Kumho 195/55/16 on my 08 wing

Well I got the tire on the bike today. I left the wheel weights on from the other tire. After a little dish soap and letting the air out, it popped right in. I had more trouble lining it up on the lug studs than getting it in the wheel well. Aired the tire back up to 35psi
changed my oil and filter. Let the bike off the jack and moved the bike to the front of the house. Went inside and got a cold drink and cooled off a few minutes.
Took the bike for a test ride of about 30 miles on straight and curvy roads.

35 PSI cold

1-The bike seemed to want to drift to the right and left, more so to the right.
2- Had to use a little more counter steer but not bad.
3- SMOOTH AIN'T THE WORD FOR THE RIDE!!! (like going from a Cadillac to a Lincoln
4- No vib's or bounce
Rode about 20 miles stopped in a Church parking lot and checked the air pressure. Setting on 41 psi hot so I thought I would try letting it down to
35 psi hot and try that.

35 PSI hot

1- Less drift
2- Counter steer about the same
3- Still SMOOTH
4- On the way back I ran it up to 100 mph No vibrations or bounces or wobbles speeding up or slowing down. ( I think it might have taken some my 30-45mph reducing speed wobble out)

I don't think It will take long to get used to the CT
I am going to check the cold tire pressure in a little while to see what it's at after I let it down to the hot 35 psi

Ray "dogwood1"
DS # 404

PS: After tire cooled down the psi was 30lbs
__________________

Congrats on your darkside. My twin ran a car tire on his wing and it was awesome!


..............bobby

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Welcome to the Darkside,
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I am about to mount the Kumho 195/55 R16 on my 2008 Wing. I also bought the Bridgestone BT45 Motorcycle Tire H-Rated 130/70-18 REAR for the front. I'd read that most mount the rear tire backwards on the front. Did I get that right?

I've run the darkside on my 2006 Nomad for a while but I've not experimented with a rear tire on the front.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Jim

FLWingmaster,
I haven't been on the site for a while, so I don't know if you mounted the Batt. yet. I've had the same rear and rear/front (see signature) on my wing now for some time (14,000 miles on Batt, and 9,000 on the Kuhmo) and am convinced it's the ultimate combo. I mounted the BattleAxe in the normal rotation. I've also heard of several others doing it in reverse, and they saw no difference. Good-on-ya. Semper-fi Mike

have the Kumho rear [non-run flat] and Bridgestone rear up front. Mounted the front tire in normal rotation. This is on my wife's wing. She loves it - I've ridden it too. Seems rock solid. 38 psi rear, 41 front. tHanks for all the feedback and help.

Jim