Hi!  My rear tire on my 2000 savage is leaking air, and needs to be replaced.  The tires are the original ones, and when I bought the bike last fall, they were still in decent shape - lots of tread, no cracks.  As of last week, the bike (and tires) now have 10,000 kms. on them.

Anyway, the repair shop told me that the stock tires are just fine, and recommends that I just purchase new ones.  However, a few other bikers have recommended other tires: Metzeler ME 880s, or Pirelli, etc.  So, I just wanted to see what anyone here thought of the stock "Grand High Speed" tires, or if I should buy a different, and perhaps better tire(?)  

Thanks!  I am hoping to order & purchase tires on Wednesday night.

DianeS.

I find a matched set of good quality tires transforms a bike.

Clive W  

I have Dunlop 491s on both and like them a lot.

I run a Dunlop 404 on front, and a 555 (I think it is) in back.  The 55 tread pattern matches the 404, but has deeper grooves and little better tire compund, I think.  In any case, it's sort of the higher mileage longer distance version of the 404.  I've put a few thousand miles on it, and it works well.  Does a great job of holding a line, good traction, and has stood the test of getting beat about some.

My dad runs IRC Wildflares.  I think, not sure, but I think they make them in our sizes.  They work well on his VLX.  And, of course, they look pretty cool.

I forgot to mention that I run dunlop GPR 70 SP's on KLX, 140/70/17 rear and 110/70/17 front, going to 120/60/17 when it's time to change.

Clive W  

Ok, I've decided to go with Metzeler tires and see how I like them.  I commute an hour each way to work, so I need good tires.  The Metzelers and Dunlops were about the same price.

DianeS

I mentioned Metzeler 880s and the shop said a different set of Metzeler tires would be fine - lazer tech - but then they couldn't get them.  So... they have now ordered a set of 880s.  More expensive, but supposed to be great for traction, rainy roads etc.

DianeS

DianeS. wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:06:


Unless you have reason to trust them i would not - they're salesmen - lazer tech metz tires arent in the ballpark as the me880's - at 4k miles on the guzzi I pulled the factory lazer techs and through them in the trash and had me880's installed - replace the 880's that were on the '95 savage with new 880's - they were more just old than wornout.