In order to fit a 150/160 rear tire in GS, it seems like a 4" - 4.5" rear wheel (Bandit/Katana/GSXR) is needed. Plus, some washers will be put on the rear sprocket carrier to get enough clearance for the chain. Therefore, the rear sprocket was pull out a little bit comparing to the front sprocket.

My questions are:
1 Can I somehow pull out the front sprocket to match the rear sprocket for getting the right chain alignment?
2 can I just just put a 150 tire to stock rim without serious modification?

Thx

Quote from: hhlragnarok on November 03, 2010, 01:22:46 PM
In order to fit a 150/160 rear tire in GS, it seems like a 4" - 4.5" rear wheel (Bandit/Katana/GSXR) is needed. Plus, some washers will be put on the rear sprocket carrier to get enough clearance for the chain. Therefore, the rear sprocket was pull out a little bit comparing to the front sprocket.

My questions are:
1 Can I somehow pull out the front sprocket to match the rear sprocket for getting the right chain alignment?
2 can I just just put a 150 tire to stock rim without serious modification?

Thx

Ha ha ... suzuki screwed you ... the front sproket is retained by a circlip and there is no extra room ... the Idiots should have put a bolt on that like any normal person would ... I dunno why they do stupid sheiete like this ... once again ... designed by Idiots who take the train ... and worse yet, never pick up a wrench and modify nothing.

150 on the stock rear rim sorta pinches it ... but a 4 or a 4.5 doesn't need much more than the brake arm to be bent ... chain clears ... but only just ... but does clear.

Cool.
Buddha.

I run 150/70 bias and radial sport touring tires on the stock 3.5" rim, it's a fitment approved by most of the tire makers.  None of the tire makers approve fitment of the 150/60 radial supersport tires on a 3.5" rim in this country but many GS500 and Ninja 500 riders do so.  Just bend the brake torque rod a bit if it touches, comes close or just touches a bit.  I adjusted mine with a BFH.

Cool! Can u post some pics about how 150 looks like on ur bike (with chain/ side/back...)?

150/60 tire should has almost the same total diameter as the stock 130/70, I guess it should be fine if 150/70 works....

Appreciate that.

Quote from: gsJack on November 03, 2010, 05:44:24 PM
I run 150/70 bias and radial sport touring tires on the stock 3.5" rim, it's a fitment approved by most of the tire makers.  None of the tire makers approve fitment of the 150/60 radial supersport tires on a 3.5" rim in this country but many GS500 and Ninja 500 riders do so.  Just bend the brake torque rod a bit if it touches, comes close or just touches a bit.  I adjusted mine with a BFH.

Yup just like the master GSJack said just adjust the rear break arm with the BFH and it will fit just fine. As far as the alignment? Wow, I would think no matter what tire you put on the back if it fits the rim properly? Your chain should clear the tire on the left and the bar on the right and if it doesn't I would not be changing the geometry of the drive train to accommodate. You can go a little towards the caliper but man I wouldn't want to do that it add's undo bind on the chain that will cause premature wear on the chain. Like Buddha said where the front sprocket is, is where it will be no adjustment!

I had a couple pics of a RoadAttack 150/70 radial I used in my photobucket file, the first one at 1200 miles was taken too close and distorted, kinda liked the way it looked in that pic.    The other pic at 8000 miles I backed off and zoomed in some and got a better pic of how it looked, I wouldn't call it pinched or distorted, I think it has a nice shape on the 3.5" wheel.



Tires I've used on my GS's, just turned 84k miles on the 02:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/GS500tirelogs.jpg

I'm running a 160 rear on a wheel from a 2000 GSXF-750, this is the same as the SV650 wheel from the same year.

The brake arm is from a 2000 GSXR-750 and bolts right up.

No alignment or clearance issues with a Metzeler Z-6

thx...can we see the chain side? 2000 GSXF750 should have a 4.5" wheel, so how can align the front/rear sprocket straight?

Quote from: Miraz on November 03, 2010, 08:42:28 PM
I'm running a 160 rear on a wheel from a 2000 GSXF-750, this is the same as the SV650 wheel from the same year.

The brake arm is from a 2000 GSXR-750 and bolts right up.

No alignment or clearance issues with a Metzeler Z-6

looks great...

Quote from: gsJack on November 03, 2010, 08:37:11 PM
I had a couple pics of a RoadAttack 150/70 radial I used in my photobucket file, the first one at 1200 miles was taken too close and distorted, kinda liked the way it looked in that pic.    The other pic at 8000 miles I backed off and zoomed in some and got a better pic of how it looked, I wouldn't call it pinched or distorted, I think it has a nice shape on the 3.5" wheel.



Tires I've used on my GS's, just turned 84k miles on the 02:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/GS500tirelogs.jpg

This is best I have at the moment, can take a better one over the weekend...

