tire comparison

I was looking at the tire size chart that is so nicely placed on this forum. Here's my question
stock tire on my vtx1300s is 170/80/15, I see that darkside recommends 195/65/15. Now is that a shorter tire, I'm 6'5" so I really don't want my bike to sit any lower. How "tall" can you get in a darkside tire, I was thinking about a 205/70/15, but I am having a reluctant shop put it on so I don't want to have any big wrench issues. how about a 195/70/15? Will that maintain the current height on my bike?

Oh Twin, where are you.

Moon

205-70-15 will work just fine. You do need to check your bead width.

uhhh whats a bead width and how do I check it

manatee x wrote:uhhh whats a bead width and how do I check it

Take a tape measure wiuth you when you go tire hunting. When you look at a 205/70X15 tire, you will want to place the tape measure across the tire from left side to right side and measure the distance across the opening from one bead to the other. As I understand it, anything 5 inches or less should work out OK. Larger than that and the bead won't seat properly -- Tire flying off could ruin your whole day.

5 inches at rest is not a magic have to have thing here. If you do a little research on the tire yu are interested in you will find the manufacturers list what size rims tires are made for. The tire I am running will fit from a 5 1/2 up to 7 inch rims. 18k on it last year with absolutely no probs ..

See you out there
Smokey

thanks for all the imput from ya'll I think I 'm coming down with data overload.