[Sammy]

Looking to put new tires on the 950, I'm not a tire guy so I'm struggling with the mis-match that is on the bike from the factory.
Front- 100/90 19 57H
Rear- 140/80R17 69H
The front appears to be a bias tire and the rear is a radial, trying to find a matched set of Michelin Commander 2's and not having much luck.
Should I even be worried about mixing a bias tire (front) with a radial (rear) and can I put a front tire on the rear?
Or should I be looking at another tire?
Strictly highway driving, and lots of it.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[srinath]

They are tube tires … is there a radial in that type even available ?
Anyway - If you're getting rid of tires cos you just want better, I'll buy your old ones off you. Hopefully you don't have 100000 miles on em and sell em cheap ...

 

[Sammy]

Srinath,
This is why I ask the question, should I just go to a matched set of Bias Ply tires?

As for buying my take offs, I wouldn't feel good about selling them to you because I'm beginning to believe that the mis-matched set from the factory is most of the problem in the front end deceleration wobble.
Unless you were local in AZ and could inspect the tires before you bought them, Ive got almost 6/K on them. (Would hate to sell someone else my problems)

 

[eddie]

Looking to put new tires on the 950, I'm not a tire guy so I'm struggling with the mis-match that is on the bike from the factory.
Front- 100/90 19 57H
Rear- 140/80R17 69H
The front appears to be a bias tire and the rear is a radial, trying to find a matched set of Michelin Commander 2's and not having much luck.
Should I even be worried about mixing a bias tire (front) with a radial (rear) and can I put a front tire on the rear?
Or should I be looking at another tire?
Strictly highway driving, and lots of it.
Any help would be appreciated.

Seeing your next to last sentence in particular, I can highly recommend Michelin Anakee IIIs. They smoothed out the ride on my SCR by a large measure vs. the knobbier OEM tires. As for longevity, I have been running them on my 2012 Super Tenere 1200 exclusively and they are some of, if not the most, long-lasting tires I've ever encountered. That covers 20+ bikes and everything from dual sports to ADV and touring bikes. How long? I went through GL1800 tires in under 10k miles. My first Anakaee experience was with a DL1000 that had 13k on the front with tread left when I changed it.


Best part? One can keep the factory bias/radial mix arrangement with the Anakees. I'm sure they had an engineering reason for it and I don't like "surprises". LOL

 

[Sammy]

Eddie,
Thanks for the info, the front tire on your bike looks wider than the 100/90 that is on the bike now. Can you confirm? Also it appears the Michelin makes a set of radials that would work on the SCR, while they might be a tick wider. 110/80R 19 57H Then run the 140/80R 17 69H what is your thoughts?

 

[Burke]

https://www.bikebandit.com/2017-yamaha-scr950-scr95hgy-tires-tubes/m159167

 

[eddie]

Eddie,
Thanks for the info, the front tire on your bike looks wider than the 100/90 that is on the bike now. Can you confirm? Also it appears the Michelin makes a set of radials that would work on the SCR, while they might be a tick wider. 110/80R 19 57H Then run the 140/80R 17 69H what is your thoughts?

The new tires are the same numerical sizes as what came on the bike.
The tread design's plays optical tricks, I imagine. I thought new rear looked smaller somehow.
GPS says it's spot on, circumference-wise.

Note on the mix of bias and radial tires:
It's been maybe 3k miles since I adjusted the steering bearings. I had wondered if the new tires would affect the bike and induce the dreaded wobble or not.
I've tried to get it to shake by slowing down from various speeds and on different types of pavement and it rolls nice and true. No shake.
So, experiment away … at your own risk.
For me, at least, the bias front and radial rear Anakee III pair work great!

 

[eddie]

(snip) Also it appears the Michelin makes a set of radials that would work on the SCR, while they might be a tick wider. 110/80R 19 57H Then run the 140/80R 17 69H what is your thoughts?

I'd be concerned about clearance with a bigger front tire. It'd be an expensive oops should a wider radial rub somewhere when you least expect it. I remember a ST1100 in the shop that had 1 size taller front tire than Honda called for. The tire "grew" at speed and ate slit out of the middle of the front portion of the plastic fender. It wasn't pretty. ;-)

PS: on a bigger front tire.
It could make the steering feel slightly heavier, too.

 

[srinath]

I have a set of bolt wheels … I may go tubeless just because I want to get away from the 17 rear.
But cheap tars are always a big draw.
17 front may even make sense, but a 17 rear is stupid on a non sport bike IMHO. Your front gets you all the braking, but the rear dies in 3500, while the front manages 5-6K (on a sport bike I am talking).

