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Tires for R12RT for Trans Lab Ride?
- Thread starter cberry
- Start date
I'm probably wrong on this but I have always been under the impression you aren't supposed to mix brands of tires together.
Your 5.5" rear wheel isn't suitable for use with a 150 mm wide tire. I tried a 160/70-17 once. The widest part of the tire was no wider than the edge of the wheel rim. Never felt very good. A 150/70-17 needs a 4" wide wheel.
cberry
Chuck Berry
That's the kind of feedback I need! So, is there a suitable wider profile tire made that will fit the 5.5 inch rim? I'm not going to look for new wheels.
I'm not a fanatic about keeping the same brand on both wheels except for the Metzler Z6's where I hear that the front tire wipes the road so that the near slick rear tire can be more effective in wet Wx. BTW, I'm on about my 10th set of tires on this bike. I prefer the Z6, although right now I'm on my second set of PR 2's, giving them another chance just in case my earlier eval was faulted.
Take a look at those: dunlop d616 and pirelli sync. They both come in 120 and 180 17 inch tires. I have the d616, better then any other road tire in the gravel, but noisy. 6000 Km on the rear and at the wear bars. Front should be good for twice that. I believe Pirelli rear should last for 8 to 10 km but the dunlop is a bit better off road.
akbeemer
SURVIVOR
+1 on the Dunlop D616. They will fit an RT and I believe they are the closest you will get to a dual sport tire that does fit. http://www.dunlopmotorcycle.com/tirecatalog_tire.asp?id=93
cberry
Chuck Berry
I appreciate the comments. The problem is trying to get a good off road tire that will fit on a 5.5 inch rim. The 12 GS' rim is only 4 inches. I'm glad to see that the Dunlap will fit a 5.5, but equally NOT glad to see only 6000 KM on the rear tire. If I put a fresh set on here in FL I'd probably want to change them when I got to NL so they'd be fresh for the TLH. Not an impossible task, just expensive. Better idea: run the current PR II's down and put fresh Dunlaps on in NL. Thanks again for all the inputs.
akbeemer
SURVIVOR
As an aside I know of one guy who road the haul road to Deadhorse this summer on an RT with street tires without incident. He made it up and back in two days from Fairbanks and that is moving pretty quickly. And then there is the well recorded ride of a fellow on an FJR who road the haul road this summer, in wet conditions, using street Metzlers, and he made very, very good time.
cberry
Chuck Berry
I looped thru your town 2 summers ago on the RT, 2 up, with street tires. No problem in any of the construction zones from Haynes to Anchorage. I think the TLH will be very similar to the gravel/dirt mix that I experienced then. I can't remember whether I was using Michelin or Metzler tires. The biggest danger is a huge pot hole that has been brought back up to road level by the plow just pushing a lot gravel into the hole. I don't know how to protect against that.
