750es rear tire

[waters]

What is the widest tire I can fit on the stock rear wheel of 1983 gs750es. Also what is involved in swapping for a wider rear wheel.

[moto_dan]

The widest you should consider on the stock wheel is a 130. As far as changing out the rear wheel...spend a little time searching the forum and you should get plenty of info. Good luck.

[waters]

Thanks for the help

[Dan Ruddock]

Putting on the widest tire that will fit on a stock wheel is not a good idea but putting on a wider wheel is a great idea. Just because something will fit does not mean it will work well. When you use a narrow wheel for a given tire size it pulls in the side walls and does not support the tread as well and reduces the radius of the tread surface and the contact patch size taking away what you are trying to achieve (more traction). Stock wheel run the stock tire size. Somebody else here will know what wheel would make a good swap then you can get a bigger tire. Dan

[distraction628]

stock is 120/90 I have a 130/80 and it has a 1/2 inch more tread on the ground , so on some rims I see where you can loose width, as long as your rim is within a 1/8 inch of the ideal rim for the tire I don't se you loosing and tread on the ground....JMHO

[kingofvenus]

'85-'86 1150 rear wheel is wider and looks just like the stock wheel. 600 and 750 gsxf wheels are an easy swap, I have 600 wheels and front fork assembly on mine.

[t3rmin]

waters: You didn't by any chance just pick up that bike on Sunday in Washington State?

[Dan Ruddock]

stock is 120/90 I have a 130/80 and it has a 1/2 inch more tread on the ground , so on some rims I see where you can loose width, as long as your rim is within a 1/8 inch of the ideal rim for the tire I don't se you loosing and tread on the ground....JMHO

Here is what bridgestone recommends for there tires as far as rim width for a given tire size. I will stick with the recommendation from guys who know more about it than I do. Dan http://www.motorcycle-karttires.com/...D=3&LookupID=8

[Mark whiz]

I use 130/90s on the rear and 120/80s on the front on my '85 700ES and it works MUCH better than the stock tire sizes. You won't get anything wider on the rear unless you make major modifications to the brake trailing arm and the chain cover.

[t3rmin]

I use 130/90s on the rear and 120/80s on the front on my '85 700ES and it works MUCH better than the stock tire sizes. You won't get anything wider on the rear unless you make major modifications to the brake trailing arm and the chain cover.

Mark,

I've got 130 on the back and stock 100 on the front. I love the way it handles. Can you comment on the difference in feel between stock front and 120 front?

[Billy Ricks]

People do it but a 120 on a 2.15" front rim is a bit too much tire. A 110 if you can find it would be okay. I have a 160 width tire on a 4.5" GSX-R wheel on my bike.

[racer54]

Another way to look at this is, if you are looking for more traction, use a tire smaller than stock on your stock rim. It will pull the narrower tire out to the rim giving you a flatter profile which will in effect, give you more traction, because the tire tread will be flatter because you pulled the sidewalls out when you mounted it. Probably won't corner as good but not sure how much difference it would make. Lots of dragracers will do this instead of mounting a wider wheel/tire combo, although the wider rim/tire combo would be the better way of doingit. Just depends on how you want to go about doing it. I use a 130 tire on a 3.5 rim to flatten out the profile for traction at the track but I don't notice any difference on the street, but that's the way I do it instead of going to the expense of wider tire/rim and having to go with a wider arm also.

[kingofvenus]

Mark,

I've got 130 on the back and stock 100 on the front. I love the way it handles. Can you comment on the difference in feel between stock front and 120 front?

Had to put a 120 on the front once due to a tire failure, (tread seperation) I thought it s*cked. Slowed the steering and felt less solid, kinda mushy. I have a 110/70/17 (Dunlop radial) on my 3 in. wide front wheel now and love it. Nice quick steering without it being twitchy.

[t3rmin]

Well I'll probably stick with my 100/130 combo. Love how it feels.

[Mark whiz]

For me, I like the feel of the 120/80 on the front. It might slow the front down a bit, but it feels much more stable to me. In a long sweeping corner, the original tires had me constantly pushing on the bars to keep it on track, but with the 120 all I have to do is set in where I want it and it doesn't waver unless I tell it to.
I guess the best way I can describe the original size is that the bike felt "twitchy" at low speeds and required constant rider input to keep it where I wanted it to be. This may have been a function of the stock tires themselves which really were junk - as they had to be replaced in under 4K miles. I wanted a sportier tire and back then the Dunlop 391s fit that bill, but I had to go up to the sizes I mentioned earlier. This felt so much better than stock that I just kept the same sizes ever since.

Oh, one other thing about the 120/80 on front - it corrects the optomistic speedometer error Suzuki built into the original sizes. My bike nows reads my EXACT speed according to different Law Enforcement agencies.