Just put 600 miles on my first Car Tire:
GOODYEAR TIRES ASSURANCE FUEL MAX 175/60R16
http://tinyurl.com/9ouou7p
Overall: 9/10
The Good:
Cheaper
Longer Lasting (Fewer tire changes)
Quieter (Not that bike tire was really loud, but this tire is basically silent)
Smoother, very Smooth. (This is a very soft tire)
Higher load capacity (Nice for 2-up and my trailer)
Bike Sits Slightly Lower (Nice for a 1990, I'm 6'1" and now flat footed) Still easy to get on center stand.
Traction: Haven't tried wet or icy, but reported better traction by many.
The Bad:
In summary it feels like a Car Tire! Not sure of a better way to describe it.
Or a "half flat" motorcycle tire to me...
Higher RPM's... I think I'm burning a lot more fuel, but haven't gauged it yet.
Here's the really bad part.
Rear end drifts into any turn, but then plants nicely once on-line..
It really feels like the sidewalls are stretching initially in any lean, a lot!
Again, like a flat tire effect....
Above 75 mph I start getting what feels like a high speed wobble...
Aint had it above 80 yet...for that reason. Bike gets so squirrely...
Rides great, on smooth highway with no wind, up to 70 mph.
Seems both rough road, and/or and windy conditions really increase the "floating" effect..
If there's a groove in the road this tire will find it and ride in it.
Sometimes it feels like the ass-end is gonna swing around to the front on a deep grove..
At any rate I'm not sure what to think of this thing.
I didn't have the tire balanced when I finally got it mounted after 2 tries at the car tire shop.
(The guy aired it up to 95 psi about 10 times before it finally seated)
Maybe that's part of the problem. But I would think being out of balance would cause hopping. Not so much DRIFTING....
Also I've ran this tire at 50 psi, cold, on the center stand. Then 50 psi hot, on the side-stand. (Original 50 cold was reading 65 psi hot on side stand with bike weight.
Let some air out down to 50 psi.) Doesn't seem to matter much. This tire just likes to drift all over the road, and that's about the only thing I don't like about it so far really.
But I'll hang with it if I can get 30k miles or so out of it.
Maybe I need to try some of those balancing beads? Dyna beads? Do they really clog up the air valve stem?
What size do I need?
And how many?
Thx.
-Stv..
