Another tire thread

[Duane Ausherman]

I was asked off line this question. “I realize this is a "what type of oil should I use question", but I'm curious. What type of tires do YOU like best on your /5?”

I am flattered that you think that I might have useful information. I don't. I gave up riding about 12 years ago because I was no longer safe. I still like to do test rides for diagnostic purposes only.

I can tell you something about the parameters with which to be concerned, as they are probably the same today. BMW only authorized two tire company products and only specific tires from those companies, Conti and Metzler. There is a good reason for that. In the era of the /5 no other brand provided what was important to BMW and to all who worked for me. In fact, we tested this out. A couple of times we would blindfold a mechanic and put him on the motorcycle, remove the blindfold and send him off for a test ride with another rider for a witness. They would return and the rider of the mystery tire bike was able to tell what was on it. The several off brands that were commonly used each had their own signature style wrong handling.

What is called the aspect ratio was very important to BMW and my shop. That is how fat, round or V shaped the profile is. A tire may work well on one motorcycle and be very poorly on another one. In general, European motorcycles had what we call "neutral steering" and BMW considered this to be very important. So did we.

What is neutral steering and how do we know it? A motorcycle with neutral steering can be laid over in a long curve and the rider may remove hands from the bars and the bike will stay in the same curve. It won't try to lift up and out of the curve, or try to fall over in a tighter curve. In fact, one can ride without hands and just using "body English" lay it over into medium curves and pick it back up for a straightaway. Make sure that your bike doesn’t wobble before you try this test.

If the front tire is too large, or the rear tire is too small, it will want to lift up and out of the curve. The opposite will make it want to fall over in the curve. Neutral steering allows one to tour all day long with less rider fatigue. During my career with BMW, they all were neutral steering. I have ridden a couple of later bikes that were actually scary to ride as they were far from neutral steering.

It took a long time for the Japanese bikes to get to this point, mostly because they didn't know, or care about it. The first one I remember riding that was neutral steering was the 4 cylinder 550 cc. The previous edition, the 500 cc model was terrible. I know nothing about how any motorcycle works today.

If one wanted higher mileage out of tires, that was where we would install the Metzlers. If the rider wanted sport riding, we installed the Contis. Back then, if a tire lasted a long time, then it didn’t grip well. I always rode with the Contis as I had no interest in how long a tire lasted. We were riding a luxury item that was among the most expensive on the market. If you can’t afford your hobby, find another one. Only the ignorant would expect to get both mileage and sport handling. I doubt that it is a lot different today.

For readers who have opinions, express them carefully. This is an attempt to keep useless opinions out of this thread. The fact that you own a keyboard doesn’t make you an expert.

1. Start with your bike brand and model.

2. Tell us something about your experience riding. A year, or 40 years, to work and back, or 300 k miles around the world.

3. Do you tour and want high mileage, or are you a sport rider and need good traction.

4. Specify if you even know what neutral steering is and if you care about it. There are valid reasons who one would make a compromise and sacrifice neutral steering, such as road racing.

The goal is to find out which tires provide neutral steering and give reasonable service for that application.

A post of “I use a XYZ tire and it is perfect.” will tell us that you are in idiot and probably shouldn’t even ride a motorcycle. Sorry to be so blunt, as I am usually known for my diplomacy. NOT.