FZR 1000 3.5" Tire recomendation

[Derek Young]

This site has good prices, free shipping over $100 as well.

http://www.canadasmotorcycle.ca/

Derek

[andyb]

Depends a lot on what you consider sticky and what you consider decent durability.  If the last tire you had was on the old 16" wheel, pretty much anything will both grip better and last longer.

I liked my BT-023GT's, got an easy 6k out of them and was still not down to the wear bars when I replaced them.  Great street tire.
Hated the BT-020 that I used.
Liked the BT-021 that I had, but the 23GT's were better still.
Pirelli Angels I was never happy with.  They lasted well enough but never felt good.
I highsided on a friend's VFR that had Avon's on it, and have shied away from them since.
Really adore the Pilot Power 2CT's so far, they feel great both in corners and straight lines, but they get weird when you're really cranked over (which is sorta a good thing, you shouldn't be pushing that hard on the street, and they're great at a more sane pace).  Not enough miles yet to report on life.
Hated every Dunlop that I've ever used.  Greasy when hot and slippery when cold.  Ick.
A friend just got Conti Motions and likes them so far, but again no idea how long they're going to last.


I wouldn't worry so much about cost, so long as it's kept within reason.  I'm usually really tightfisted on spending money, but brakes, tires, and chains are places that I don't want to save money.

[chocker]

Do the Conti Motions 180/55-17 rear rub. I ask because I am doing the GSXR mod and I only need the tire now.
Thanks,
Mark

[aviationfred]

I have the GSXR rear wheel mod and I am using Conti-Motions for the first time. I have 2000 miles on them and no complaints. 

Answer to your question.... The 180/55/17 does not rub anywhere on my 89'. Plenty of clearance.

Fred

[FJmonkey]

I have the GSXR rear wheel mod and I am using Conti-Motions for the first time. I have 2000 miles on them and no complaints. 

Answer to your question.... The 180/55/17 does not rub anywhere on my 89'. Plenty of clearance.

Fred

If you get rich and buy Dunlop Q2's, drop down to 170's to stay clear of the chain. The 180 will get about 3/16" machined off by the chain. Offset sprocket should cure it.

[movenon]

I have 120/60-17 and I am going to replace it with a 120/70... I feel its to low of a profile (I worry about damaging my rim) and the 170 has a slightly better load rating.
I vote 120/70-17.
George

[jvb_ca]

Try here prices look good
http://www.petes-superbike.com/index.php

Ditto on Pete's. If they don't have whats on there website, give them a call and they can usually find them. Good guys to deal with and tires show up at door almost the next day.
Two sets of PR's (originals and PR2's) and have mixed view on them. Performance is good, build quality not so sure...

Cheers...Jake

[markmartin]

I've got my second set of  Conti Road Attack front and rear.  I got 5000 mi. on the first set and the rear had worn through to the cords.  The front had some tread left, but I changed them as a set.  I love them, but my only comparison is to stock sized Avons. It's the only tire I've tried since the FZR/GSXR wheel swap, so like Andy said, probably a lot of tires are going to be better than the Avons I was running.   Maybe it's the tire profile and the tire rubber.  Either way, I'm loving the wheel upgrade, and you wouldn't go wrong with the Conti Road Attacks.    They are pricey. 

Mark M

[ribbert]

I've got my second set of  Conti Road Attack front and rear. 
Mark M

Unless a bit of research shows something better has come out in the last 6 mths, I'm about to fit my 4th set of Conti Road Attack 2's. There are lots of things that I like about them over the other popular dual compound tyres but the big one is the unusual front tyre profile. The FJ just loves it in the corners.

Noel

[skymasteres]

I wouldn't worry so much about cost, so long as it's kept within reason.  I'm usually really tightfisted on spending money, but brakes, tires, and chains are places that I don't want to save money.

I don't think I could agree more with this. I am the same way with car tires (well at least I was for my "fun" car)
On a motorcyle traction is YOUR LIFE. Even if you spend $200 per tire, you are saving a bundle if it makes the
difference between you staying up in that pucker situation vs. going down...

Sorry, I don't have a tire to recommend. But I can say that anything you get for that wheel is better than what the bike came with.

[skymasteres]

You know it's hilarious that, while I find myself searching the forums trying to decide on tires, I run into my last post on the matter recommending getting the best you can afford...

Right now I'm looking at the Conti Motions and some Pilot Road 4's Basically I'm trying to decide if I want to put a 4000 mile tire on the back or an 8000 mile tire. Both will grip more than I need them too. The price difference is almost double for the Pilots. (I'm kind of leaning towards the Pilot's)

[giantkiller]

I love the pr3s. I'm getting ready to put my r1 swingarm on with 190/55/17. Going to go with pr4s

[skymasteres]

I love the pr3s. I'm getting ready to put my r1 swingarm on with 190/55/17. Going to go with pr4s

How are you going to clear the chain with a 190?

[ribbert]

You know it's hilarious that, while I find myself searching the forums trying to decide on tires, I run into my last post on the matter recommending getting the best you can afford...

