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Tire size question for the guru's / engineers (Read 106 times)

DesertRat Serious Thumper Offline I love rat bikes! Posts: 1569 Arizona	Tire size question for the guru's / engineers 10/05/15 at 21:12:53 Forgive my lack of knowledge. What's the deal with the different size tires front and back. Some brands/models have larger front and smaller rears, and vice versa. What gives? Why not the same size for both?
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Re: Tire size question for the guru's / engineers
Reply #1 - 10/06/15 at 03:01:03

Tire size and shape affects the handling. On a factory bike the engineers establish tire sizes to match the bikes performance and handling (except when the bike is made more for a visual appeal).

Sport bikes tend to have quick handling, fat rear tires to handle all the HP and much smaller front tire to allow for quick handling.

Motocross bikes use a larger 21" front wheel to slow the handling down and make the bike more stable, and to allow the tire to roll over obstacles more smoothly.

Cruisers use a 19" or 21" front wheel for the same purpose - to make the bike a bit more stable.

When folks start modifying bikes - they tend to ignore reality and put on what they think looks good. Really wide back tires don't help the bike handle well, and on the Savage a 120 or 130mm back tire is plenty of tire for the HP and weight of the bike.

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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: Tire size question for the guru's / engineers Reply #2 - 10/06/15 at 08:06:17 In short, that sexy fat tire, slows handling. If the goal is Everybody just ooohs and ahhs over my bike, Then looks matter more. If the goal is I wanna practice hitting the line through certain curves on roads near you, and get the exit speed up, Then the fat tires aren't for you.
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DesertRat Serious Thumper Offline I love rat bikes! Posts: 1569 Arizona	Re: Tire size question for the guru's / engineers Reply #3 - 10/06/15 at 12:16:01 thanks guys, I was just pondering the future board tracker build. Looking for a "balanced" nostalgic look, eg. same size tires while maintaining the ride height of the donor S40. But the donor (S40) has dissimilar tire sizes front and rear.
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Re: Tire size question for the guru's / engineers
Reply #4 - 10/06/15 at 14:29:57

DesertRat wrote on 10/06/15 at 12:16:01:

thanks guys,

I was just pondering the future board tracker build. Looking for a "balanced" nostalgic look, eg. same size tires while maintaining the ride height of the donor S40. But the donor (S40) has dissimilar tire sizes front and rear.

But the OD's of the tires are nearly the same.

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norm92de Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 1180 El Paso TX Gender:	Re: Tire size question for the guru's / engineers Reply #5 - 10/06/15 at 14:58:15 Has anybody replaced the rear tire with a smaller cross section tire with the goal of sharpening the handling? Keeping the OD as close as possible to the stock tire eg. a 120/ 90.
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Re: Tire size question for the guru's / engineers
Reply #6 - 10/06/15 at 15:24:35

Yes....a 130/90-15.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1439822401/0#0

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1433293168/0#0

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1429353280/12#12

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1427595966/1#1

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1426857577/0#0

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DesertRat Serious Thumper Offline I love rat bikes! Posts: 1569 Arizona	Re: Tire size question for the guru's / engineers Reply #7 - 10/06/15 at 19:05:33 maybe I should have stated same size tire and wheel combo like the early board track bikes. my bad Dave, thanks for the links
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Re: Tire size question for the guru's / engineers
Reply #8 - 10/07/15 at 04:03:11

There are a few folks that have gone for a vintage tire look on the Cafe' conversions - the majority of them use the Firestone tires that have a very square tread profile.....and this is generally not a great handling tire by modern standards. The tires are also have a very large look.

This fellow ran similar tire sizes to get a vintage "standard" look.

Vintage Board Track bikes had a very large diameter wheel, and a small profile tire. In order to get this look on the Savage, you might want to convert the back tire to a 19" wheel and run 100/90-19 tire front and rear - the Avon Roadrider comes in that size and can be used front/rear. You can find a stock front rim, and get Buchanon's Spoke and wheel to make you a spoke set to fit the rear hub. The swing arm might have to be modified for clearance.

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