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Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2013+ => Topic started by: evtricity on April 27, 2016, 12:38:56 PM
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I wanted to gather a list of tires people have used on their Zero's.
I've tried quite a few and thought it would be good to share specs and how people have worked within the constraints of the rim widths and belt drive.
To kick it off here are the tires I've tried with some measured widths and circumferences:
Front (17 x 3.0" wheel)
Bridgestone RS10 110/70 17 : width = 109mm, circ = 1835mm
Dunlop Alpha 13 110/70 17 : width = 107mm
IRC Road Winner 110/70 17 (stock)
Pirelli Diablo Rosso II 110/70 17
Pirelli Diablo Superbike 100/70 17 (slick) : width = 97mm, circ = 1805mm
Pirelli Supercorsa SC1 110/70 17 : width = 106mm
Sava MC50 Racer 110/70 17
Rear (17 x 3.5" wheel)
Bridgestone RS10 140/70 17 : width = 140mm, circ = 1930mm
Dunlop Alpha 13 140/70 17 : width = 135mm, circ = 1950mm
IRC Road Winner 140/70 17 (stock)
Pirelli Diablo Rosso II 140/70 17
Pirelli Diablo Superbike 125/70 17 (slick) : width = 121mm, circ = 1870mm
Pirelli Supercorsa SC2 140/70 17 : width = 135mm, circ = 1955mm
This is from a 2014 SR - other years and FX/DS etc model families welcome too. If you want to write a review or recommendation for any of the tires feel free.
If you've used different width wheels would love to understand how tires fit on wider (or narrower) wheels eg. 3.5" front or 4.25" rear.
Thanks
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For my 2015 DS i'm using Michelin Anakee III front and backwheel in stock measurements.
Me verry happy. (Much) better on-road performance.
Better feedback en more precise steering. Also less noise.
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I'm running a Metzeler M5 110/70 up front and an Metzeler M7RR 150/60 on the rear. No complaints.
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FX Front wheel (1.85 x 21)
- Pirelli XCMH Dual Sport 80/100-21. Knobs were 100% gone after 1,500 miles of aggressive riding (80% road, 20% dirt).
FX Rear wheel (2.50 x 18)
- Pirelli XCMH Dual Sport 120/100-18. I've been really happy with these DOT approved knobbies, especially on dirt. This rear tire is bigger than stock though, and noticeably reduces torque (harder to wheelie). Knobs were 80% gone after 1,500 miles of aggressive riding (80% road, 20% dirt).
I will likely try these rear options in the future:
- Pirelli MT-21 Rallycross 120/80-18 (This is the stock tire on the MMX, and should wear better with road use).
- Pirelli XCMH Dual Sport 110/100-18 (If the MT-21 dirt performance is poor, I will revert to the XCMH, but in a size that's closer to stock.)
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I have been happy enough with the stock IRC Road Whiners, but I have a 140/70R17 Michelin Pilot Street Radial ready to go on the rear when my rear Whiner wears out at 9K miles. ;)
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I use Michelin Pilot Street Radial on my Zero S 2013. Great improvement compared to stock tires IRC: ride is smoother and they perform well even when cold and wet.
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I use Michelin Pilot Street Radial on my Zero S 2014. Great improvement compared to stock tires IRC: ride is smoother and they perform well.
Expected longer mileage is supposed to be better as well.
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Replaced the stock IRC 2014 fx tires with dual sport Michelein T63.
Front 21 90/90
rear 18 110/80
Off road handling wad much improved. Other candidates may be the Pirelli MT21 as mentioned before, or the more agressive Kenda 760. All road legal.
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I've tried quite a few and thought it would be good to share specs and how people have worked within the constraints of the rim widths and belt drive.
Wow, well I'd be curious to hear how you compare the tires you've tried in terms of how they change the handling and turn-in characteristics of the Zero. It seems these are all sport/race tires, so mostly similar? How would you compare the Diablo Rosso II to the DOT race tires? Do you ride mostly on the track?
I think I am about to replace my rear tire again and try a continental 150/70-17 Road Attack 2. Currently running a Shinko Podium 006 140/60-17 (yes, 60 series). The point was to lower the rear, which it does. However, the footpegs scrape easier. It is actually a decent street tire, very high silica compound and big side channels so I imagine good in wet weather. I have never slipped out with this tire on the street, and it has a very neutral profile, turn-in is nice. The smaller diameter does seem to make the bike feel faster off the line.
