rear tyre 180/60/17

[macdee]

i have been offered a 180/60/17 pireilli diablo tyre for the vtr
do you men think the 60mm wall will make any difference to the handling

[Jscobey]

as far as i know the 55 or 60 number isnt a measurement in mm, its a % of the width. the "60" refers to the height being 60% of the tires width, so taller than a 180 55, which has a height that is 55% of its width, the 180 60 will essentially increase the "flickability" of the bike. it will turn in easier, at the sacrifice of straight line stability. not sure how the VTR will handle with it, as i havnt tried it. it will also raise the rear of the bike which will quicken the steering. id say if you have the shock shimmed then you shouldnt do it. it will make things handle weird. it would prolly be okay if you dont have the shock shimmed.

[lloydie]

I'm running a 60 and I like it a lot but if you have spacers on the rear shock remove them as the tyre will raise the rear hight .
The only down side I've found is the chicken strips !!
You just can't get to the edge .
But it dose make it more nimble and feels more stable when dragging a knee :-) I'd be happy to fit another

[macdee]

thanks for the info men
i will see the tyre man later this week

[budd]

I fitted one last year (SS600 spec Pirelli super-corsa) and with the 6mm spacer in it nearly fell over on the stand I ended up having to carry a thin piece of wood to stick under the stand to get it a bit more upright, has mentioned above the combination of taller tyre and an extra 6mm on the ride height make it pretty nervous on the road, removing the spacer improves things and stops it looking like it’s going to fall over.

It was worth fitting for an experiment an insight into how little things can have a knock-on effect and change handling and feel etc, I'd hoped to find some worthwhile benefits but in the end I didn’t find any pros to outweigh the cons. Increased traction ? possibly in extremes but as I never had any traction issues with my previous super-corsa there was no improvement I could identify.

I personally didn’t find any improvements from it, others may find gains and it may shave a couple of tenths off a Super sport lap time but for me on the road the OE size is a better all round proposition.
Also as mentioned above you can’t use the whole width of the tyre plus I had to move my hugger to allow clearance for the bigger radius, all in all my advice would be stick with the 55 and fit a spacer to speed up the steering if required, mines getting a bit long in the tooth now and I’ll be going back to a 180/55 and refitting the 6mm spacer.