Here's the original IRC takeoffs that I dropped off at the shop to have swapped out today. They off my 05 & had about 5650mi on them and as you can see the back is completely worn, whereas the front still has tread, but is dry-rotted extremely bad. I've only put a little over 400mi on the bike and looking at the condition of these tires just scares me   (Will post a comparison of the new ones after I pick them up)

Can't wait to pickup the new ones after work  

I have 06 with 4200 miles and those tires look just like mine and the front is just like yours, plenty of tread but dry rotted.  

Don't think I can wait out the season without new rubber, going to the GAP October 2nd!

Ramsforever wrote on 09/04/09 at 11:49:58:


20,000 on the original tire?  That's gotta be a record!

youzguyz wrote on 09/04/09 at 12:45:15:


Youzguyz,

What's the sizes and part #'s of those Metzelers you're using? I'm gonna get me some of those...also where'd you get'em?

That looks very familiar.  I had a blow out today on the original back tire with 4725 miles on it.  I knew it was getting close to time to replace.

Luckily I was going in a straight line down a hill so I just pulled in the clutch and killed the engine and coasted to a stop.

Naptha seems to clean the mold compound off quickly.  Helped mine grip a little better right away.

Well, here's the updated pics of the new tires...

Shinko 712 tires 100/90-19 front & 140/90-15 on the rear.

Haven't had a chance to ride it other than aligning the belt and such, so I can't comment on the tires or the increase in size yet, but just visually, I can't believe how squared off the old back tire was   I think these will be about 1,000 times better  

I'm happy to report that after riding these for about a week around town and short jaunts on the highway, I am very pleased. I know that you're supposed to take it easy for the first hundred miles or so with new tires, so I haven't done much of anything yet, but they feel so much more sure footed I can't believe the difference.  

Out of curiosity, I took my GPS with me to compare MPH on the speedo with the bigger tire. Found that with most around town riding (30-40MPH) the speedo tended to read really close to the GPS, but not enough to worry about. On my short jaunts on the highway I found that when the speedo was reading 60, the GPS read about 64-66. Of course I had to "push" the limits a bit and see what the bike could do on the highway since I really haven't ridden it because of the prior tires and I'm glad   to report that it accelerated to 70+ very quickly and I topped out at 80 on the speedo and 86 on the GPS before I let off to slow down for my exit. (My highway jaunt is only about 1-1.5miles between exits, so I'm not sure how much higher it will go, but I don't know that I really want to go that fast anyway)  

BTW, ordered these tires through a Honda dealer on Wed, they were there on Thur. I took in my wheels Fri morning and they had them replaced before I came back at lunch. Tires, Tubes, Rim Strips, Mounting and Spin Balancing out the door price of $186 (Very good investment in my opinion)