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Wow, well I'd be curious to hear how you compare the tires you've tried in terms of how they change the handling and turn-in characteristics of the Zero. It seems these are all sport/race tires, so mostly similar? How would you compare the Diablo Rosso II to the DOT race tires? Do you ride mostly on the track?
. The smaller diameter does seem to make the bike feel faster off the line.
The Supercorsas and Alpha 13s have a very tall and narrow profile and turn-in more quickly than say the RS10s which have the flattest and widest profiles of all the tyres I've tried. The RS10s are new for me and I'm really enjoying them on the street. A little wider than other 140s I'v tried and actually measure 140mm despite the narrow 3.5" rim. I had the Rosso IIs on for a while when I first got the bike and there wasn't anything memorable about them which meant they were probably OK everywhere. I did switch to the Savas and they were definitely more grippy than the Ropsso IIs on the track while they lasted ("Super Soft" compound).
The Pirelli Supercorsas and Savas are very sticky and really track tires only with great grip but poor mileage. I haven't had the chance to try the narrow Pirelli Diablo slicks yet. Am concerned whether the rear will handle the power in the first few minutes on the track and whether the front will handle the braking forces (the tires are really designed for Moto3 bikes).
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I have been happy enough with the stock IRC Road Whiners, but I have a 140/70R17 Michelin Pilot Street Radial ready to go on the rear when my rear Whiner wears out at 9K miles. ;)
I got 7,000 miles out of the original Pirelli Diablo II's, both front and rear. Then I got the IIRC Road Winners. 2,000 miles (mostly eco riding) and the rear is finished, while the front still looks new. The grip on the IIRC's is good but I am very disappointed with the short lifespan. I'm considering getting the Angel GT's which only come in 150 size. I bet it fits just fine.
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I have been happy enough with the stock IRC Road Whiners, but I have a 140/70R17 Michelin Pilot Street Radial ready to go on the rear when my rear Whiner wears out at 9K miles. ;)
I got 7,000 miles out of the original Pirelli Diablo II's, both front and rear. Then I got the IIRC Road Winners. 2,000 miles (mostly eco riding) and the rear is finished, while the front still looks new. The grip on the IIRC's is good but I am very disappointed with the short lifespan. I'm considering getting the Angel GT's which only come in 150 size. I bet it fits just fine.
10K miles now and the original Road Whiners are still hanging in there. The rear looks to still have another thousand miles of tread left before it hits the wear bars. ;) But the handling is getting a little squirrelly now that the tread is kind of flattened out.
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I have been happy enough with the stock IRC Road Whiners, but I have a 140/70R17 Michelin Pilot Street Radial ready to go on the rear when my rear Whiner wears out at 9K miles. ;)
I got 7,000 miles out of the original Pirelli Diablo II's, both front and rear. Then I got the IIRC Road Winners. 2,000 miles (mostly eco riding) and the rear is finished, while the front still looks new. The grip on the IIRC's is good but I am very disappointed with the short lifespan. I'm considering getting the Angel GT's which only come in 150 size. I bet it fits just fine.
10K miles now and the original Road Whiners are still hanging in there. The rear looks to still have another thousand miles of tread left before it hits the wear bars. ;) But the handling is getting a little squirrelly now that the tread is kind of flattened out.
Yeah, that's why I can't believe they wore out so quickly. Within the first 300 miles, they developed a flat spot in the middle. Now they are all the way to the wear bars. Not happy about it at all.
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I have been happy enough with the stock IRC Road Whiners, but I have a 140/70R17 Michelin Pilot Street Radial ready to go on the rear when my rear Whiner wears out at 9K miles. ;)
I got 7,000 miles out of the original Pirelli Diablo II's, both front and rear. Then I got the IIRC Road Winners. 2,000 miles (mostly eco riding) and the rear is finished, while the front still looks new. The grip on the IIRC's is good but I am very disappointed with the short lifespan. I'm considering getting the Angel GT's which only come in 150 size. I bet it fits just fine.
10K miles now and the original Road Whiners are still hanging in there. The rear looks to still have another thousand miles of tread left before it hits the wear bars. ;) But the handling is getting a little squirrelly now that the tread is kind of flattened out.
Yeah, that's why I can't believe they wore out so quickly. Within the first 300 miles, they developed a flat spot in the middle. Now they are all the way to the wear bars. Not happy about it at all.
Sounds like a manufacturing defect to me. Maybe they didn't mix the rubber compound correctly. ???
