Tires Firestone or KENDA
Some light tires like the Kenda Small Block 8. A small knobby tire that works great on the street.
I've been getting good service, tires and otherwise, from Firestone for literally decades. Many locations for ongoing service needs and access to history, good road hazard warranty protection, relatively good with appointment timing.
I'm currently running Firehawk Indy 500 Performance tires as all seasons and they do well enough in small amounts of snow
Kenda K-RAD are super grippy!
Perfect all around tires for this kind of bike.
I've only driven on them for 30 miles but holy crap are these things amazing. These winters grip better in the cold than the crappy Firestone summers my car came on grip the warm. I'm able to launch a 0-60 with minimal wheel spin and without chirping the tires on the 1-2 shift. These are also softer and quieter than any Blizzaks or X-Ice Snows I've had. They're soft and squishy and compliant. They give a great ride and still retain some steering feedback.
I've had a FWD Corolla for 12 years and it has gotten me through the worst kind of storms in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and here in NL with Firestone Winterforce tires. I swear by them! I've gotten through conditions in snow storms that even big jacked up 4 wheel drive trucks got stuck in.
I've been pretty happy with the cost/benefit of Firestone Indyhawk/Indy500/whatever they're calling them these days, on the stock wheels. They don't last long (I get 10-15k miles out of a set) but they're damn cheap ($650-$750), and break traction quite easily and predictably, if you enjoy going a little sideways often. I usually am running the Flying Miata alignment specs with these tires break loose fantastically easily and enjoyable for me on that alignment. On a factory alignment though they are reasonably grippy for spirited street driving. Again though the biggest benefit of them is they are super widely available (because Firestone) and CHEAP.
For example the K193 Tires were made to be super puncture resistant at a higher PSI than the first K Series(100PSI) but due to budgeting, they had to sacrifice handling, and also some rolling resistance, they do roll nice but not the best, they handle like crap, and aren’t not safe in the rain despite being advertised as such..lol… they also wear like iron, after 8,000 miles i still have life left them in and never had any puncture issues compared to other tires.
I just put one of those tires on the front of my K1600 & it doesn't like speeds over 70 mph. It handles good at low speeds & in the rain, but I don't like it at all on the highway. Feels like rain grooves on any surface.
I bought these tires 18,000 miles ago. My car is a Toyota Camry. And frankly, it was smoother before these tires. Definitely avoid these tires.
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