Some good pics in the Wiki of 160 tire and Kat 4.5" wheel on GS500, opinions are those of the Wiki poster.  I wouldn't shim the sprocket out of alignment myself since I'm always concerned about long term high milage usage of my GS's.  I'll stick with the 150 on oem wheel myself, could be this old man just doesn't push it as hard as others to find any handling fault with the 150 on 3.5 wheel.

http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Upgrades.RearWheel

I currently have a 150/70 Roadrider rear and measured it to be 5 3/4" wide and 25.8" dia after I put it on about 16k miles ago.  If I get a chance later I'll go over and measure the clearance and see if there is enough room between the chain and tire to accomodate a 160 on a 4.5 wheel.  Would need about 5/16" more clearance on both sides to accomodate it.

Thanks for the information.

I'm thinking about getting a 150 on stock rim. From gsJack's review the Road Attack seems to be quite awesome...meanwhile I'm wondering about Shinko, did anybody try this cheap Chinese brand and have a comment on it?

The Shinko is a Korean tire.  Some over on the sport-touring.net forum have used their 009 Raven sport touring tire as an economy move and spoken well of them, they don't come smaller than 160/60 size.  The Podium 006 comes in the 140/60 and 150/60 sizes which would fit our bikes and has a few users over at the Ninja 500 forum who speak well of it.  My local place just got them in this year and I've been tempted to try one.  They also have the newer Apex 010 that seems to be a replacement for the 006 tires, I like the tread pattern better on the Apex.  Some Podium users at bottom of this EX500 list:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p9OvigvZMFSbc6PJadCGCNQ&hl=en#gid=0

Quote from: gsJack on November 04, 2010, 12:57:46 PM
The Shinko is a Korean tire.  Some over on the sport-touring.net forum have used their 009 Raven sport touring tire as an economy move and spoken well of them, they don't come smaller than 160/60 size.  The Podium 006 comes in the 140/60 and 150/60 sizes which would fit our bikes and has a few users over at the Ninja 500 forum who speak well of it.  My local place just got them in this year and I've been tempted to try one.  They also have the newer Apex 010 that seems to be a replacement for the 006 tires, I like the tread pattern better on the Apex.  Some Podium users at bottom of this EX500 list:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p9OvigvZMFSbc6PJadCGCNQ&hl=en#gid=0

great information...
Is there any DTC tire out there that has better quality/price comparing to bridgestone BT45?

Of the current major brand bias ply sport touring tires; BT45, Roadrider, GT501, Conti-Go, Lasertec, Demon, and Activ; only the BT45 is dual compound.  More of the radial sport touring tires and radial supersport tires are dual compound now.  Here's an interesting comparo test of the bias tires on the GS500 from the UK Bike Magazine:

http://www.ex-500.com/wiki/index.php/Tire_Comparison

So gsJack you never concurred or nonconcurred about the geometry and using spacers to align the chain?

Hello, I'm new to GSTwin as I just got my 500 a few weeks ago but love it already. I'll be changing my rear tires early next season and have been thinking of upgrading to a thicker tire. From everything above, certain 150s will fit the stock rim? Is it better to upgrade the back wheel before putting on the back tire? I am a pretty handy guy but don't know much when it comes to motorcycles. Bending something associated with the brakes scares me a bit if I don't know what I'm doing. Also, is upgrading the wheel (from say a 2002 katana that is being parted out ~$100) worth the tire upgrade? I remember someone telling me that putting a bigger tire on than stock is actually counter-productive because while you gain some traction, you lose on the way the bike handles. Any input?

Thanks

Quote from: JB848 on November 05, 2010, 07:32:44 PM
So gsJack you never concurred or nonconcurred about the geometry and using spacers to align the chain?

Figuring out whether or not you need to do something to align the wheel sprocket with the chain is pretty simple, and it's not necessarily related to the width of the wheel rim.

The only dimension that matters is the horizontal distance from the LH axle spacer to the sprocket on the wheel you are going to fit....
1. If it is the same as the stock GS wheel, then you don't need to change anything
2. If it is more than the stock GS wheel then you need to add spacers to reduce it to the same as stock
3. If is it less, then you have a bigger problem and probably need a different wheel.

Quote from: RSK70 on November 09, 2010, 07:59:11 AM
Hello, I'm new to GSTwin as I just got my 500 a few weeks ago but love it already. I'll be changing my rear tires early next season and have been thinking of upgrading to a thicker tire. From everything above, certain 150s will fit the stock rim? Is it better to upgrade the back wheel before putting on the back tire? I am a pretty handy guy but don't know much when it comes to motorcycles. Bending something associated with the brakes scares me a bit if I don't know what I'm doing. Also, is upgrading the wheel (from say a 2002 katana that is being parted out ~$100) worth the tire upgrade? I remember someone telling me that putting a bigger tire on than stock is actually counter-productive because while you gain some traction, you lose on the way the bike handles. Any input?

Thanks

Any takers? 

Quote from: JB848 on November 05, 2010, 07:32:44 PM
So gsJack you never concurred or nonconcurred about the geometry and using spacers to align the chain?

This is what he said:
"I wouldn't shim the sprocket out of alignment myself since I'm always concerned about long term high milage usage of my GS's.  I'll stick with the 150 on oem wheel myself, could be this old man just doesn't push it as hard as others to find any handling fault with the 150 on 3.5 wheel."