 

[eddie]

I have a set of bolt wheels … I may go tubeless just because I want to get away from the 17 rear.
But cheap tars are always a big draw.
17 front may even make sense, but a 17 rear is stupid on a non sport bike IMHO. Your front gets you all the braking, but the rear dies in 3500, while the front manages 5-6K (on a sport bike I am talking).

I have owned six different big trailies and dual sport bikes - all with 17" rear tires and have gotten some of the best tire life out of them of all the bikes I have owned. I averaged 10k+ out of the three rears on the Super Tenere so far and I don't exactly baby it. The SCR rim size isn't the wobble source. 8,000 & going with the stock wheels and zero shake with both the oem and now more street oriented rubber.
Last vote for 17" rims: The tire choices available are greater that just about any other size.

 

[srinath]

How did you do on that GS500. I have never managed over 5k on its 17, even when I ran hard as a rock high profile tars with no grip I barely got 5k. Worse is the fact that 17"s are more $$$ and you cant get those cheng shin marquis of the mid 90's in the 17.
All the cruisers I ran those on, I loved it, and a himax front will basically leave you with a set that wears evenly and can be changed at the same time - but I have never worn a set of those out myself. I use them for several 1000 miles and sell the bike before they wear out.
Trail tires like the ones on the scr has such deep tread, it may run a long time, so I should look into a trail tar for the GS if it will even leave me close to the drive ratio I'll look into it. Maybe put the SCR one on it when I swap to the bolt wheels.

 

[eddie]

It was my girlfriend that had the GS500F and it was just into it's second tires when she sold it with about 9,500 miles on it.

Regarding longevity, there's a sweet spot between soft and hard compounds where one can get the most mileage out of a tire.
Example: A decent road tire good for 5-6k miles easy when 1st manufactured will harden in a year or two of storage and not grip as well.
"Old" tires scuff more in use and wear faster than "fresh" ones. So, that good tire is now lasting 3/4 as long or less.
A bargain internet- sourced tire may actually be 2, 3 or 4 years old without ever been mounted. I used to horrify customers that
brought in their own tires to mount by showing them the date on the sidewalls & the tires were actually years older than their bike!
Short story: Buying a harder tire can actually cost you mileage. Weird but true.

Everyone's tire life is different.
I burned through a set of GL1800 tires in 8k miles that some geezer could get double that out of.
Conversely, I regularly got 9-10k out of a set of skinny Avon Gripster dp tires running the Transalps mostly on the highway.

The V-Star 950 Gen has now came with Bridgestones. They were "okay" and lasted a fair amount until a puncture near the end of the front's life
had me mounting her a new set of Michelin Commander IIs. Those give a markedly better ride and were worth the small difference in price to her.
The bike's got nearly 17,000 miles on the clock now with good tread left. It'll likely get another set of Michelins, too.

A look on Bike Bandit just now produced 22 size 140/80R-17 rear tires in a variety of styles and prices to chose from.
They have everything from highway tread to chunky block knobbies to sticky sport tires.
For a OEM rear Bolt 950 rim, BB features 23 150/80-16 tires - all highway tread, though.
It comes down to choice.

 

[srinath]

It was my girlfriend that had the GS500F and it was just into it's second tires when she sold it with about 9,500 miles on it.

Regarding longevity, there's a sweet spot between soft and hard compounds where one can get the most mileage out of a tire.
Example: A decent road tire good for 5-6k miles easy when 1st manufactured will harden in a year or two of storage and not grip as well.
"Old" tires scuff more in use and wear faster than "fresh" ones. So, that good tire is now lasting 3/4 as long or less.
A bargain internet- sourced tire may actually be 2, 3 or 4 years old without ever been mounted. I used to horrify customers that
brought in their own tires to mount by showing them the date on the sidewalls & the tires were actually years older than their bike!
Short story: Buying a harder tire can actually cost you mileage. Weird but true.

Everyone's tire life is different.
I burned through a set of GL1800 tires in 8k miles that some geezer could get double that out of.
Conversely, I regularly got 9-10k out of a set of skinny Avon Gripster dp tires running the Transalps mostly on the highway.

The V-Star 950 Gen has now came with Bridgestones. They were "okay" and lasted a fair amount until a puncture near the end of the front's life
had me mounting her a new set of Michelin Commander IIs. Those give a markedly better ride and were worth the small difference in price to her.
The bike's got nearly 17,000 miles on the clock now with good tread left. It'll likely get another set of Michelins, too.

