Slightly smaller tire or a Trailwing?
 

At the moment, I am staying with Ricardo in Quito, Ecuador. My V-Strom 650's rear tire is near its end. I need a 150/70 R 17 69H. My only options are a smaller 140/80 17 Pirelli MT60 at $103, including mounting or a OEM Bridgestone Trailwing in the correct size costing a whopping $260 with mounting.

Current plans are to head down the west coast to chile and possibly Argentina if it doesn't get to far into winter. Also would like to do a side trip into Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni and exit into Peru's Atacama to San Pedro(I think thats the town). So there will be some loose and very loose surfaces and possibly some mud.

What do you think? Should I go for the "Deathwings"? I like them for pavement but not so much for looser surfaces, for obvious reasons. If I go for the slightly smaller Pirelli, is it going to effect the performance more than making a quicker lean into a turn? Any thing else I should worry about with the Pirelli?

Any advice is greatly appreciated

Rhino

I know quite a few guys who ride with a smaller size on their BMW GS's. There is a make of tyre 'Heidenau' that doesn't make an exact size match for the GS but it is widely used by the GS boys who like to ride in the dirt. I haven't heard of any adverse problems with them using them. I think if you do a search on Heidenau K60 or is it K66 over on www.ukgser.com you'll find many happy tales of going down a size and swapping rubber brands. Good luck

Last year we put a tire size 130/80 onto a rim for a R 1100 GS (designed for 150/ something) for not quite 1000 k. No problem at all, even without tube.

But a slightly smaller front tire as recommended affected the handling of my R 100 GS quite strongly.

So I'd definitely be careful with a front tire, but in this case? On the other hand, maybe a V-Strom reacts differently?

Lars

Pirelli MT60
 

Dear Patrick

MT60 Tyres I have used are - PIRELLI - Motorbike tyre range

I believe the tyre you refer to is the MT60R ?

Alec

Kenda Tyres
 

Hi Patrick,

Ran a K270 rear from Colorado to Santiago in 2005 - seemed OK to me , mind you it din't rain much!

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m...votlout/64.jpg

15000 miles !!!!!!!!!!

Alec