its kind of hard to tell since im not a pro level racer but for the kind of riding i do i like it better than the 21. i like the wide 18 inch in soft dirt and sand, it seems to float more on top and a little more stable and on road its like having my supermoto setup back. if i rode more rock crawler stuff i would keep the 21 but getting older and harder to heal so im more into easier rides. 44 years of riding dirtbikes is catching up to all my bones and joints!
I have some catching up to do but being a Boilermaker welder and year of thinking i am invincible at Ju-jitsu have given me all the back problems i need.......until i start thinking i am Invincible again i'll have to ride a proper supermoto one day.......i use to get looks doing it on a DR650 with MT21's front and rear
i dont think i need more traction, with the knobbies i have on now the limit is till i scrape parts on the turns! they sure grab the pavement nice. i been running around 20 psi in the rear tire, is that about right for a 370 lbs bike? or should i be running more? i like the huge contact patch at that psi.
The knobbies do grab about the same. You just get a little more even leaning ability with the street ones. Given you're on a slightly heavier bike, I wouldn't get much past 22-24psi and that's if you're not touching dirt. 20 is typically a good place to be I think, especially given your weight.
hey Cumbacheech hows it going! right now im running a 4.60x18 front tire in a shinko 244 model. this thing has over 5,000 miles on it and still works like new. the rear is a 180x80x14 stock tw200 bridgstone tire with about 4,500 miles.they passed the test and im going to run this combo for awhile.
thats good to know, im seeing how many miles the tw tire will go, its got about 4,500 miles on it and still got some decent tread on it.
mine is getting low on tread 4,600 miles in this pic. i guess 50hp wears them a little faster but im still impressed with how it is doing.
more impressive is the front shinko 244 tire. its got about 5,400 miles in the pic and has a ton of tread left.
i wanted to lace them to the factory bmw hub but the spoke count is off by 4. 32 on the tw and 36 on the bmw hub. the only set back is the drum brake but im used to it now.
I would like to do this mod to another bike but using a factory hub laced to tw rims to maintain disc brakes and factory function. Which swing arm would take such a chubby tire...
im not sure what other bike has a wide swingarm, the dakar was one of the wide ones and made of steel so very easy to modify. time to get the tape measure out and checking bikes!
i also narrowed the tw hub by taking off the outer seal and bearing sleeve end. i left enough sleeve for 1 bearing on each side where originally the hub has 1 bearing on one side and two bearings on the sprocket drive side.this narrowed the tw hub by about 3/4 of and inch to help squeeze it into the gs swingarm even after widening the gs swingarm about a half inch or so.
painted ktm front fender white and changed black fork gaurds for white. easier to keep clean.cant believe the front tire has 6,000 miles on it now and all kinds of tread left!
