Which Brand?

Hello all,

I have been doing a bunch of research and have finally decided to go over to the dark side. Thanks to links and information from this site and memebers here I have figured out which size tire I need. Now I need to figure out which brand. A buddy of mine is going with Toyo for his 06 Nomad. I have an 07 V* 1300. Is this suitable, or better yet advisable for my bike? If not which brand should I be looking at.

Installers around here insist on a Z rated tire so that does serverly limit what I can get.

Any advise at all would be greatly apprecated.

Thanks and ride safe,

Jan

Jan,

You may want to visit this site,
http://darkside.nwff.info/
Good info for DSers, tires to stay away from, calculator to find the right size, etc...

It shows v-Star 1300's using Dunlop sport 5000 195/60-16

Happy hunting,
Kind regards,
Wishbone

I dont think I have ever taken mine up to 120. So the H rated tire was good enough for me.
Smokey or Grantsfield might be able to offer better advice. Take your time and do a little research.

Jerry

I've been well above the speed rating on many tires over the years, some on cars, some on bikes, some on trucks. The thing about the rating is it is not a max speed rating per say. It is a rating of the max SUSTAINED speed of the tire, over a six hour period (I think) it really boils down to a matter of heat as the faster you go the more heat builds up in the tire from friction. I'm not personally advising this, nor am I advising speeding (I'm a cop nowadays so...) I'm just saying I will not worry about tire ratings when picking something for a street vehicle.

Now, the track is another thing.

Oh yeah, here in WY we run snow tires on our highway patrol and sheriff's trucks and none of them are speed rated to the speeds we run on a daily basis. Just something to think about.

George

There are only about 3 tires available for the VStar1300... a bridgestone turanza - bridgestone Blizzack(snow tire) and the Dunlop Sport5000... which I believe is the best of the bunch... run her at 27lbs. of air you should see 15-20k of happy tire life... good luck..

--
I've got about 5,000 miles on my Dunlops with about 1/32 of rubber worn off. No issues. I run about 38 lbs. on about 1,000 lbs. of total bike weight with me on it. (Note: I hardly ever go anywhere without being on it. )

RonK

It's been a while since I have been here.

Thanks for all the responses. Due to the fact that everyone I talked to backed out of their offer to mount a DS tire on a bike rim, I ended up going with an MC tire. But only getting one season out of it has turned me off going with another MC tire. I have now found two, possibly three places that will mount a DS tire for me. I will be going DS this winter.

The Dunlop sport 5000 195/60-16 will be the one.

Again thanks all and ride safe.