arveno Posted January 23 Posted January 23 Looking to get a new set of tires for my V11 no Pirelli in stock anywhere? Other brands don’t have much choice in 170 60 17 for the rear. many have 180 but I rather stay skinnier … any thoughts? Sorry for the tires thread …
p6x Posted January 23 Posted January 23 I suggest you read the above thread until the end. I am currently having Michelin Road 6 being fitted to my V11 Le Mans. I had Michelin Road 5 all 2023, and I put more than 10,000 miles on them. When it comes to tires, we are all pretty opinionated on what we think is the best choice for our V11. I personally liked the Road 5 from Michelin because they have dual compound front and rear. Now all choices are subjective. Michelin is about the most expensive available on the market. 2 1
SFTripod Posted January 24 Posted January 24 Have REALLY been happy with my Metzeler Z8's, the sport touring version of the M7rr. 1 1
GuzziMoto Posted January 24 Posted January 24 17 hours ago, arveno said: Looking to get a new set of tires for my V11 no Pirelli in stock anywhere? Other brands don’t have much choice in 170 60 17 for the rear. many have 180 but I rather stay skinnier … any thoughts? Sorry for the tires thread … V11 Sports come with either a 4.5" wide rear wheel or a 5.5" wide rear wheel. If you have the 4.5" wide rear wheel (that is the typical size on the earlier V11 Sports) a 160 rear tire works well. If you have the 5.5" wide rear wheel of the later V11 Sports a 180 will fit that wheel size fine. I prefer the narrower 160, but only if you have a 4.5" wide rear wheel. Putting a 160 on a 5.5" wide wheel isn't a good fit. Confirming which size rear wheel would be step 1 to me. From there, it is pretty hard to pick a bad tire choice with what is out there now. I like Michelins, but Pirelli, Dunlop, Metzler, they are all fine choices. I like the multi-compound tires available now. But that is not that important unless you rack up a lot of miles a year. I usually end up replacing tires because of age before mileage (except on my 401, which seems to have worn out the OEM tire in less then 5,000 miles). 1
arveno Posted January 24 Author Posted January 24 Rear rim is 5.5 180 fit but I prefer 170 which was stock on 2004 models like cafe sport etc I was just wondering why all the typical tires suppliers do not have any Pirelli In stock. i am aware 170 is an odd size, most brand make 160 or 180 Anyway…. I will check again in a month maybe they are waiting for a shipment from China…. Or wherever they are made . thanks
p6x Posted January 24 Posted January 24 17 minutes ago, arveno said: Rear rim is 5.5 180 fit but I prefer 170 which was stock on 2004 models like cafe sport etc I was just wondering why all the typical tires suppliers do not have any Pirelli In stock. i am aware 170 is an odd size, most brand make 160 or 180 Anyway…. I will check again in a month maybe they are waiting for a shipment from China…. Or wherever they are made . thanks I may be wrong, but like everyone else, the stores are all turning to Internet based orders. Zero stock, and when you want an exotic size, or less on demand brand, you now seem to have to wait more. This is exactly what happened to me with the Michelin Road 6. I don't know what is going on with the supply chain nowadays. But as far as choice for sizes and categories, I find there are lots of brands that manufacture tires for our V11. Including the "GT" moniker for many of the same model tire. The Dunlop Roadsmart IV can also be had in V11 sizes standard or GT.
