Tires for GS850

[Anonymous]

I'm looking to buy new tires for my GS850. It has Dunlop 491's on it now, but I've heard there are much better tires around now. Any suggestions?

[kkesler]

I have run many different tires on my 82 850L and I like the K491. Best lasting tire I have used.

What do you not like about the 491?

Kurt

[Anonymous]

Nothing personal, a motorcycle "expert" just told me it was an old design and that there are much better tires out there now.

[mdole]

I have had good luck with the 491's the only other tire I've used that came close to running as long was a Metzler ME 880.

I had new tire that really stuck but if I was going to a rally for a week I had better have new one's on the bike or I'd be buying one at the rally. A lot of the sticky tire only go 3000 to 4000 miles.

Mike Dole

[argonsagas]

I have had good luck with the 491's the only other tire I've used that came close to running as long was a Metzler ME 880.

I had new tire that really stuck but if I was going to a rally for a week I had better have new one's on the bike or I'd be buying one at the rally. A lot of the sticky tire only go 3000 to 4000 miles.

Mike Dole

Mike, what do you think of the ME880 for performance other than longevity?

I have an ME33 on the front of my GK (swapped it from the G, but I left the 17 inch ME55 on the G) . I cannot find an ME55 in 16 inch, so I was thinking of putting either an ME880 or ME550 on the GK

I was also thinking of going up a size to a 140/90-16. It would be snug fit, however, I am holding back because of rim size.

[mdole]

The first bike I ran the ME 880 on was my 1984 Honda Sabre. I was on the way to a rally in Ruidoso and stopped in Albuquerque to get the tire installed. I had ordered it about a month before but they had problems getting it in.

After I got the tire installed I left and headed for Ruidoso and it started raining. For the next 200 miles I rode very carefully in the rain as it felt like I was riding on glass.

The next day the rain let up and I did some ridding and braking just to really scuff the tire in. After scuffing them in the handling was vastly improved and the tire felt good. I provided pretty good feed back as to road conditions but never felt like it was going to really break loose.

I had run the stock F-11 Dunlop among other tires for quite a while as the tires that were really sticky wouldn't make a road trip as they were usually shot at about 4k miles. The Dunlop was a competent tire, handled wet and dry conditions ok, and I could usually get 21k out of a front tire.

The biggest think I noticed about the ME-880 was that after you got it scrubbed in (which takes longer than any other tires I have run) is that they provide better traction and give you a lot better feel as to what is going on with the front end under differing traction conditions. I have been really pleased with them.

The only down side to the 880s is that here you need to order them with a long lead-time. Most of the distributors don't stock the sizes needed for older bikes so it usually take 2 to 6 weeks to get them in.

Mike

[argonsagas]

Thanks, Mike.

There is a 130/90 and a 140/90 on ebay. I put in a bid on both, (I would take whichever one I won) but the reserve is not yet reached on either, and there are still several days more to run. His Buy It Now price is up there, and that suggests his reserve is likely to be high.

Ah, well. If I don't win at a reasonable number, I know I can order one for about half his buy price.