Tire help

[signal40]

Okay so last year I decided I wanted to put wide whitewalls on my 07 Nomad. I did some research and the first thing I discovered was that the selection is VERY limited. The second thing I found out is that a lot of riders recommended going to a narrower 130/90-16 in the front. So I decided to give this a try. I was important to me to have same brand/style front & rear so I was limited to pretty much one manufacturer. I installed a set of Shinko's. 170/70-16 rear and 130/90-16 front.
From the very moment I rode away on those tires my handling went to s*%$! High speed cornering to me exact. Anytime I make any maneuvers over 70 mph the bike gets very "wobbly".
Also, the rear tire is already down to the wear indicators after about 6000 miles. I this normal? Could the size change, brand, setup, etc be causing the handling issues?
I open to suggestions and advice.

Thanks!!

[Loafer]

I'm not a tire person, but I feel that the brand you chose is not up to the task. I will be switching to Avons this next time unless the Commander II's are reported to be even better. Having white walls is a great look, but maybe you will be safer on another brand in black. It will be interesting to hear what others have to say.

[MAS Tequila]

I have the Shinkos on my 03 and love them. 130/90 front and 150/80 rear.

They have over 7000 miles and still look great, and the handling is better than the Dunlops.

That really poses questions?

MT

[ringadingh]

Ive never used Shinko's, and have heard mixed results with them.
If you like WWW I think your best choice is Dunlops, they have the Cruisemax and the D404's available. There are ME880's also but I don't think they are that good anymore either.

[firestetz]

If I'm not mistaken aren't the 880's being replaced with the 888's. That's my planned replacement tire.

[ringadingh]

The 888 is a new tire just out recently, hopefully it will be a better tire than the 880's

[davidhollinger]

I went from factory Bridgestone's to Dunlop 404s and the handling was MUCH better. Problem is I only got about 4500 miles out of the dunlops. Went to Michelin Commander 2s last week. I put about 400 miles on them already and really love them. I will update after more miles. BTW, I went back with the dunlop on the front since the Michelin didnt have the size I wanted...

[Top Cat]

Avon Cobra for me.
But I don't need whitewall tires, I need the handling more.

[VulcanE]

Jason, most times new tires will (any new tires) will be an improvement over a worn out set of tires, and going with a narrower front should have made the bike fell a bit more nimble. The most I've ever got out of a rear MC tire is about 6000~7000 miles, and the front about 17,000 miles. There are a few things that can cause a bike to handle squirrley, the first things that come to mind is under inflated tires, worn or out of adjustment steering bearings, or excessive slop in the swing arm.

[ringadingh]

I usually get 9-10 thousand miles on my rear Dunlop before replacing.

[signal40]

Originally Posted by VulcanE

Jason, most times new tires will (any new tires) will be an improvement over a worn out set of tires, and going with a narrower front should have made the bike fell a bit more nimble. The most I've ever got out of a rear MC tire is about 6000~7000 miles, and the front about 17,000 miles. There are a few things that can cause a bike to handle squirrley, the first things that come to mind is under inflated tires, worn or out of adjustment steering bearings, or excessive slop in the swing arm.

Thanks for the great advice. So I'm curious, how do I go about checking the "slop" in the swingarm? As well as the steering bearings… Is there a way to check those?
Thanks

[VulcanE]

The easiest way to check both of them is to get the bike off the ground. You can check the swing arm by pulling it hard to one side, then with feeler gauges, measure the distance from the swing arm to the frame at the pivot bolt for the swing arm. This space is how much the swing arm will flop from side to side as you go around curves. When I checked mine last month, it was .106". I made a set of stainless steel spacers .052" thick and put one on each side. I got the ID & OD for the spacers by looking at the dimensions of the hardened collar that rides in the swing arm bearing for the ID of the spacer, and measured the sing arm to get the OD. I don't remember off the top of my head what they were. and there is a web site where you can order the shims/spacers. You want the play/slop to be around .002~.004".
http://www.mscdirect.com/browse/Fast...navid=12102174

To check the steering stem bearings, a process is described in the owners manual, but the way I like is while up on the jack, with the bars straight, bump one end of the bars with the heel of your hand, and it should smoothly fall all the way to the stop, and stop without bouncing or hitting hard. If it does, they are too loose. Also notice the feel of the bars when you move them all the way left and right. If you feel a notch, or anything other than completely smooth, you probably need to replace the bearings and races. It wouldn't hurt to disassemble the triple tree and grease the bearings anyway since most come from the factory with very little grease to start with.