadriders are a good example of that. The calculated size of a 150/70-17 is about 25.2" OD and that was the size of the 150/70 Lasertec and RoadAttack rears I ran. But my current 150/70 Roadrider is noticeably larger at 25.8" OD which is equal in size to the Avon Azaro 140/80 which I also have used.
delineator, I have never used an IRC tire on any bike over the past 25 years and 370k miles. They have a good rep and I recall at least one member here used them, maybe searching for the RX-01 will turn them up.
I ran my RoadAttack rear with a Lasertec front and still believe that combo was the best handling tires I've had on my GS's. I got 10k miles from the RoadAttack rear, more from the Lasertec front. I'm on my 2nd set of Roadriders now and got close to 15k miles from the 140/70 rear and much more from the first front. Not as sticky as the RoadAttack rear but good enough for my current needs. They are the winners by far in the milage per dollar dept.
I had a pair of Azaros too and they were also very good. and are still available in the sizes I ran which aren't available in the Storms. If I get another 140/80 Azaro rear I'll run it with a Roadrider front, never been happy with any of the radial fronts I've used on the GS's.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/GS500tirelog.jpg
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=45856.msg514642
thanks guys, nice calculator and some good info. I will see how the IRC's go on the little ninja and try something else on mine, the roadriders look like they might be a better fit, since as much as i would like really sticky rubber, i also spend a lot of time commuting so i would be burning the good rubber most of the time for nothing... the better longevity out of the roadriders might be good...
are you able to tell with these tires (the roadriders) when you are at the edge of traction? or do they go quickly from good to gone? i cant remember the technical term for this. does the azaro fit between these two tires in terms of sticky/life? for now, i would like a tire that lets me know prior to slipping out from under me completely, that that is what it is going to do. but also not wear out under 10k miles.
gsjack, so the azaros and conti attacks are radials, and the roadriders are biasply? how do you know, i have looked at avon's website and its not jumping out at me.
i have read about bias vs radial in other posts etc, but do not still understand why a bias would be better? it looks like a radial has a softer sidewall, which is meant to give better flex and so better contact patch for cornering. is that correct? any good answers here? i am still very new to all this and have not riden on many type of tires.
thanks for all the good info, oh, and is there a good way in the forum to find or just look at topics i started?
I've got the RoadRiders and they are very good for what I do. I've been over pretty far (on the street) and there has never been anything that caused me to doubt the tire for even a second. IIRC a bike has to be designed somewhat differently to properly use radials (something about geometry, suspension and weight distribution).