160/60 rear cons?

[takirb]

i've got a 160/60 rear tire on my pre98, and i've read this is bad, why is that? reason i ask is 'cause the prev owner put a new rear tire on before i bought the bike, continental something or other, size 160/60. is continental brand any good? why's the 160/60 bad? one thing i like about my bike is the rear tire. helps ease the eyesore of the gigantomous brake light on the pre98 750's - that's going to be one of my next projects
i believe...

[SweetLou]

Wow, with that big arse taillight in the pic, looks like that tires belongs on a moped or something!

I don't think the 160 is really "Bad", just depends on what type of riding you are doing. Do you do a lot of twisties and what not. I am thinking about upping to a 160 here soon as well.

[Court93kat]

takirb-

I also have a Continental Conti-Force 160-60 rear tire on my 93 600. I like the looks and performance of it myself. Price was good on it too. It holds the road really well (for me) and they are supposed to be pretty high mileage tires. I haven't been able to test that out yet, but I will soon enough.

On a seperate note..... where in SC are you?

[takirb]

Wow, with that big arse taillight in the pic, looks like that tires belongs on a moped or something!

ain't that the truth! i'm gonna see if my brother can fab something up fiberglass-wise, and i'll get some clear lens material from home depot and see if we can't make something happen...

at the moment i'm missing a plug in my carbs (that goes over the pilot screw or something i think?) so i'm not doing much riding at all lol but when i do, we don't have many twisties here in my town, so i believe mainly straight roads with a few occasional curves. i'm not an experienced rider, so railing down mountain roads is not in my near future...

[takirb]

On a seperate note..... where in SC are you?

i'm in greenwood, a lil' over an hour west from columbia...

[Court93kat]

takirb-

Have you been to the "Southeast" section of this board? We are trying to get a ride put together for the spring before I leave to Korea for a year. It will probably be around the Charlotte area so people from NC and SC can make it.

The more the merrier.

[takirb]

i'd love to make it to something like that, but i'm not an experienced rider yet. especially not experienced enough to ride a few hours out of town, this is my first bike and i haven't even been able to get it more than a mile up the highway lol. but if i can get lots more practice by spring, i'll look into it. things like that seem to be such a great time!

[ThAzKat]

Hey MD86, Highsight2020, BearKat and any of the others I missed there is another blue pre98 in the house. They say the 160/60 with a 120 on the front slows the steering down but I have found that I like it alot better than stock. I might be wrong but I thought Continental was a name for a Cooper tire.

[The CyberPoet]

Re: 160/60 rear cons?

i've got a 160/60 rear tire on my pre98, and i've read this is bad, why is that?

The reason it's normally considered "bad" is really to say it's "not perfectly safe" because the width of the tire on the stock pre-98 rear rim causes a less than ideal mating between the rim flanges and the tire bead lip, and exerts excess stresses onto the junction between the tire bead reinforcement and the sidewall (as well as deforming the actual arc radius of the tire, causing it to run hotter than intended). Most riders who try it may like it, but are missing the fact that the squeeze is making the tire act more like a 150/70 than a 160/60. Switching rear rims to a 98+ Kat rim will set everything right again, since the 98+ rim is wide enough to take a 160 safely without too much distortion.

I might be wrong but I thought Continental was a name for a Cooper tire.

Continental is Continental-Teeves, Inc. They own Conti Tire, as well as ContiTech group, which Cooper is now a kind of a step-daughter company to ContiTech group (officially Cooper has it's own stock, but ContiTech is the biggest shareholder). Meanwhile, Cooper's motorcycle division is Avon Tires, whose production is not the same as Continental's motorcycle tire production. Sometimes it's hard to tell the players apart without a score card

The only reasons I know these things is that I once interviewed for a Exec VP slot for Continental-Teeves European Automotive Group. If you've ever gone for a VP slot, you know the interview is spent asking more questions about them then they ask about you...
PS - I didn't take the job. Maybe I should have, but I had ethical issues with the direction they were pushing technology for the automotive industry (brake by wire with no mechanical secondary system).

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[ThAzKat]

Thanks Cyber I finally learnt somethang today! lol lol

[WildKat]

HS2020 loves his 160/60 rear tire on his pre 98, so you'll get a thumbs up from him on it !

[ThAzKat]

Highsight2020 will tell you and I will also, run a 98+ wheel not the smaller pre98 wheel. It causes the tire to miss shape.

[HS2020]

The only reason I put a 160/60 on the rear is b/c the previous owner had a pilot sport on the rea in the 160/60 tire size. It was not near the angle that my M-1 Sporttech is. I plan on dropping back to tehe 110/70 and 150/60 set up on the bike. I fell this is safer and I can still get a decent tire in those sizes. Like the M-1 SportTech.

Now to run the 120/60 160/60 combo safely find yourseldf a set of 98+ rims and mount them up. The front will mount up just right. Just make sure you get the front and rear rotors when you do. I have the 98+ front rotors on my bike right now. I am wantin to go that route by next spring.

On another note I did run the GAP 2 up with this tire set up and they did stick really well and I could not tell if they ever overheated.

[The CyberPoet]

On another note I did run the GAP 2 up with this tire set up and they did stick really well and I could not tell if they ever overheated.

Since the point of distortion would be at the steel belts, the heating issue would be a laminar issue between the layers at the belts and not on the outside normally. That said, you may not have any problems, or at least ones that ever become visible to the naked eye...

Cheers
=-= The CyberPo