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I have been happy enough with the stock IRC Road Whiners, but I have a 140/70R17 Michelin Pilot Street Radial ready to go on the rear when my rear Whiner wears out at 9K miles. ;)
I got 7,000 miles out of the original Pirelli Diablo II's, both front and rear. Then I got the IIRC Road Winners. 2,000 miles (mostly eco riding) and the rear is finished, while the front still looks new. The grip on the IIRC's is good but I am very disappointed with the short lifespan. I'm considering getting the Angel GT's which only come in 150 size. I bet it fits just fine.
10K miles now and the original Road Whiners are still hanging in there. The rear looks to still have another thousand miles of tread left before it hits the wear bars. ;) But the handling is getting a little squirrelly now that the tread is kind of flattened out.
Yeah, that's why I can't believe they wore out so quickly. Within the first 300 miles, they developed a flat spot in the middle. Now they are all the way to the wear bars. Not happy about it at all.
Sounds like a manufacturing defect to me. Maybe they didn't mix the rubber compound correctly. ???
I don't know. I am pretty hard on the bike, but I got over 6,000 miles on my Shinko Raven on the R1. If they made one that fit, that's all I'd use for the rear.
I do know that I don't regret purchasing the Angel GT. At least as long as I get more than 2,000 miles if you know what I mean.
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I am getting pretty good mileage out of the original Metzeler Z8 tires on my BMW R1200RS. 8K miles so far and it looks like they might get to 10K miles. That is really good wear as the RS is no lightweight bike and has done its share of high speed freeway riding. Usually I get around 6-7,000 miles from most tires on my Z1, but this is the first time I have ever had Z8's (as I was always too cheap to buy them myself, typically going for less expensive brands such as Shinko, Bridgestone, or Dunlop).
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Hello,
My rear stock IRC is now near the TWI at 11kkm. I'm considering mounting a Michelin Pilot Street Radial as others here did successfully.
However, it is unclear for me if it is safe or even legal to mix a radial tire (rear) and a diagonal tire (front).
Any thoughts?
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Interesting thread.
I know nothing about tires, but noticed my DSR easily loose grip on wet asphalt when accelerating. So, now I just switch to ECO mode for safety whenever it is raining. However, it would be nice with some new tires that has better grip, if possible. It would generally make me feel safer in roundabouts and other situations where a wet road could cause problems.
Any recommendations for how to achieve this?
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I just put Metzler Tourance Next tires on the front and rear (stock sizes) on my DSR. I really like them. They really quieted down the ride (like a lot!). Cornering feels better as well.
Steve
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Hello,
My rear stock IRC is now near the TWI at 11kkm. I'm considering mounting a Michelin Pilot Street Radial as others here did successfully.
However, it is unclear for me if it is safe or even legal to mix a radial tire (rear) and a diagonal tire (front).
Any thoughts?
It's not legal to mix radial and diagonal tyres, at least in Germany. But why do you want to mix? Using the IRC until worn down? Get rid of them as soon as possible and use Michelin Pilot Street, but the radial ones. They lasted longer as the diagonal ones, 12000 km the others only 7000 km. Both have more grip at cold and wet weather compared to IRC Tyres, and this is a mayor safety plus.
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Hello,
My rear stock IRC is now near the TWI at 11kkm. I'm considering mounting a Michelin Pilot Street Radial as others here did successfully.
However, it is unclear for me if it is safe or even legal to mix a radial tire (rear) and a diagonal tire (front).
Any thoughts?
It's not legal to mix radial and diagonal tyres, at least in Germany. But why do you want to mix? Using the IRC until worn down? Get rid of them as soon as possible and use Michelin Pilot Street, but the radial ones. They lasted longer as the diagonal ones, 12000 km the others only 7000 km. Both have more grip at cold and wet weather compared to IRC Tyres, and this is a mayor safety plus.
wait. what zero comes with bias-ply tires? I thought they were all radials?
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Hello,
My rear stock IRC is now near the TWI at 11kkm. I'm considering mounting a Michelin Pilot Street Radial as others here did successfully.
However, it is unclear for me if it is safe or even legal to mix a radial tire (rear) and a diagonal tire (front).
Any thoughts?
It's not legal to mix radial and diagonal tyres, at least in Germany. But why do you want to mix? Using the IRC until worn down? Get rid of them as soon as possible and use Michelin Pilot Street, but the radial ones. They lasted longer as the diagonal ones, 12000 km the others only 7000 km. Both have more grip at cold and wet weather compared to IRC Tyres, and this is a mayor safety plus.
