Looking to DS my 2004 Swing Trike

Not finding any of the usual DS tires others are currently using. The Sumotomo 165/70R13 are not available. Has  anyone tried the Achilles 122 165/70R13 79H tire? It is an all season tire from Tire-Easy.com.
Any recommendations for a first time DS'er?

Hi "Easyrider",
I had my Hercules Raptis installed in April of '15. It's a 165/70R/13 79T; bought thru a Shell service tire dealer in the big city. I was a novice at this too. Anyway, I'm perfectly satisfied with it. Local MC repair shop had no problem with the installation. Good luck in your search.

If you have ABS brakes, you might consider a 165/65R13. (tire-easy has the Federal SS-657 165/65R13 77T) That size is closest to the stock bike tire diameter and will not negatively affect the ABS. I run that size on my Silverwing ABS. (different brand of tire though)

Thanks DickO. That is the size I am looking at. Did you notice if it corrected the 5% difference to make it closer to the GPS speed?

Bandito, No I wish it had ABS. My 2013 in Hawaii has the ABS and it has saved my butt several times trying to avoid cagers cutting me off at the off ramp. I am looking for a 70R to make installation easier. I plan to do the mounting myself using a HF motorcycle tire changer.

Thanks All

Easyrider wrote:

Thanks DickO. That is the size I am looking at. Did you notice if it corrected the 5% difference to make it closer to the GPS speed?

Bandito, No I wish it had ABS. My 2013 in Hawaii has the ABS and it has saved my butt several times trying to avoid cagers cutting me off at the off ramp. I am looking for a 70R to make installation easier. I plan to do the mounting myself using a HF motorcycle tire changer.

Thanks All

If you want to stay with a 70 series tire, Tires-easy also has the GT Radial Champiro VP1 175/70R13 82T which will fit. I tried it a couple times but eventually sold it because the rim it was on was not an ABS rim and there was a guy with a trike that wanted it so I sold it to him rim and all. That tire would give more throttle off roll and since it was taller than the stock bike tire, it effectively offered a step up in the gearing ratio (about 6 1/2%) for a little bit better fuel economy. It would bring the speedometer to a more accurate reading, but the odometer would be off approximately 6.5% lower than actual.

Interestingly the taller profile rode better and the turn/lean transition was less noticeable compared to the 165 series tire I have been using even though it was a narrower tire. (but that wouldn't matter on a trike) That 175/70R13 should last longer than the 165/70R13 as well. However, the thing about that taller tire is that one should be mindful of the shock preload which should be clicked up a notch or 2 to mitigate possible tire rub on the underside of the under-seat storage box when going over bumps/carrying a passenger or large load on the pillion seat.

Bandito,
I feel that the 175/70R13 would cause me problems riding two up on the trike. Total riders would be around 350lbs. I checked and the current pre-load is at one. The previous owner rode it one up.

Hi again "Easy",
And no, I don't know if the DS tire put me closer to "actual" speed or not; never had GPS or anything like that to check it against. I do, however, try to stay closer to posted speed limits if I'm having any doubts. Made a quick check of my rpm's last nite and showed a hair over 5000 rpm at 70 mph which was some 500 rpm's lower than with the stock rear tire. So maybe speed is "truer"...