A friend told me I should of went with a 190 tire on my 636 at the track. Idk why he would say that? What would be the reasoning for that?
The wider 190 tire on that size bike offers a larger contact area for grip and will change the ride height in the rear of the bike letting it turn in a little quicker. Its mostly for grip, but depending on the tire brand and how steep the tire profile is it will change how the bike turns in.
I tried the 180 and 190 supercorsa rear on my 636 and didn't notice a tremendous difference between the two. I got a little more corner clearance out of the 190 and could lean over and get on the gas a little more than with the 180. The biggest benefit to the 190 is if you sell your race take-offs to street guys the 1000 riders will buy them all day!
talk to your trackside vendor, Michelin has 180 and 190 race tires as do some other brands.. they have pros/cons and each seems to shine a bit more depending on the track on a 600. Long sweeping corners where your driving on the side of the tire a bunch? 190 is pretty cool, 180 tire is nice with faster flipping back/forth, and long straights as you give up about 5hp with the bigger tire.. A 636 is just a strong 600.
I've run 190's for the most part on my 636. I couldn't get the side grip to roll on as early with the 180.
it's all about the trade off. Yes, a 190 is a heavier and taller tire than the 180 so you loose 5+- HP, and some "flickability".. howerver the side grip is significantly better for long sweeping corners where you would otherwise be waiting to get to full stick as the 180 would be spinning. Some tracks the 180 is better for a 600, some tracks a 190 would be better. Running a 190 on an sv650? Seriously.. LOL, it is kind of funny.. Just talked to a friend over in spain running the world super stock series. That class is required to run 180 tires on the 600, however the WSS guys are given the OPTION to run 190 or 180. Riders choice.
I agree that going bigger tire is not nesisarily better. I put a 190 Pirelli slick on the SV superbike we built this winter although it fit with the 5.5 Marvic and bike has 100HP the problem was not so much cleareance but was MUCH taller than the Michelin that came off. I believe that had also to do with my geometry issues Iam having and going to the 180. I had the tire so I tried it. Besides look at the times we were doing in the 80s & 90s on 160s, not far out on some tracks.
i run 195/65 on my R6. Dunlop Ntec. they had for years in the AMA. nothing wrong with it. great tire. just rides little different, but super patch and grip
Hell, I run a 200 on my zx6r... but I had a basement full of them already and needed the corner speed/grip cause I'm too big to try and drag race guys on a 600...
A bigger tire changes gearing also a lot. since a smaller tire when leaned over you go from a small circunference to a bigger one when you stand up and with a taller tire it goes from a small to a biggggger one.... that math the tuner has to take into acount.... if the bike does not have the hp.... hope I explained myself well
sv, that is when the bike is standing up, but when you lean over the diference is a bit more drastic...
From what I have measure... On Michelin Power One's... The side wall difference is consistent with the middle of the tire... the 190/55 is just a larger version of the 190/55 That is not to say that other brands offer different profiles on the same model tires from the 180/55 to the 190/55... I am curious to test the Pirelli 180/60 Hopefully it is a slightly taller, more triangulated rear 180/55... Another thing to note, is that the numbers mean very little, and are not mathematical dimensions... In a perfect word it should be 183/57R17 rather than a 180/55R17. We should be able to get accurate specs from the manufacturers... Sometimes you really have to dig for this information... Luis
