front tire size

I have a 1300R, and the front tire is 140/80/17....Been looking for another tire and itseems I either go with a metz for about $135.00 plus shipping...or nothing....Wont do a dun-not again....Question...anyone running a thinner tire on their bikes.....was thinking of going to a 130/80/17 so I would have more choices of manufacturer....just wondering if a 120 or a 130 would fit on my wheel....

Jerry

I would like to see one with the 120or 130 on there , just to see what it looks like. I like a large tire in the front and now Im running the 150-17 metz. I have about 12k on it and it looks like it will go another 5k ?????? You never know. Looking to try something else. I dont drag the floorboard as much with the 150 it raised the front up a hair. I dont think the rim would be to big for the 130, It probley will be my next tire on the front.

I just got a Kenda 150/70-17 $68 it is listed as a rear tire from JC Whitney. but I have installed it on the front. it is wider and a little shorter. but when installed on the rim it seems to be a little taller than the stock 140/80-17 I have only run up the road about 10 miles. So far I like it. Ill keep you posted.

I've heard about this and in fact saw one on Cheaha Mountain . He had a Goldwing rear mounted on the front of his Valkyrie. All the ones that I've seen and heard of that run a rear tire on the front turn it backwards...Why ? DAMNIFIKNOW...But I will find out.

( COPY / PASTE FROM THE VALKYRIE BOARD )....A drive wheel (rear) is directional to give best performance in one direction. The front of a bike (braking wheel) you would want the best performance under breaking, so the opposite direction is thought to work better. On dry clean roads, I doubt there is much difference, but on wet or dirty roads people think the goop sheds better out of the treads.
Personally, I dont buy it on pavement, as the tire under braking is still rotating forwards and the water has to move forward out the channels , then backwards, but to each his own. We used to do it on our mountain bikes, where we were in loose stuff.

+I follow the tire engineers arrows, but I have considered a car tire for the rear!

I used to mud hog alot when I was younger. And I went through alot of Directional tires. front and rear. The water or mud is stationary the tire is moving. if you want to get through it down to the surface of the pavment. it must be moved out of the way. the tip of the >>>>> must reach the water (or mud) first. in order to force it outward away from the tire. turned the other way . <<<< would force everything to the center of the tire lifting it off the road.
That is what I have found to happen. Like you say on dry pavement it propably dosent make much diffrence. But alot of us Darksiders are not afraid of the rain

I have seen directional tires installed backwards on the front of some mud racers, to keep the front end up on top of the mud.

( ANOTHER RESPONSE I GOT...COPY/PASTE FROM THE VALKYRIE BOARD ) .......The belts on a tire overlap just a bit (end of one, start of another) On a drive wheel they place them in such a way as to not have the belts 'push against' one another. This means they are situated so that a driving force will actually make them stay flat, so with that thinking, reversing one on the front will make the pressure (now braking instead of driving) will do the same thing....at least that's the theory.

It's a Tread Joint thing! ( - =

Posted By: Fla. Jim
Date: 5/16/2008 at 20:29:01

In Response To: Why do you turn the tire backwards ? (Smokin'joe-VRCCDS#0005)





Run Rear Tire on Front
By Jim Smith (Floridajim) on Wednesday, July 12, 2000 - 08:30 am:

And now time for something completly different! I am running Dunlop 491 elite-2's on my valk. The rear is a 160/80/16 same size as comes on the wing the front is a MT90/17 a rear tire I am running backwards for safety reasons. The current rear tire is my second time around with this model tire. I got 11,600 miles with the first one with 1/32's tread remaining when I changed out I run 41 psi. At 5,600 miles on this one I have 6/32's of tread left so I should get around the same again (if I can stop snatching 2nd, trigger wheel makes me do it!).The elite front at the same 5,600 miles has used exactly 1/32 of rubber running 36psi for handeling reasons, so it will probably dryrot before I wear it out(at current wear 50,000 + Miles??) It currently has 10/32's of tread left. I drive mostly single and moderately fast with ½ city & ½ country driving in South coastal Fla. so there isn't a lot of twisties. The current set up is handling very well, not as sticky as the stock but I don't ride in any road races or try to tame mountain roads either, I do scrape the running boards at speed on a regular basis on my favorite road and have never been fearful the tires would break loose in a hard curve. There is also no tread noise as with the stock tires. This set up is more than fine for my capabilities and road conditions. Just my experience. Your milage of course "will" vary due to different riding style and road conditions. Jim (-=

