General tire info for the GS #2

I just had a set of Dunlop 205's mounted on my bike. I went with 120/70ZR17 front and 150/70ZR17 rear. They fit perfect. I have about 1mm clearance from my rear brake arm and 3 mm from the chain. They were slick as snot for the first 30 miles so I took it really easy doing a lot of slow swerving. I then went out to my favorite twisty section of road and it was like being on a brand new bike. The grip is unbelievable!!

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In the past, I have always used touring type tires on the back of my small bikes to gain max tire life; generally getting 25-30,000 miles out of them. On the GS500 I replaced the OE's with stock size BT45's. I then went Metzler ME33 front and ME88 rear followed by Dunlop GT501 front and K491 rear tires. In both cases the 130/90 and MT90 rears were about 2" larger in dia than the OE's and raised the rear an inch.

I was never happy with the 491 rear on the GS500 because it's limited traction no longer suited my GS500 induced cornering speeds and I was always on the edge of breaking loose. This past season I went to Metzeler radials in a 110/70 Z4 front and a 130/80 Z2 rear. They were great handling dry and excellent in the wet and I'm sold on them. I never felt like pushing the GS beyond about 90 mph with the bias tires, but the little bike was quite comfortable at an indicated 110 max with the Metz radials this past summer.

Many on the gstwin.com board have gone to 140/70 and 150/70 wide rear tires on the GS and I believe it is mainly for appearance purposes. The main reason newer bikes in general have wider and wider rear tires in lower and lower profiles is to provide traction for their ever increasing HP without the tires getting too big in dia. A 130 wide rear will easily handle the power output of the GS500 and I believe give better handling than the wider tires will on it.

So far I have not used wider than a 130 rear, but if I ever try the Dunlop D205's or the Avon AV45/46's, I will use the 140/80 rears, which are the approved size for the 3.5" GS rim. Metzeler and Continental approve a 150/70 for a 3.5" rim, but Dunlop and Avon do not.

The ME33, ME88, and ME55 are all bias ply tires, not radials. they are slowly being discontinued and are being replaced by the newer ME330, ME550, and ME880 tires.

The radials I used this year were the Metzeler MEZ4 front and the MEZ2 rear. The Z4 rear does not come narrower than a 150, so I chose the older MEZ2 rear in a 130/80, which is still available and probably will be for a while. It has a deeper 8mm tread, which gives it an H speed rating. It has more rubber on it than any other of their radials. I have about 13,500 miles on it and expect to get about 14,000 out of it when it hits the tread wear markers and it's been used hard.

Avon is coming out with a new Azarro GT AV45/AV46, which I think is going to give much better life than the AV35/AV36's that they replace, along with good wet and dry handling. Its already available from a couple mail order places. I'm thinking of using them this coming season if no bad news develops about them before then, otherwise I will use the Metz Z4/Z2 combo again that I was quite happy with this year.