08-20-2020, 02:05 AM
(08-19-2020, 11:52 PM)misterprofessionality_imp Wrote: I use wider-than-standard tires as well, only i opted for Avon Spirit STII. 120/70 front and 160/60 rear. before that I used the same size in Michelin PR3 tires like a lot of forum members. I feel a good deal more cornering confidence compared to back when i had the stock bridgestone tires.
I'm actually really curious about Crazyirv's experience. it seems so opposite. what is your theory about the cause of this wobble you mentioned?
There's a lot of info on the web that backs up the fact that putting wider tires on rims meant for narrower ones is a bad idea. You are literally pinching the tire from the bottom and distorting the shape of it. Instead of a larger contact patch you are instead, ironically because of the wider tire, actually getting a smaller one, and the handling of your bike can be affected. In my case, my bike starts wobbling fairly bad at about 75MPH. It feels like I'm on ice almost. I took my hands (briefly, you better believe!) off the bars at that speed and and the handlebars did not shake, so I believe it is the back tire. The poor guys who installed the tires removed them after I complained, rechecked the balance, and found nothing wrong. I believe them. They have a stack of about 150 changed tires in their shop and people come there with all makes and obviously are ok. My front is only 10MM more than stock....back is 20. I believe the back is the problem. What is confusing is that no one here seems to have the this problem with wider tires and many have switched to them. I'm not sure why I'm so lucky but one thing is I weigh about 330 lbs so that might have something to do with it. Others have told me that there have been a couple of posts about loose swingarms here. As soon as the heat wave here is over (been over 105 for about a week now) I'm going to see what happens when I deflate the rear wheel some to flatten it out a little. I am definately returning to stock size probably sooner than later.