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By don r. tyler (Txduke) on Wednesday, July 12, 2000 - 06:05 pm:
do what......running a rear wing tire backwards on the front of the valkyrie? i thought all motorcycle tires were directional......what is the safety reason for this ? please let me know!
me dont understand......thanks

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By Jim Smith (Floridajim) on Thursday, July 13, 2000 - 08:16 am:
This is a long answer to a short question. But you asked.Posted by Fla. Jim on Wed - Apr 26 - 09:51am:

Dunlop was no help at all (go figure!!) so I went to my local tire company that has always answered straight questions with straight answers. Here is my question and their reply.
-----Original Message-----
From: Smithjos@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2000 3:09 PM
To:
Subject: Useing rear tire on front

Hello: I am currently using a rear tire on the front of my bike. I have heard a lot of disclaimers and read a lot more about why not to do this so I understand you can't condone this practice. I also understand this was quite a common practice some years back when front and rear tires were the same size. It seems back then whenever they did this they turned the rear tire backwards, with the logic being that the rear was designed to push not brake? Since I now have over 3,000 mile of stop and go running with multiple hard stops and no problems to date can you think of a reason I should turn the tire backwards? The tire in Question is not of your manufacture and I promise to keep the "&ast;&ast;&ast;&ast;" name out of any correspondense I may have with other bikers. I will continue to run the rear on the front no matter what your reply. I am just courious as to the "best" rotation to run it. Your Company has always been straight up in answering my questions, so in advance I thank you for your reply. Jim Smith, South Florida

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Hi Jim
Yes you should turn the tyre around, to run against its direction arrows. This is because of the way the tread joint is made on the tyre. When braking the forces generated will try to open the tread jointing of the tyre. This will be prevented if the tyre is run in reverse direction

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Hi again, Thanks for your prompt reply. Not knowing proper tire manufacture terminology I am somewhat confused with your reply. "This is because of the way the tread joint is made on the tyre. When braking the forces generated will try to open the tread jointing of the tyre." By tread joint are you referring to the tread pattern, or the way the belts are laid under the tread? Thanks again Jim Smith

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Hi jim
Please excuse me. The tread is applied to a tyre as a flat wide strip of rubber. When moulded the pattern is added. The ends of the tread obviously have to be joined together prior to moulding. The ends of the tread are not butt jointed together, but cut at a steep angle & then joined together. This obviously makes the joint area larger to help absorb the stress placed upon it. Therefore because they are joined at an angle, if you rotate the tyre in one direction you will (in effect) close the joint once every rotation. If you rotate it in the other direction you will try to open the joint once every rotation. A rear tyre is arrowed to close the joint on every rotation of the tyre as it is put under power.

The same tyre would have to be mounted against its rotation arrow on the frontbecause although in normal use the joint is runnng the wrong way, there is no force being applied to it (the front wheel is just running along without the application of power). however when you brake, a strong force is pushing from the rear to the front of the motorcycle, & this would open up the tead joint, possibly leading to the tread shearing off the tyre completely. Therefore, if you run the rear tyre backwards on the front, braking forces will then be trying to close the tread joint, overall the best situation. Its a little complicated, I know. To follow it better use an orange, a pen & a chees grater. With the pen draw a slight arc on the orange, and imagine this to be the tread joint. rotate this as a rear tyre & press the grater into the bottom of it, forcing it backwards. Now do the same again but turn the grater around. The first time that you do it, you will see the scar from the grater is the same angle as the curve. The second time the grater mark will curve the wrong way. Therefore to use this orange as a front tyre (but still get the grater mark to be the same, you have to turn the orange around

I hope this has been of use to you.

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Pic of my new set up a 205/65/16 Hydroedge on the back and a .....K491 Elite II MT90/17 rear mounted Backwards of course for the above reason. Running 36psi in bothe with great results
Others have chosen to not run them backwards with good results....Me, I like to tread with some light into the night.

interesting. I can see pros and cons of both. I think I will leave mine the way it is for now. I ride every day and we get lots of rain down here in east texas. Thanks for all the research on this subject. Griz..