A look on Bike Bandit just now produced 22 size 140/80R-17 rear tires in a variety of styles and prices to chose from.
They have everything from highway tread to chunky block knobbies to sticky sport tires.
For a OEM rear Bolt 950 rim, BB features 23 150/80-16 tires - all highway tread, though.
It comes down to choice.

I'll have to worry about tire choice as this one wears … assuming it even does get there, The trail tires take 20 mile sto arm up but then they grip very very well. I've got a soft spot for chengshin marquis rear and himax fronts, and I nthe 90's atleast they were just grippy enough you weren't leaving powdered rubber at every take off and stop ...

 

[Sammy]

Update:

I just put a new Michelin Commander 2 on the front end and what a difference!! Bike rolls great, front end is really quite, and best of all, the dreaded decel shake is gone. After much contemplation I've decided that my issue was a combination of crappy tires and under inflation. Yes, I'm mostly to blame for the tire wear. But, not completely in my mind. (The mind is a beautiful place :grin2 out here in AZ the road temp goes from 70 to 80 in the mornings to about 160 to 180 in the afternoon, not understanding how much of a factor that played on tire wear was the biggest problem. Lesson learned. Going to watch tire pressure a whole lot closer

 

[eddie]

Update:

I just put a new Michelin Commander 2 on the front end and what a difference!! Bike rolls great, front end is really quite, and best of all, the dreaded decel shake is gone. After much contemplation I've decided that my issue was a combination of crappy tires and under inflation. Yes, I'm mostly to blame for the tire wear. But, not completely in my mind. (The mind is a beautiful place :grin2 out here in AZ the road temp goes from 70 to 80 in the mornings to about 160 to 180 in the afternoon, not understanding how much of a factor that played on tire wear was the biggest problem. Lesson learned. Going to watch tire pressure a whole lot closer

A change in ambient air temperature can really affect a tire's pressure. I leave the tire monitor up on my Toyota Tacoma sometimes and the "cold" pressure {not driven at all that day} can vary as much as 3-4psi from early morning to mid-day in the summertime. That's in Georgia where it's 75F at 0600 and the high is "just" 90F-95F at 3-4PM. My commute is only 7 miles and even at 0600, I will see the tires warm up and the pressure go from 32psi to 34psi. I can't imagine what it would do in AZ! :surprise:

Anyone else find it a bit odd the recommended inflation pressures on our bikes is 41F/41R? I run 'em at that, checking it at least once a week. No weird wear except the expected knob "ramping?" on the front from braking on pavement. That took an already noisy tire up a few levels with mileage. =(

 

[SCRBen]

Anyone else find it a bit odd the recommended inflation pressures on our bikes is 41F/41R? I run 'em at that, checking it at least once a week. No weird wear except the expected knob "ramping?" on the front from braking on pavement. That took an already noisy tire up a few levels with mileage. =(

Yeah - I find it weird. I’m used to the usual 36F 42R (although I think the Harley was 30F and 40R.....can’t quite remember), but.....if that’s what it says, that’s what I do. I check them usually before every ride (which is only probably weekly at present anyway). As I’ve noted previously, they seem to have got quieter as I head up to 4000 miles, but I don’t know how much of that is me just getting used to them (probably only a little, I’d say), or the combined noise of the exhaust and air filter simply drowning them out (much more of a factor, I’d say).

I’ll still be looking for different tyres next year - still erring towards Metzeler Tourances, but I’ve not discounted your Michelin recommendations either, @eddie.
Ben

 

[flatrack]

I was surprised as well with the recommended 41psi front and rear but I check them often and follow the the recommendation...same with engine oil, only Yamalube.

Ben, I agree the stock tires seem to have gotten quieter...

 

[Sammy]

I set the tire pressure at 38 front and 36 rear, rode in this morning 75 degrees and 50 miles later the front was the same and the rear had increased 1 psi. I'll be looking to see how they do on the way home when its 110.

 

[Sammy]

Anyone have any experience with putting nitrogen in their tires to combat increases in tire pressure due to temperatures?


Thx

 

[ScroogeMcChuck]

Anyone have any experience with putting nitrogen in their tires to combat increases in tire pressure due to temperatures?


Thx

I sold cars about 13 years ago and we had nitrogen as an add on sale, maybe $50 or $75, I cant remember, and most people finance so $75 on a $30,000 loan was a drop in a bucket. Anyway, we had a whole sales pitch that I never really bought into, because regular air is like 78% nitrogen already. So you're paying for that other 22% which is not really...well, you get it...