Thinking about a wider rear tire

silascopathic_imp

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Was wondering if anyone knew how big you could go on the rear with the stock rim? Think I could fit a 180 on the rear to really beef it up?

When I eliminate the rear fender I would love to do this as well
 
I don't think you could even find a 180-section tire for an 18" rim....but maybe I'm wrong. Honda gave us a 140/110 setup for a good reason, and I'd hate to diminish the bike's great handling simply for the look of a wider rear tire. If you must go down that road, I'd start looking into the possibility of switching to 17" rims. That'll open up a whole new world of possibilities.
 
That's pretty awesome! Ill have to do more research but having a 180 on the rear would feel great!
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Yup, going from a 140, 205 to a 180, 207 would be like night and day. You would want to match the front though. Woody's wheels can make up anything with spokes. 17's would be ideal.
 
I have 180 /18 Avon tires on my CB1000 and really like them,standard was 170.Too wide of a tire does not always help the handling of a bike.Our rims might be ok for 150 or 160 at the most.
 
Actually if you try and squeeze too wide of a tire on 2 narrow of a rim you actually get less of a contact patch. This is easy to demonstrate with a sheet of paper. The closer you squeeze the open end, the narrower and taller the paper gets. Going one size up from a 150 to a 160, or a 170 to a 180 is about as large as you can go on stock rims before the return is diminished.
 
Along with size, the tire profile is important too. My old Quota went from so-so handling to "flickable" went I went to a more rounded profile. She would drop into corners like no mans business. The Griso is certainly more flickable, more so than the CB (but not sport bike quick) but when it comes to the twisty bits the big old Quota could show the CB a thing or two.
 
the ferret is right, changing size always distorts the shape of the wider tire and will mean the bike will handle different.
It is never a +.
 
CA200_imp said:
the ferret is right, changing size always distorts the shape of the wider tire and will mean the bike will handle different.
It is never a +.
It's also putting a level of stress on the entire tire that was never intended in the design:

The bead: Pinching a tire much more than intended (putting a tire meant for a 5.5" rim onto a 4" rim), would cause a huge amount of stress on the bead area, and the bead itself would not mate to the rim as required.

The sidewall: Tire manufacturers spend huge time and $$ designing their tires. The sidewall is meant to stand at a certain angle when mounted on the rim. Just imagine how far off that sidewall aspect would be after pinching that large tire onto a small rim.

The internal belts, bands, etc: Bending the tire farther than designed could cause internal tears and damage to the reinforcing aspects inside the tire, that would never be seen until catastrophic failure.

I could go on and on about this topic.
 
silascopathic_imp said:
Lots of things to consider. glad i started this thread rather than just jumping into it
That's always been my mistake. It's most likely overkill anyway, unless you do track days. Maybe just find a pair better then the 205's.
All this talk about wider wheels, I just remembered you would need this: 520 Conversion
 
Right after I got the bike a guy was checking it out in front of Cycle Gear. He said it would look better with a 180 or 200 rear.at tire. Frankly I think he missed the point of the bike altogether. Its not supposed to be a super-sport.
 
The Spaceman_imp said:
Right after I got the bike a guy was checking it out in front of Cycle Gear. He said it would look better with a 180 or 200 rear.at tire. Frankly I think he missed the point of the bike altogether. Its not supposed to be a super-sport.
This.
 
This probably isn't true, but I would hope any good service shop would refuse to mount a 180 tire on a 4" rim. I wouldn't even risk a 160. Now, if going to a 150 gave me better or more diverse tire options, that's definitely something I would consider (sadly, it doesn't :( ). But I would be really weary about going over a +10 on the tire width. Good luck to you Sil, keep us posted about what you decide, and how it works out.
 
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