Changing tire size. 86 VFR700

86 VFR700

It is supposed to have a 110/90/18 Front and 130/80/18 rear

Currently it has no name junk tires on it. With a 120/80 front

I was pricing tires and I can get an Avon Roadrider rear tire for $133, if I go to a 130/70/18 rear its $43 less. Am I going to hurt handling at all? Tire size makes for a one inch less overall diameter. So a half inch of ride height out back. Which would help since im only 5'7". And it'd put $43 in my pocket for other mods.

Am I going to regret this choice?

 

Check out denniskirk.com they have name brand stock size tires fronts are 76-113. Rear stock size is 96-150 I think the least expensive from them are the Bridgstone bt45.

As far as using a low profile tire, the rear is probably ok but I would not want to go undersized on the front as it will reduce the steering trail and may have a profile that can cause instability. I have been there and got to spend months in recovery.

 

The original tire for the front is a 16" tire, looks like someone made some changes to yours.

 

i wanna say that ive been running a 130/80/18 on the back of my bike for a while now and it handles pretty well. Not to start the whole tire debate (its as bad as oil and oil filters), but so far, I've had the best luck with the Dunlop GT501 tires.

if you REALLY want to open the door to a whole lot more tire size choices though, the CBF600F2 front and rear wheel swap mod is your best bet, as thatll put 17" rims on your bike that'll fit all the popular radial tire sizes out there. (at least the ones thatll fit between your forks and swingarm)

 

Won't running radial tires on these bikes, just cause it to ride rough due to the sloppy shocks we have?

 

Radial tires will - generally speaking - give a softer ride because the sidewalls are designed to flex more than the same size bias-ply tire, so no.

 

Is it okay to mix and match tire types? For example, use a bias up front and a radial in back.

I vaguely remember something about not mixing them, but that was along time ago and was probably about cars.

 

id avoid mixing compounds like that. bias ply and radial ply just behave too differently for me to suggest anybody trust their lives with such a combination. If you swap one wheel to carry a radial tire, swap them both. if you dont have both to swap, dont swap either. I'd just lean to the side of caution on that one.

 

Your right, I'm going to get both the same. Radials if possible.

I can keep the stock front diameter if I use a 120/80/16 (which is on my bike right now, bias ply Macadams) so no worries about changing the trail. The Avon AV45 is the only radial I can find in that size.

In the rear there are several choices in stock diameter or slightly smaller. I think going slightly smaller in rear diameter will be fine.

 

generally to get radials on both wheels you generally have to swap them both. a popular swap is to find a set of CBR600F2 wheels and put those on your bike.

 

Yeah, I found that one front radial tire which is recommended for a 2.75-3.00 inch wheel. Stock is 2.5 so it's close and bias tires in 120/80/16 do fit it.

It's just that the rear radials I found seem to require a minimum 3.5 inch rim while ours is 3". That might be too different to compensate for.

Generally it seems the squishier radials (which gives them great grip) need to be lower in profile than bias tire so that they won't flex as much side to side.

As a side note I have heard of people successfully running mixed tires. There's even a triumph that came from the factory with one radial and one bias. You just have to maintain the trail up front by not going a smaller diameter than stock up front.

Can you imagine one of your tires being way frillier than the other? I bet that's one reason it's dangerous to mix them. You want equal grip front and rear in the corners.