my understanding of this, as it applies to motorcycle tyres, is that you dont get this effect untill >200km/hr.
fwiw, Im in the pro 55 group too - ive toyed with profiles a bit and have found on bigger bikes it can make the steering a little kinder - noticable on particularly long rides
In that case, 190/55r17 all the way. The 55 has a smaller contact patch when the bike is straight up and down, but more as you lean. The geometry change of the extra 9.5mm would upset a well set up race bike, but on the 14 for the road, it's just gonna tip in quicker with less effort.
Bad news, your math is correct, but the designation no longer means exactly as you have said. Manufacturers use that as a guide and then make the tyre whatever size they want really. There are many many tyres on the Market of varying sizes, all using the same carcas.
The exact dimension of any tyre is relative to rim fitment. All you can be sure of, is that a 55 profile of any given tyre, is taller than the 50 profile in that same model.
It's rough aye, I wasn't consulted either!
Put a 190/55r17 supercorsa beside he same sized racetech, (no Poos, they haven't shared the same carcas for a fuckin decade), and the difference is huge. Makes an incredible difference on my old RF to swap from one to the other.
Mmmmm.... That would explane it... I knew different tyres had different shape, but never realised it was because manufacturers stuffed arround with the profile number.
That would explain why we put a Shinko 100/80 on the front of an FZR250 and it looked like we put a MTB tyre in it.....
Yeah, I know.... shouldn't buy tyres where the manufacturers name starts with S....
Dunlop say the 180 or 190 are suitable for 5.5 or 6.0 inch rims.
Each tyre makers actual fitted widths vary a bit too - some 180's are exactly that some a few mm narrower the widest I've measured was actually 185. I must get out more .....
http://www.dunlopmotorcycle.com/tire...t/sportmax-q2/
Another vote for 190/55. Slowpoke's bang on, it'll shed 20kg off your bike in cornering performance. I'm running a Metzeler Z8 on the rear & getting good mileage on the ZX12 too, fwiw.
Hey slowpoke when I told drew our roads were gnarly I wasn't joking. Just rode through the Waioeka Gorge when I brought the bike back from Whakatane (movers dropped it there as Tauranga went quiet on me) and it is covered in loose chip. Many stories of people going down there. The coast road is not conducive to letting your guard down but Morere and Matawai have some decent tracts where you can get into that sense of communing with the tarmac. Funny thing is I am so loving on just being astride a ZX14 having perved at the big Kawasaki since the mid 90s I wouldn't care if it had square tyres. It is just a beautiful machine which talks to your soul every moment you are with it.. the experience is simply profound. I did one quickish stint on a return trip to Matawai but most times I am so immersed in my "secret garden" that it would seem like a travesty not to just take your time and soak up every second of the experience. What was it that Robert Pirsig wrote? "
To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.
The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn't any other test. If the machine produces tranquility it's right. If it disturbs you it's wrong until either the machine or your mind is changed.
We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with the emphasis on "good" rather than on "time"....
Actually those are a few which grabbed my attention at Goodreads. The one I was thinking of still remains in my head from when I read the book as a teenager. Something like, "Sometimes tis better to travel well than arrive.." Think the Buddha said it first in respect of the journey which is life.
Dave I know what you are saying and I agree. Another quote from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. "The cycle you are working on is a cycle called yourself." Some blokes live on chips and beer.. and Bear Grylls eats scorpion spiders when he is hungry.. does it make a difference?
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