Triumphrat

MAR

I have seen a lot of discussion about tires and how they LOOK. My friend and I are having a discussion about what size makes for the best handling bike. His position is that the wider the tire the slower it makes the bike. While I agree to a point, I feel that if the tire profile is higher it will quicken it, then you can have the quickness with a larger patch.
I am thinking about a 140/90 for the rear.( stock Thruxton wheel)Is this a taller than stock tire? Is there any feedback about the optimum tire size. I suspect tire brand will need to enter the discussion as well.
Thanks

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lindsayt

Yes, a 140/90 is quite a bit taller than stock. The stock 130/80 is (nominally) 104mm tall (10.4cm ~= 4.1 inches) - 80% of the width, 130mm. A 140/90 is (nominally) 126mm tall (12.6cm ~= 5 inches) - 90% of the width. I don't think you'd want to put that tall of a tire on one of these - it would change the handling quite a bit, I think, as well as the gearing. It would be like switching to quite a bit bigger front sprocket - you'd drop RPMs at the same speed, but at the expense of performance. Also, if you kept the stock front tire, the rear would sit quite a bit higher relative the front than it currently does.

Just my $0.02.

[ This message was edited by: lindsayt on 2007-04-16 11:35 ]

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38% rocker, 30% mod.

MAR

Having said that, a lot of guys, drop the triple trees down as much as 25MM. I would "assume" that raising the back up a little has the same effect as lowering the triple trees but without losing stability or ground clearance.

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