Can I use any 205/50R17?

I'm looking to go darkside in the next few weeks and can get a few different tires through work. My question is can I use any tire ,that's speed rated of course, with no problems? I can get Bridgestone or Firestone for relatively cheap and my choices are the following:

In Bridgestone; Turanza Serenity, Potenza, or Potenza S04 Pole Position
In Firestone; Fire hawk Wide Oval, or the Wide Oval Indy 500

I undersrand that some of the tires we can get in this size may rub the swing arm and some just won't fit period. I don't have unlimited money to be a guinea pig here so maybe it would be better to just get the Hankook? Thanks for any opinions.


Brian

Even the same tire will rub on one bike and not another.

I put a Hankook on my '04, had rubbing. Put it on my '05, no rub.

Did you try searching those tire names in our forum to see if anyone has tried them?

I have a Hankook on my '04. No rubbing at all...

Thanks guys, I'm not going to experiment here and will just order the Hankook. Maybe for the next tire I'll try something off the wall and be the guinea pig.


Brian

With great respect, please reconsider: There are several tires that get over 10K (Metzlers, PR2) and you still have all the cornering ability. Lets say that Michelin tires allow a 10/10 turning potential. CTs may give you a 8/10. Some day, you may need the extra 2/10, but you won't have it because you wanted to save $300 with longer life tires. How much will one day's lost work cost you? Plus medical bills, bike repairs, deductible and of course explaining all this to your wife?
With great respect to the engineers who designed the swoopy, sultry cornering superstar aka ST1300, please reconsider standard tires. My fav's are Bridgestone 020. Their ability to enhance cornering makes the bike feel 100 lbs lighter than any of the previous 4 tires I rode.

STreaker said:

Lets say that Michelin tires allow a 10/10 turning potential. CTs may give you a 8/10.

Click to expand...

Scientific/real world/actual measured data proof of this is where?

fnmag said:

This statement does not equate to my real world observations.

Click to expand...

I did say, "Let's say". I did not state a fact. IMHO, a CT can't corner as well as a designated motorcycle tire. Your observations are valid, and we all choose our own paths.

STreaker said:

IMHO, a CT can't corner as well as a designated motorcycle tire.

Click to expand...

Whoops, somebody forgot to tell me that! I wonder why I feel that scraping on the outside corner of my toes as I go thru corners then? Also ask my buddies on a ST and FJR that follow me how good the CT runs the corners! The one thing about using another CT is the width of the tire. Compare the other tires width to the Hankook's width. I know a fellow ST rider that has a Firestone on his '03 and he says it works also. The Hankook works very well. Try ordering thru Walmart.com Site-To-Store, free shipping to your nearest store, price around $110.00 I think.

HR Cole said:

Whoops, somebody forgot to tell me that! I wonder why I feel that scraping on the outside corner of my toes as I go thru corners then? Also ask my buddies on a ST and FJR that follow me how good the CT runs the corners! The one thing about using another CT is the width of the tire. Compare the other tires width to the Hankook's width. I know a fellow ST rider that has a Firestone on his '03 and he says it works also. The Hankook works very well. Try ordering thru Walmart.com Site-To-Store, free shipping to your nearest store, price around $110.00 I think.

Click to expand...

I've been to Indiana: There are no corners.

STreaker said:

I've been to Indiana: There are no corners.

Click to expand...

Come to Southern Indiana and I will prove you WRONG! Ha! No corners in Indiana, the nerve of this guy!

You know ...... before I joined this site, I thought that Darksiders was the name of my local tanning salon.......

HR Cole said:

Come to Southern Indiana and I will prove you WRONG! Ha! No corners in Indiana, the nerve of this guy!

Click to expand...

Looking at your Avatar, I'd say you prove my point. However, I do appreciate the invite, and I might take you up on that some day. In the meantime, if you make to the the Pacific NW, I'll show you corners, cliffs, and mountain passes and roads less travelled.

I'm not trying to start arguments about weather or not a car tire is safe on a motorcycle or not. I've done lots of reading about changing over and in my research I have yet to find anyone with concrete evidence or an actual report that says an accident or death was caused by running a car tire. Has it happened? I'm sure it has, somewhere. But, was using a car tire the main cause of the accident or was someone hurt by getting rear ended and it just so happened they had a bike with a car tire installed.

I have personally talked to 3 people who are currently running a car tire. One person is a member on this forum who I met at Moonshine and spoke to him about his experiences. Another is riding a Rocket III and is currently on his second car tire. And the third rides a Wing and replaced the original tire at 4,000 miles and not has 78,000 miles and has never run another motorcycle tire.

Me, well I'm apprehensive about going to the dark side but like I said I can't find any information that says someone took a corner and crashed because of the car tire. I'll be ordering the Hankook soon and because I have a Coats tire machine I'll be replacing it myself.


Brian

Brian,
if you happen to find yourself around the St. Louis area feel free to come by and try out my bike. Double dark and happy to let you try as long as you have an open mind.

T

T_C said:

Brian,
if you happen to find yourself around the St. Louis area feel free to come by and try out my bike. Double dark and happy to let you try as long as you have an open mind.

T

Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer, I'm extremely busy with that damn thing called work right now (2 jobs during the day and side jobs on the weekends) but I am planning a ride south to the St. Louis area and then I'm going to ride the river road north to Galena. I'll let you know if it materializes in the next month or so. More than likely I'll have the rear car tire on by then and I'll have my aching hamstrings all stretched out too.

Brian

Anddddddddddddddddd, it's ordered. Walmart should have if next week. $119.00 with tax, free shipping to store. I guess you can't beat that.

Brian

Now when the front tire wears down, order up a motorcycle rear, 130/70-18, and put it on the front.

You're good for 20k miles.

Let us know how it goes.

T_C said:

Now when the front tire wears down, order up a motorcycle rear, 130/70-18, and put it on the front.

You're good for 20k miles.

Let us know how it goes.

Click to expand...

Yes! Double Dark - I like the sound of that!

Dale

Congrats Brian!! I run a CT on my ST and love the confidence it gives me especially on wet roads. I recently bought a Goldwing for 2-up riding and can't wait to burn up the MT tire so I can go darkside on that too. I just feel better with the extra load capacity and wet weather traction. Good luck and watch the uneven pavement at slow speeds.

STreaker said:

Looking at your Avatar, I'd say you prove my point.

Click to expand...

My avatar is from Illinois, near Moonshine actually, there are no twisty roads in that area!! We had stopped to check out the 'Mug Tree' on Hwy 49 south of Casey, Illinois.