docc Posted January 24 Posted January 24 1 hour ago, arveno said: Rear rim is 5.5 180 fit but I prefer 170 which was stock on 2004 models like cafe sport etc I was just wondering why all the typical tires suppliers do not have any Pirelli In stock. i am aware 170 is an odd size, most brand make 160 or 180 Anyway…. I will check again in a month maybe they are waiting for a shipment from China…. Or wherever they are made . thanks I might be just misreading this, but (to my knowledge) all LongFrame V11 from 2002 on were fitted with the 5.5" rear rim and delivered with a 180 section tire. Many owners decided to use a 170, instead. Likewise, all of the 1999-2001 RedFrame Sport and 2001 ShortFrame Rosso Mandello had 4.5" rear rims, delivered with 170 tires. Again, many of us found the 160 to our liking on the narrower rim. FWIW, I searched three of the big US distributors and found a lot of Pirelli out of stock (not just this size). The Pirelli website shows two choices in the 170/60-17 in the Angel GT II, not none in the Angel GT or the Angel ST . . . https://www.pirelli.com/tires/en-us/motorcycle/catalog/product/angel-gt-ii [I was such a Pirelli devotee for so long. Until they moved their manufacturing to China, yet the prices went up.] 3
GuzziMoto Posted January 24 Posted January 24 What docc said... As I recall the 170 came stock on V11 Sports that had the 4.5" wheel, and a 160 fits better. The 170 is a little wide for a 4.5" wheel. The bikes that came with a 5.5" rear wheel came with a 180 rear tire I thought. While going to a 170 is an option, as you mentioned a 170 is not a common size tire and may be hard to find. That is the nature of going for an odd size tire. Also, it looks like it is mainly the Pirelli option that is out of stock. Other brands are in stock. 1
audiomick Posted January 24 Posted January 24 2 hours ago, GuzziMoto said: That is the nature of going for an odd size tire. I'm very thankful that my Guzzis don't have 16" wheels. That is really hard. The Kawasaki GTR 1000 that I have (still, I've been meaning to sell it for about a year...) has a 16" rear wheel. The tyre is a 130/80 16. There are about three tyres on the market in total that fit.
docc Posted January 24 Posted January 24 @arveno: https://www.amazon.com/Pirelli-Angel-GT-Rear-60ZR-17/dp/B07M6LLQ5W Seems pretty pricey to me, though, at $368US. my last Bridgestone T32 (160) was $216 . . . 1
arveno Posted January 25 Author Posted January 25 Yes you are right 170 was never stock I thought it was…. I was looking on revzilla , JP cycles and other similar websites and no Pirelli in stock . anyway as of now in NJ the weather is horrible so I am not in a hurry maybe toward the springs they will stock fresh tires ? Hopefully lol so sorry to start a tire thread … pretty boring winter time ah ah Cheers…. 2
docc Posted January 25 Posted January 25 5 minutes ago, arveno said: Yes you are right 170 was never stock I thought it was…. I was looking on revzilla , JP cycles and other similar websites and no Pirelli in stock . anyway as of now in NJ the weather is horrible so I am not in a hurry maybe toward the springs they will stock fresh tires ? Hopefully lol so sorry to start a tire thread … pretty boring winter time ah ah Cheers…. Nothing (NO thing) about motorcycling is boring in the winter! I have spent almost exactly what mySport cost new on tires over all this time. So, yeah, tires matter. So glad my buddy Josh put me onto the Bridgestones. I just couldn't hang with Pirelli anymore . . . 1
Chuck Posted January 26 Posted January 26 On 1/24/2024 at 4:43 PM, audiomick said: I'm very thankful that my Guzzis don't have 16" wheels. That is really hard. The Kawasaki GTR 1000 that I have (still, I've been meaning to sell it for about a year...) has a 16" rear wheel. The tyre is a 130/80 16. There are about three tyres on the market in total that fit. Tell me about it. The AeroLario has 16s on both ends. I'm running a little lower profile than stock scooter tires. A guy's gotta do what a guys's gotta do.
GuzziMoto Posted January 26 Posted January 26 1 hour ago, Chuck said: Tell me about it. The AeroLario has 16s on both ends. I'm running a little lower profile than stock scooter tires. A guy's gotta do what a guys's gotta do. Yeah, I love our Lario but finding tires for it is hard. There used to be more options, but 16" sportbike tires have gone the way of the dodo bird.
guzziart Posted January 26 Posted January 26 Good thread, especially since my '03 Lemans needs tires, I'll look forward to future posts here before I buy tires. Hey Chuck & Guzzimoto, I put Bridgestone BT46's recently on my '87 LMIVSE w/16' front wheel. I feel the BT46's were a huge improvement over the Dunlop GT 501's that I'd been running. When I got the bike it had the gt501's, I replaced them because when I'd accelerate from a stop into a right or left turn the rear wheel would break loose/lose traction with a little too much throttle and figured they're old, hard, etc. Well, I replaced them with gt501's and the traction loss remained so I wrote it off to the bike being that powerful. So, I burned through gt501's and this last time I went with the BT46's... no more traction issues. Also, after chasing a 38-42mph head shake issue for years...that was gone too.
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