FJ Tires

[Arnie]

Bozo, I agree with your last statement, but the letter designation or rating doesn't specify grip or compound.  The S, T, H, V, Z (and maybe others) are all sustained high speed ratings.
It is true that usually the higher the speed rating, the LESS depth of tread and wear life a tire/tyre has.(suddenly you're concerned about spelling? ) 
Within a given speed rating, you'll be able to find a wide range of grip and wear even though they have the same rating.  I've had V rated Michelins that were hard as rocks and were dangerous to ride with (A&M 48 come to mind) until you finally got them hot, and I still never liked how they felt.  I also had the misfortune to ride the M89 and M90 tires and didn't like them much better.  However, I really like the Michelin Road Pilot II that I'm currently riding on.
I'm pretty certain that it is not legal to fit any tire that has less than a V or Z rating to the FJ in Australia. (doubtful that it is enforced often)
I've also had an H rated tire that I really liked, the Metzler 88 and 880.
None of this may apply to you.  Some folks swear by tires that I swear at.  Your choice.

Cheers,
Arnie

FYI, I have michlens front (V rated) and rear (H rated) on my J. The front is fantastic, the rear appears to last for ever (I believe they are duel compound) but the rear only worked in the dry after it was half worn, lets put it this way if I didn't ride MX in my younger years I'd be collecting bits of the road six times now. In the future I'll get a V rated tyre (Oz spelling)no matter what type it is.

Mileage means nothing if the bike drops.

[fj11.5]

+1 on the pilots arnie, only michelin tyre I've actually liked/trusted, had the ones fitted to different bikes , the mitches with that weird side groove , liked to slide with no warning even once hot, , never trusted bike shops to fit their recommend tyres, go in for bridgestone battle axes and they fit crap ,,

[Arnie]

Do NOT trust bike shops!!!  Its YOUR ASS (and the rest of your precious parts) on the line !!!

Make sure you specify EXACTLY what you want.  Bridgestone call lots of tires "BattleAxe".  You must specify BT021 or BT014, or BT45, or whatever.  Dunlop also call (or have called) a bunch of different tires the same name, "SportMax".  I expect this may be common with tire and tyre companies.
YOU must take responsibility for your own safety.  They (mostly) only care about profits.

Arnie

+1 on the pilots arnie, only michelin tyre I've actually liked/trusted, had the ones fitted to different bikes , the mitches with that weird side groove , liked to slide with no warning even once hot, , never trusted bike shops to fit their recommend tyres, go in for bridgestone battle axes and they fit crap ,,

[Ants73]

hey everyone, i found all of these tires for the FJ and i was wondering if any of you had experience with them, and for some opinions to guide me int he right direction. i've attached a link to 7 different options. Please help me out!!

http://www.swmototires.com/tires-and-wheels-tires-products.htm?q=attdaa3-2-1093819zz~

Hi All,

Here's my Tyre experience for whatever it's worth. I'm just running stock size rims etc on a 92FJ, so still have the 16inch rear wheel. My FJ is my daily commute, so i normally clock up between 500-600km's each week without any weekend rides. Here in NZ our roads are pretty rough & i have about 2km's of gravel/metal road twice a day, so my tyres get plenty of different surfaces to run on.  I ride rain, hail, sunshine, ice, snow, doesn't matter, so they're used in all sort of temperatures etc.

When i purchased the bike back in February, it had near new Metezler ME880 marathons both front & rear. The rear lasted me a total of 7,381km's before it was replaced, & was really "squared" off, but always felt good, & I had no "moments" of any note that caused me concern as to it's level of grip or anything. I'm just about to replace the front ME880 next week which would have seen good for a total of around 16,100km's!! Not bad i reckon & it still seems to hang on okay.

I'm going to replace the front with a Metezler Lasertech & see how that goes. I replaced the rear with a Shinko SR777, which i understand is basically taken from an old Yokahama mould. So far the Shinko SR777 has performed really well, it's done approx 8700km's to date & is still looking good & hangs on in the corners as the well as the Metzeler did prior to it. The other difference I did notice (& this is only my observation) that the rolling diameter of the Shinko SR777 is marginally larger than the Metzeler. Only reason i observed this was the engine RPM's dropped approx 150RPM's at 100km/hr. This is based on when both tyres were new as well, not with one warn & the other new.

Sorry about everything being in KM's for you MPH people.

Cheers

Ants

[FJ Flyer]

Hi,
Michelin does make bias ply tires. They are the Pilot Activ sport touring bias ply.

Mark

Wow, that's a new one on me.  Never thought they made anything bias.

[fjbiker84]

I've run the Battleax tires and currently have Avon Azaro AV46-ST (rear) and AV-45 ST (front) on my 84 FJ.  I liked the Battleax - good tire - but think the Avon is better.  Handles great and like the appearance of the tread design better.

[FJmonkey]

I've run the Battleax tires and currently have Avon Azaro AV46-ST (rear) and AV-45 ST (front) on my 84 FJ.  I liked the Battleax - good tire - but think the Avon is better.  Handles great and like the appearance of the tread design better.

Welcome fjbiker84, I ran the same Avons on my 86 when I still had 16" wheels and I liked them. The 120 in the front was a little pinched, 110 has a better profile. You should join us SoCal members on our next ride. We are getting quite a group down here, might be enough for a SoCal rally.