Going to try and post a link off the VRCC that show's the rear tire mounted " backwards " on the front.
http://www.valkyrieforum.com/forum/vrcc_tech.cgi?noframes;read=1216098
http://www.valkyrieforum.com/forum/vrcc_tech.cgi?noframes;read=1216271

I ordered my front tire....Metz 880....140/80hb/17, delivered for $113.99..best price I found.....Believe me I looked.....
http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/

Jerry

grizak wrote:I just got a Kenda 150/70-17 $68 it is listed as a rear tire from JC Whitney. but I have installed it on the front. it is wider and a little shorter. but when installed on the rim it seems to be a little taller than the stock 140/80-17 I have only run up the road about 10 miles. So far I like it. Ill keep you posted.

I'm considering the same tire up front on my valk.
How do you like the tire so far?
I'm assuming your running the radial designed tire in the correct rotational pattern?

The way the tire rep talked, he is indicating a bias ply tire is he not? On a radial tire the ply of the cords are in a circular pattern not in the direction of travel and are tied/locked to the bead. It shouldn't matter which way you mount the tire except for the tread pattern for water displacement. I think most tubeless tires today are radial tires. I am no tire expert, so please correct me if I am wrong.

You are correct,most cruisers are using radials.
A few bikes come with a radial in rear,and a bias up front.
The bias ply tires are available,some folks claim a better ride.

I'm going to give the kendra tire a shot.
At $51,quite a savings compared to the $150 I've been paying for the metz 880's.

dennisraz wrote:

grizak wrote:I just got a Kenda 150/70-17 $68 it is listed as a rear tire from JC Whitney. but I have installed it on the front. it is wider and a little shorter. but when installed on the rim it seems to be a little taller than the stock 140/80-17 I have only run up the road about 10 miles. So far I like it. Ill keep you posted.

I'm considering the same tire up front on my valk.
How do you like the tire so far?
I'm assuming your running the radial designed tire in the correct rotational pattern?

I love it. it handles like a dream. I have been playing with the air pressures a little. I think I like it at 28-30 psi yes I am running it acording to the arrow on the tire. I also have a tube in it. I have not tried to seal the rim yet. I dont think you can beat it for the price.

I don't know why I thought the tire was a radial.
I ordered mine this evening,and intend to mount it backwards and go for a ride in the rain.
I'll let you guys know how it handles wet weather.
Lots of it here in Ohio.
I 'd like to know the answer before I get a rain storm away from home.

REAR tires on the front? You're all crazy! CRAZY! And you're going to crash and burn in a horrible fire ball!

I saw a picute of an M109 with a rear MC tire on the front and a wide kit on the back. It looked pretty good if you were going to be riding on the beach.

I went with the ME 880 150/80/17. Its a front tire. Got it mounted last night. It beats the s**t out of the dunflop.....cant wait to burn the mold release off so I can try a couple corners with it....

Jerry

Morgan Buchanan wrote:REAR tires on the front? You're all crazy! CRAZY! And you're going to crash and burn in a horrible fire ball!

maybe so, but it will be one awesome ride.

I got to check out the new front tire in a rain storm today. it handled like a dream. was riding down the rain coverd highway at 70 mph. no hydroplaning. I like it

I mounted mine opposite the directional arrow,and the tire handles just fine,even in the rain.
I should have looked for a 160 or 170 series as the tire is much shorter.
My next tire will be a little larger,but for now,looks like i wont be buying tires for a season or two!



A pic of the new tire and my first paint job.

dennisraz wrote:

grizak wrote:I just got a Kenda 150/70-17 $68 it is listed as a rear tire from JC Whitney. but I have installed it on the front. it is wider and a little shorter. but when installed on the rim it seems to be a little taller than the stock 140/80-17 I have only run up the road about 10 miles. So far I like it. Ill keep you posted.

I'm considering the same tire up front on my valk.
How do you like the tire so far?
I'm assuming your running the radial designed tire in the correct rotational pattern?

I now have approx. 4000 miles on the Kenda. A friend and I were looking at my front tire and he said it looked like it was cupping a little. after closer inspection. it does look like the edges are feathered. this may be due to not turning the tire around. as was discussed earler in this thread. so yesterday I demounted the tire and turned it around. and re mounted it. I will see if the feathering goes away.. the tire still has lots of rubber left. and still handles very well.. Ill keep everyone posted... Griz

Thanks for the info griz