Now, stupidly enough, I ordered a front tire a week ago to replace the worn battlax...a SHINKO PODIUM 120/60ZR-17 FRONT. I know from friends their great value for the money.

Now, I never checked the rear tire, figured it was stock like the front... well it isnt!

Its a Cheng Shin 66h, 140/70/17... Now, I cant find ANY information online about it at all. It was made in 2006 based on the tire code.

Any information at all?

Are they even compatable?

-justin

Cheng Shin's are known as "cheap" tires.....because they are. But the plant that made them was bought out by another tire manufacturer and the quality has improved a little. I've talked to people that swear by them but most people don't run them except on dirt bikes.

What do you mean compatible? As in equal to the Shiko? I personally would replace the Cheng Shin with a matching Shinko.

From the 140/70 size and the fact it's on your GS I'm thinking it's probably the Barracuda tire, actually one of the better of the Cheng Shins sold here but if it is it's a bias tire and a radial front and bias rear is a bad mix.  Does the tread pattern look like this?

I agree with GSJack.Almost all of the Chin Shen tires are bias ply.I run Shinkos and all them are remakes of older out of production tires.My Shinko 005 Advanced are repops of an older Michelin Pilot tire.Dgyver had a set that were Michelin and were the same as my Shinkos.Never run bias ply and radials.The different construction of them make the tires want to follow to different tracks through a curve.

most 120/60's are almost pinched on the 3.0 front

Quote from: werase643 on June 18, 2011, 11:31:31 AM
most 120/60's are almost pinched on the 3.0 front

Depends.The Shinkos 120-60-17 that I run are rated for 2.75 to 3.5 inch wide wheels.I do agree that they are probably better on a 3+ inch wide wheel.

Quote from: gsJack on June 18, 2011, 07:24:10 AM
From the 140/70 size and the fact it's on your GS I'm thinking it's probably the Barracuda tire, actually one of the better of the Cheng Shins sold here but if it is it's a bias tire and a radial front and bias rear is a bad mix.  Does the tread pattern look like this?

Thats the tire.

Will it work with my shinko?

As in, are they both the same type?

Either way this shinko 006 is going on the front.

BTW, I ordered a 120/60-17, because the less sectional width would make it not as wide or tall as a 120/70-17, hence is it was going to pinch with the 70 secional height tire, it wont with this one.

Now, to mount

it should pinch more... Think of it like this take cross section of a tire... the basic shape is a curved top and 2 lines going down at a slight inward angle...

it has 2 fixed points 3 inches apart on the wheel where it mounts... if the lines are shorter (60 profile tire) then the curved top has to be more curved to bring the angle of the lines to the 3 inch width... pinching more than if the lines were slightly longer in a 70 profile tire...

Well new front is on, worked perfect!

Oh, and with the old tire next to it, the old tire looks almost flat, not curved....

It handles so much better (slow parking lot)

I scrubbed it down with scrubbie pad in the tub with simple green extra stregnth, it didnt feel slippery when i was done..

Yay, new front tire.

Well that is a bad mix then with the Podium radial front and the Barracuda bias rear and could cause serious oversteer if pushed to the limit.  Don't know how hard you ride but I'd be a bit careful until you get a radial on the rear too. 

I had the same feeling when I put a 120/70 front on last year, the 120 on the 3" rim makes it much rounder than a 110 on the 3" rim.  Feels like it's falling into corners compared to the old tires, I like it that way but I'll probably go back to a 110/70 again next time.  Both my front and rear are bias Roadriders.

I dont think ive ever ridden that hard... I've only got 600 miles under my belt in the month i have started riding.

And, oversteer = back end breaking loose, which would be more recoverable then understeer, which would be the front breaking loose, right?

Dont seem too bad to me?

Radial front and bias rear? It will lead to dangerous and unpredictable handling.......incidently the combination is illegal in the uk. Still.....its your choice!

Eh, Ill replace the rear when I can, until then, I should be fine putting around town?

Seemed ok last night.

xunedeinx, just don't practice dragging your knees in the high speed corners until you change that rear tire.  Can't imagine it being a problem just putting around town, but it's always good when choosing new tires to consider these possible problems.

ben2go, where did you pick up that info that your Shinko Advance radial front is rated for 2.75 to 3.5 inch wide wheels?  As with most of the Japanese, Chinese, and Korean tire makers I've never found any rim width info for their tires except the preferred rim width with no indication of range of sizes they approve.  Shinko Korean site just lists the preferred rim width indicating rim size the tire was designed for without showing any approval of other sizes permitted and Shinko US site doesn't even show the preferred rim widths.

In general the tire makers approved rim widths for bias tires are more liberal than those for radial tires, where the bias for example might be approved for 1/2" smaller and 1/2" larger than the preferred rim size the radials are approved for only the 1/2" larger and not any smaller than preferred.

It's a pain in the butt when the typing just starts jumping around because the post is getting too long so I just start another to continue.  Just wanted to say there are plenty of users on both the GS500 and EX500 (Ninja 500) forums using the 120/60 front and 150/60 rear radials neither of which are approved fitments by the tire makers in this country.  Could be it is more a problem of too many lawyers here looking for a reason to blame the tire maker rather than the rider when there is a serious mishap.

UK MOT tyre rules....

http://www.ukmot.com/bike/4-1.asp

If your machine and its tyres dont comply.....its ilegal to take it on the road....simple as that.

Quote from: gsJack on June 19, 2011, 08:16:08 AM
xunedeinx, just don't practice dragging your knees in the high speed corners until you change that rear tire.  Can't imagine it being a problem just putting around town, but it's always good when choosing new tires to consider these possible problems.

ben2go, where did you pick up that info that your Shinko Advance radial front is rated for 2.75 to 3.5 inch wide wheels?  As with most of the Japanese, Chinese, and Korean tire makers I've never found any rim width info for their tires except the preferred rim width with no indication of range of sizes they approve.  Shinko Korean site just lists the preferred rim width indicating rim size the tire was designed for without showing any approval of other sizes permitted and Shinko US site doesn't even show the preferred rim widths.

In general the tire makers approved rim widths for bias tires are more liberal than those for radial tires, where the bias for example might be approved for 1/2" smaller and 1/2" larger than the preferred rim size the radials are approved for only the 1/2" larger and not any smaller than preferred.

I bought mine from a store on ebay about 3 years ago now.I sent a message to them asking what rim widths are acceptable.The reply I got was," approved for 2.75 to 3.5 inch wide rim".I don't remember which seller it was and I didn't add them to my ebay favs.I remember the response because of the 2.75inch rim width.I too though it was odd that the rim width was less than 3 inches.I'd never run them on anything less than 3 inches.I have had no issues with handling.I can almost hit the tire edge but I drag my factory pegs before I get there.I am running 120-60-17 on a GS/Katana front wheel and 160-60-17 on a Bandit 600 4.5 inch rear wheel.