Tire Advice

I ordered a set of the PR4s last night from www.motosport.com They had the absolute best price I could find in stock and gave some bonus bucks for the purchase.

 

SOW, am I correct in assuming you aligned the red dot up correctly with the valve stem? The red dot ALWAYS goes to the valve stem.

 

the shop balanced the tires not me-I will check on that, they had to turn the tire 180 degrees to get it to balance, since they do this all the time, I would have to assume the shop knew that-but it bugs me a bit that perhaps the tire is way out of balance-which could cause a high speed wooble. The m5's did not have this problem.

 

Not sure about Dunlops but Michelin no longer put a mark on the tire for orientation as they claim they are as balanced as they can be out of the mill. Who knows for sure right?

The last Dunlop I threw on for a fellow rider, I had to rotate the tire a bit just to keep it from swinging like a pendulum on the balancer! This was when I aligned their mark, or what looked like their mark. I was going to redo the front tire too as it was doing this as well but the rider said just throw whatever weights it needs to balance it.

I have had a few tires that I mounted where I needed little to no weights, and the most I had to put on one wheel was 7 (1/4 oz.) weights. YMMV

 

I went on the cheep... Contimotion. No track day's for me. I don't wanna be Kevin Schwantz.
I needed a quality tire at a low cost. 1000 miles into them and im happy.

 

well being in balance is something that any tire should be, which brings into play maybe its a defective. I did call Dunlop to see what they have to say about this-could cause all sorts of strange problems.:spider:

 

I love my DynaBeads

 

I'm shopping for tires and I am looking at the BT-023's or the T30's or the PR4's...the problem I am having is that the some of the tires (like the T30) only have the rear tire available in the GT spec.

I feel the GT versions are for heavier bikes no? Might be a bit unnecessary?

 

That is correct the GT is for heavier bikes. You should be fine with the standard PR4, unless you really put a lot of weight on your bike.

 

I thought so aswell though I can't see the PR4 available in a non GT tire for my size. Same with the T30's.

 

I ran five sets of the PR's 2 sets of 3, one of 3 and now on a set of PR4's. Have liked them all. None of them were the GT series. I have been on several long hard road trips, some as long as 8k milers in 5 weeks, and 5k miles in three weeks. I pack probably 150 pounds of gear on these trips. I weigh over 200 pounds. I look like this.



Have had no issue with the tires as a result. So I would not worry about insisting on the GT for your bike. I think you will be paying for more tire than you need.

This one kinda saw the end of its life at the end of my last trip.



BTW. To the original poster. I wouldn't be overly concerned about buying something made in China. Only if the price is very low. They make most of our products now anyways. Such as Moen stuff. Buy it form Home Depot, China makes them to their specs which as shit because Home Depot wants to keep their prices down. Buy the some looking product from a Plumbing Store. You pay more, but it is still made in China to Moen's specs which are arguably much higher than HD. You now have a good product. Your US trade agreements with China spurred that on many years ago. I think it was the Clinton Admin but not sure on that.

 

I have been running the non GT's for a few months now, very impressed. A friend put the PR4 GT's on his Concourse. Its a heavier bike and he weighs in at 260. He loves them on the Kawi.

 

Man I wish they made the non GT's in my size.

 

Can't you run a 180/55 or a 160/60 on a 97?

 

I tried the PR4s and Angel GTs back to back on my 5th-gen. The PR4s are truly fantastic in the wet; I rode the Dragon on a morning when it had just rained once, and by the time I was coming back in to the resort, I was pushing just as hard in the wet as I had in the dry the day before. The initial turn-in is particularly good, makes the bike feel much more "flickable" than it should. Longevity is fantastic; I got 13.5k out of my set and only changed them because of a nail in the front tire; the rear probably had 1.5-2k left on it. I was, however, still running those tires when I had an unexplained lowside in September, and I lost a great deal of confidence in the tires after that. They also will start to shimmy when leaned over, and didn't always feel as planted as I'd like.

Which brings me to the Angels. They require a touch more effort on initial turn-in, and they are terrifying over painted lines in wet weather, but other than that, the Angel GT is the absolute best tire I've ever used on a motorcycle. The dry grip is astounding, and they hold a line unbelievably well. I only had them for about 3k before selling that bike, but the rear was wearing very well at that point, and I had no reason to expect significantly different mileage than the PR4s. I'm coming up on a tire change for my new bike, and I absolutely plan on using the Angels again.

 

Most of the other sizes I see specifically list the wheel width that it can fit and what they recommend and my 5" wide rim usually isn't either.

So technically I could but doesn't mean I should.

 

PR4. The 97 will love them. Even using the GT version will be fine if the right size.