transam4life wrote on 07/04/24 at 18:02:11:


How many miles do you ride in a year?  What kind of weather conditions.

The kind of mileage varies greatly with the kind of roads you ride and the temperatures.  Fifty degree days are far easier on a tire than a 90 degree day.  Pavement can be smooth asphalt or very aggressive chip seal - the roads in Arkansas are really hard on tires as the aggregate is small and sharp!

Lower cost or performance tires will generally last 6 - 8,000 miles - if it takes you 5 years to rack up those kind of miles then get the Shinko Tourmaster.

If you ride 20,000 miles in 5 years - get the Michelin Commander.  They are expensive - but not as expensive as 3 sets of cheaper tires.

The 130/90-15 tire is a nice fit for the bike.  Plenty of width for a 30HP bike!  (The 60 HP bikes in the 70's had 110/90 rear tires and can be ridden faster than the Savage).

I believe the wet weather traction is what suffers first as a tire ages - that seems to happen with my car tires as well.

As my car tires age I notice they will start to spin easier when I leave a stop on wet pavement.  My car is front wheel drive and stick shift......and the tires get slippery and need to be replaced before I actually wear off all the tread.

One of the cycle magazines tested new tires that were beyond the recommended 5 year age - and they used a race track to record lap times with the aged tires.  They determined that they were still good tires - I believe they should have tested the traction in the wet prior to declaring the tires were still good!

I'm also running the Tourmaster 230's with a 130/90 rear. Good price and good tread. I will say these track in grooves a lot more than the Michelin Commander II's I had on previously.

I took both tires off at the same time but used a poor man's MC jack that was really long. I put eye bolts on and used straps to hold the bike stable. I've done that both times I've put new tires on.

My version is on the bottom of the first page in this thread:
https://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?board=tech;action=display;num=110037934
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Hey, I got it!  What a pain in the A$$!

IRC Rocks!

GMC!  GET MY COFFEE!

Yes, the flat underside of the muffler mount bracket works good.  It’s like it was designed as a jack location.  Secure the handlebar/front forks with something because when you lift the rear the weight balance will shift to the front and the handlebar/forks will need to be steady — especially when you bust that axle nut/bolt free and reinstalling.  You don’t want to throw the bike on the ground when you’re torque-ing around back there.

Note: You will curse the little screw holding the lower and upper belt guards together.  Be prepared to drop a few F-bombs!  You have to be able to rotate the upper belt guard forward and out of the way.  And if you have the stock license plate bracket and license plate on it, remove the license plate (you can leave the bracket on).  You’ll want every available inch possible when removing the wheel from the swing arm.  If you don’t remove it first, you’ll see what I mean when you get there!  

Take pictures as you go to help remember exactly where things are… like belt tension marks, brake adjustment position, and left/right axle spacers.  You’ll want to check your belt and brake adjustment positions while you’re down there, but at least you’ll know where they were set before you tore it down (good starting point for reassembly).

Ye good ole Dunlop D404s.  I liked those on a previous S40 I had.  In fact, they’re what I just replaced with the Shinkos on my current bike.  I don’t know what kind of miles they had on ‘em, but they weren’t dry rotted after 8 years and still had good tread.