Right now I'm looking at the Conti Motions and some Pilot Road 4's Basically I'm trying to decide if I want to put a 4000 mile tire on the back or an 8000 mile tire. Both will grip more than I need them too. The price difference is almost double for the Pilots. (I'm kind of leaning towards the Pilot's)

I agree with the good tyre philosophy.
Too many people choose their tyres based on their riding style, that is, I don't ride hard, I don't need sticky tyres. Even if you're a slug, it's still possible to over cook a corner, need to stop in a big hurry, find all sorts of crap on the road in the wet or take some hazard avoidance action.

Modern tyres offer a pretty good balance between mileage and grip and have all but brought about the demise of track day tyres.
I've always been a cautious rider in wet, you can't ride that hard anyway so no point riding near the limit. But I have found in recent years my default wet weather speeds getting faster and faster.

I would rather lay my bike up for a month than compromise on the tyres I wanted if funds are short.
Good tyres also mean you can crank the FJ way over AND hit the throttle and it just takes off without even a wobble, if that's your thing.

Either way they are great insurance and tyres in the US are cheap.

I have scraped the chin fairing and mounting bolts a couple of times each side (yes, I have pictures) It is not a lean angle I aim for on the road but if you're riding hard on unfamiliar roads you get caught out from time to time.
I think I have successfully made the "never give up on a corner, never look at what you don't want to hit, do not take you eye off where you want to go" reaction instinct. I have put it to the test a number of times.

On a blind RH corner at the North end of the Putty road last year I recall experiencing the 'slow motion' that people speak of during an accident - except I hadn't had the accident yet but in my mind it was under way, I expected the bike to disappear from under me any moment. Your brain suddenly processing enormous amounts of info about likely outcomes and you become strangely aware of everything that's going on in great detail. (if only we could tap the brains capacity to do this on command)

I just kept leaning, leaning, lift foot off peg (getting squashed) leaning, THEN the corner tightened up! The corner was smooth, no bumps and I have the back of my bike raised but everything was scraping, chin faring bolt, the fairing itself, peg, muffler, collector, stand, even the brake pedal all showed fresh scrapes later and I can remember thinking mid corner, this is ridiculous. 
Within a few seconds I had forgotten about it and was concentrating on the next corner. It was a non event that I'm sure would have been an event on shitty tyres.
I didn't give it another thought until that evening and even then it was only in awe of the fact the tyres didn't let go.

I had about 600k's of twisties behind me that day and even more the previous day, I was really in the groove in a way that only a couple of days like that does and was within an hour of my destination and riding like the clappers over strange roads.
Over the day the lean angles were increasing, the braking later, the revs on the gear changes getting higher and higher, my body shifting became more exaggerated in the corners (something I don't normally do other than a slight roll to the inside on my bum, without actually moving it on the seat and a slight lean in and forward to neutralise the bars)
If I had hard wearing tyres that day I'm sure the life I got from them would have been limited to whatever was on the odometer on that corner.
There were many lesser events of a similar nature, just leaning a little further than planned when corners don't quite unfold as you imagine while you're rounding them but when you know you have great chunks of reserve grip you don't give it a second thought.

I got about 8000km's from those tyres and thought that was pretty good.
I look at the $'s they cost for the fun I can have on them and reckon they're good value for money. There is no way I could ride like that and have so much fun on crap tyres. I enjoy riding like that and do not like the feeling of being at the limit every time I crank it over with nothing up my sleeve if it turns nasty.

When running a 16" rear with nothing special on the front I had more slides than I deserved to get away with. It has not happened since moving to good tyres.

A lifelong habit when getting on a strange bike is to give the front and back brake a prod separately to get a feel for brakes and grip should I need to stop in a hurry. This is not really an issue these days but 30 years ago, riding dozens of bikes a week, it was not uncommon to get on something that had next to no brakes and 20 yo tyres.

I have an '88 FJ in my garage at the moment and took it for a short ride to establish how it was running before working on it. Without even really thinking I gave the brakes a progressive pull and it seemed like almost as soon as I hit the front, the wheel locked up, waaay before I would have expected (Jeff, you NEED a new front tyre). Better to find out in a controlled stop than when you need them.

Not having great grip, safety aside, probably cuts 20% of the fun off my riding.

I love having lots of reserve grip when riding normally, gives you great confidence and can bail you out of a sticky situation.

Noel

[andyb]

You know it's hilarious that, while I find myself searching the forums trying to decide on tires, I run into my last post on the matter recommending getting the best you can afford...

Right now I'm looking at the Conti Motions and some Pilot Road 4's Basically I'm trying to decide if I want to put a 4000 mile tire on the back or an 8000 mile tire. Both will grip more than I need them too. The price difference is almost double for the Pilots. (I'm kind of leaning towards the Pilot's)

Go with the 4,000mi ones.  Simply because then you'll have brand new tires twice as long. 

As a note about rubbing, the Shinko 003 Stealth (is a horrible, horrible street tire for nearly everyone) is wide enough that the 170 will get chewed up by the chain a bit.  Hell of a drag tire though, even in the hard compound.