Larger Rear Tire?

Hey Guys,

I was busy at work this morning installing my Dr. Pulley Sliders (It was successful at reducing crusie RPM by 400 RPM's as compared to stock rollers from 60 MPH on up). Any way, I am noticing a lot of space around that rear tire. Has anyone tried installing a larger diameter rear tire on their Swing? I know it would throw the speedo off and cause it to read lower than it really is (Wait... actually, it might acutally fix the inaccuracy that exists so strike the last statement). I'm sure it would hurt acceleration a bit but it would help cruise. I would also be interested in knowing what brand and exact size of tire that may have been experimented with.

ronjr009,

Other than the 'darkside' (car) tire I don't know of anyone using a larger tire on the rear. The darkside tire is a little bit larger and as you point out it does appear to correct the inherrannt speedometer error.

Hi Dale,

I'd looked at that. I know there are a few who are using the Sumitomo. I think Honda Silver is one. I know some have had good success. I have to admit that I am still a little tentative. Being that I live where there are a lot of roads with serious curves ( i.e. U.S. 129), I can't just bring myself to try it. Maybe one day.

ronjr009 wrote:

Hi Dale,

I'd looked at that. I know there are a few who are using the Sumitomo. I think Honda Silver is one. I know some have had good success. I have to admit that I am still a little tentative. Being that I live where there are a lot of roads with serious curves ( i.e. U.S. 129), I can't just bring myself to try it. Maybe one day.

Here is a picture of a Darkside tire on on US-129 Tail-of-the-Dragon http://burgmanusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=42030&p=397348&hilit=dragon+picture#p397348

http://burgmanusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37204&hilit=avatar#p345640 (the avatar picture)

For what it's worth, I live in the mountains of northern NM (USA), and twisties are simply a part of daily riding. Also, I just recently returned form a 7 day tour which included Hwy 191 in eastern AZ from Safford up to Alpine. This highway includes the most severe - like about 180 degree - hairpin switchbacks I've ever ridden, or driven on, and many miles (the whole road is about 100 miles) of a variety of mountain twisities. The Sumitomo seemed to handle all of this quite well. In fact I even found myself "leading" a group of bikers for many miles through these twisties when they showed up behind me, and stayed there till I pulled off for a rest.

Ride safe.

Hello all I have been off the forum for awhile but could not help adding my two cents. I changed to a car tire while I was home and did not use the Sumimoto tire. I ask the local shop if they had any that size and the answer was no but we do have a Mastercraft 175-70-13. I looked at the tire and it looked real good and besides it was american made. I went home and did some measureing because this is bigger than the sumimoto and a lot bigger than factory. It looked like I had plenty of room so I pulled off the rear tire and headed back to the shop. The tire had 8000 miles on it and when we took it off I was astonished how thin the tire was in the center. It was 1/4 inch thick at the most and easily pushed in with one finger. My thoughts were that I had been going 80 mph on that. I am not hard on tires and I was suprised that it was that thin. Any small sharp object would have put me out of business. I mounted the car tire and it went on great. When I put it on the bike it looked so good and had plenty of room left over. Now I have a tire that has three time the thickness of the origonal when new with thicker side walls. I have loged over 400 miles on the car tire and I will not go back. Handling is great and I have driven on wet and curvy Ozark roads. The price mounted with tax was 69.00 Also with the heavier tire especially the side walls I am running 20 LB of air and it rides much softer and my spedo is right on with GPS.

What was your reasoning behind installing the "Dark Side" tire. Was it for a better ride or higher mileage? I`m not new to the silverwing. I purchased a 2004 new with stock tires. I had a little over 20,000 miles on it when it was totaled on March 31st of this year. I recently purchased another 2004 silverwing with almost the identical miles It came with the darkside tire installed. So far I`ve ridden approx. 150 miles, some on the interstate and some on back roads. I find it does take some getting used to. As of yet I`m not impressed. Your thoughts and anyone else`s would be appreciated.

Quote :

What was your reasoning behind installing the "Dark Side" tire

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One was just to look cool because i like large tires but the other was higher mileage and more rubber betwene me and the road. I am pulling a trailer now and it works great. I have upped the tire pressure to 30 PSI because I did not like the way it handeled at 20 PSI.

Timewarp_1 wrote:

What was your reasoning behind installing the "Dark Side" tire. Was it for a better ride or higher mileage?

Welcome to the SWing forum.

https://www.silverwing600.com/silver-wing-topics-f3/overweight-and-going-to-darkside-t1249-15.htm#11749

Timewarp_1 wrote:

I recently purchased another 2004 silverwing with almost the identical miles It came with the darkside tire installed. So far I've ridden approx. 150 miles, some on the interstate and some on back roads. I find it does take some getting used to. As of yet I`m not impressed.

Make sure you counter-steer (versus muscling) to start the turn and during the turn). After I switched to the darkside tire, I found I was not counter-steering 100% of the time ... now it is second nature.

One other suggestion would be experiment with the darkside tire PSI. The more PSI the crisper response but with a harder suspension ride. The SWing darkside tires range from 50 PSI down to 20's ... so it is a personal choice.

I was reading up on the tire size thing. There is a second option, I am mounting a set of 15/ 14's f/b. These are from the burgy 650, they do fit and there is almost no crazy modding or getting used to. It is still on bike tires so they should feel natural. I do know there is minimal clearance in the back end for the bigger diameter, but it does fit.

Atlanticfun wrote:

I was reading up on the tire size thing. There is a second option, I am mounting a set of 15/ 14's f/b. These are from the burgy 650, they do fit and there is almost no crazy modding or getting used to. It is still on bike tires so they should feel natural. I do know there is minimal clearance in the back end for the bigger diameter, but it does fit.

It will not work, but don't take my word for it.

[quote="WingMan"It will not work, but don't take my word for it.[/quote]
I wonder if the insurance would cover this.


Did ever try this WingMan

An ABS SWing would even pose more problems.

Atlanticfun wrote:

I was reading up on the tire size thing. There is a second option, I am mounting a set of 15/ 14's f/b. These are from the burgy 650, they do fit and there is almost no crazy modding or getting used to. It is still on bike tires so they should feel natural. I do know there is minimal clearance in the back end for the bigger diameter, but it does fit.

Our rims are 14/13 front and rear. 15/14 inch tires are too great a diameter.

Some folks make a big deal out of the bigger rims on some other bikes (B650 and Kymco Xciting 500??), but those tires have lower profiles. The overall diameter of the Honda wheels is only about 1/4" smaller than the B650 wheels. The biggest benefit I would find from the B650 wheels would be the increased accessibility of the valve stems.

honda_silver wrote:

[quote="WingMan"It will not work, but don't take my word for it.

I wonder if the insurance would cover this.


Did ever try this WingMan

An ABS SWing would even pose more problems.[/quote]

Only on my Burgman 650, and then I went darkside on it too!