Quote:
Originally Posted by beatr911
The 17s just have so many choices on width, aspect ratio and compounds.
I'll have to experiment with Tony Foales software to gain a better understanding of what might work well.
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When building a motorcycle project I think the first thing a person should do is ask "what are the best tires for this bike/application?" and once you've chosen those, they dictate what rim size/width you'll run. The tires are the one major item that you can't modify in the garage and that are a big factor in the ride qualities.
I had 16" wheels on my EX250, and tire choice was very limited and people would spend money to have their stock wheels converted to 17" (this was before Kawa switched to 17" on the EXs). 17" is where the tire companys have focused their efforts for the last couple of decades, but that focus is on 250cc+ bikes, not little bikes.
There's a fair choice in 18" because of the vintage bikes. The 250x18 Bridgestone BT39SS that came on the Dream 50 are very popular with the people racing CB160 Hondas, and they are very light and stick very well though they may be a bit too lightweight/soft for general street riding. Heidenau has several sport tires in small 18" sizes, and I think they also have some 17" for small bikes as they are used in "moped" race events in Europe. Heidenau also has some tires for different size scooters that are made with reasonably sticky rubber (as opposed to "rim protector" rubber) .
Heidenau Tires
Tony's software is very handy. The drawback is that it is up to the user to decide which set of numbers are the ones s/he want's to use; the software doesn't offer any "this is better" comments. It sure beats trying to do a bunch of manual computations but it can easily get to a "too much data, can't tell what is best" situation where I have to just pick one and go with it.
cheers,
Michael