My 1997 BMW F650 Funduro, my 2009 F650GS twin and my 2005 Triumph Bonneville all came from the factory with a bias-ply tire on the front wheel and a radial on the rear wheel.
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wait. what zero comes with bias-ply tires? I thought they were all radials?
The dual sport tires that come with the FX are bias ply and have TUBES!
Sent from my Z982 using Tapatalk
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wait. what zero comes with bias-ply tires? I thought they were all radials?
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My 2015 S came with Pirelli Sport Demon bias ply tires. Replaced the back at 8k miles and the front at 15k miles with Michelin Pilot Street tires. Much better tires in my opinion due in part to the fact they are radial tires. I am at 17k miles now and still have approximately half the tread left on the the rear after 9k miles. So not only is the feel better (smoother, less jarring, more confidence inspiring etc. ) the wear is definitely better. I plan on buying the Michelins again.
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Some surprising news.
Purchased a Michelin Street Pilot Radial, and also a bike stand, removed the rear wheel, cleaned it up, and carried both the wheel and the tire to a guy who runs a small business in replacing tires for both cars and bikes, maybe also trucks.
Unfortunately the guy was very sorry telling me that he did something wrong while unounting the IRC tire... He just broke the pulley. Of course he would bear the cost of replacing it, but I became nervous thinking of the time needed to get the spare part (from Cal to EU?).
And what? Less than a week later, the new pulley was arrived (EU w/h probably)! Good surprise. Just mounted everything together, and again is the Zero on the road. :-)
The pulley made of cast aluminium is quite easy breakable, if you apply any stress other than the one expected from the belt.
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I got 7,000 miles out of the original Pirelli Diablo II's, both front and rear. Then I got the IIRC Road Winners. 2,000 miles (mostly eco riding) and the rear is finished, while the front still looks new. The grip on the IIRC's is good but I am very disappointed with the short lifespan. I'm considering getting the Angel GT's which only come in 150 size. I bet it fits just fine.
I was very happy with Angel GT’s (120/150). I did get a longer DS kickstand for my SR.
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Hey all, first post here. I bought a demo 2016 SR, no power/charge tank, with 600 miles in April 2017. I now have over 8K miles and am needing tires. After extensive online research for tires for my type of riding (70% commute/20% errands/10% twisties in the mountains), I've decided to get the Michelin Street Pilot RADIALs. Hoping I'll get more miles on these than the original stock Pirellis. Will update after several thousand miles. (north Denver suburbs)
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Some interesting observations here. In my experience, bias-ply motorcycle tires outlast bias-ply radial tires (the opposite of what I saw in automobiles) but here it looks like some of you are getting better mileage out of the Michelin radials.
FWIW, my 2016 S has a little over 17,000 miles and is finally starting to show the wear bars on the stock, bias-ply Pirelli Sport Demons. I'm looking to experiment with Dunlop radial GPR tires, which come in the correct sizes. I've always preferred Metzelers for all of my bikes, but it doesn't look like they have ANY rear tires in the correct size for the Zero so they're out of the running this time.
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What about the Michilin Street Pilot 4 GT radial? Says the GT version is for heavier bikes. I often ride with passenger and 25lbs of chargers and assorted paraphernalia, plusside bags with stuff.
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I am mostly ignorant on motorcycle tires and I am going to get new tires for wet/winter conditions. My dealer is a 75 min drive away making it a bit difficult to get there. Can I go to any motorcycle shop that installs tires to or are there any special concerns with a Zero (belt drive?) to make me want to specifically go to a Zero dealer?
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The Dunlop GP300, which is coming on many 250-400 cc motorcycles this year, seems to be highly thought of by the magazine reviewers.
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The Dunlop GP300, which is coming on many 250-400 cc motorcycles this year, seems to be highly thought of by the magazine reviewers.
Yes, I bought a Ninja 400 with them stock and have done two trackdays with them. I was conservative on my first trackday as I had only 400 miles on the bike and was getting used to it. On my second day, at Thunderhill West (Willows, California), I pushed myself and was pacing even with guys who have their knee down. These tires are like, $65 for the front, $95 for the rear on Revzilla right now. Both days were in the nineties and the tires held up well. Almost at 4000 miles and the rear has a flat section from my commute miles (can go at least another 1k), but the front has many more miles to go.
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RS10's lovin' them A LOT! Feels soooo much better and no need for TC as they will not break traction in the dry, try as you might.