Great muscle bike article

[Sweaty]

FYI guys. The GSX 14 is still in the headlines 
In the latest edition of Australian Motorcyclist.
Not sure if the pics will be readable though.
And I Sold my bike within 40mins of advertising it last night. Bitter Sweet feeling really.

[Hooli]

I can read it. I disagree on the comments on suspension though, a mate I ride with has a Ohlin'd up CB13 & the only reason he gets away from me is by being dangerous. My bike could follow him but I won't.

[GSXKING]

In that group of MUSCLE bikes, the GSX is the only one with a 6 speed gearbox and is what sold me on it 

[Mick_J]

As Suzuki invented the Muscle bike with the GSX 1100 why would you have anything else.

[Irish in Oz]

Look at the difference in the size of the rear wheel/tyre, that probably slows the 14 down.

[Hooli]

Look at the difference in the size of the rear wheel/tyre, that probably slows the 14 down.

180/55 on the other two, I've had that size on my 14. It does make them turn a lot better but the speedo becomes a comedy item showing 10-11% over.

[Irish in Oz]

Surely the 180/55 in better than standard profile for speedo accuracy, the profile is higher, or does it sit further down on the bead!

[GSXKING]

Look at the difference in the size of the rear wheel/tyre, that probably slows the 14 down.

YES 

[Hooli]

Surely the 180/55 in better than standard profile for speedo accuracy, the profile is higher, or does it sit further down on the bead!

The profile is a percentage of the width, it ends up with a slightly smaller diameter tyre. my speedo got 3% worse compared to a GPS.

[Irish in Oz]

My calculations

190/50 = 95
180/55 = 99
190/55 = 104.5

Am I pressing the right buttons.

[Hooli]

I can't fault your sums, I just know how it worked on my bike. Maybe because they are both on a 6" rim the 180 flattens out our as it's very slightly stretched to reach the edges?

I hadn't bothered to try calculating it before if I'm honest.

[Eric GSX1400K3]

Remember its the overall height compared to overall width. So a 190/50 will have a total height, measured from the edge of the rim to the top or centre height of the tyre. Its not the height of just the sidewall bit.

A 180/50 will be "pointier" or put another way, the slope of the side of the tyre will be steeper than a 190/50 as a 180 section tyre has less width, so to achieve 50% of it height in profile, it has to be steeper.

Makes the bike better at tipping in but less stable at speed in a straight line.

Horses for courses, ive had 190/50 and yet to try 190/55, but wont go to 180 section as i like the stability and feel of a wider tyre.

[Irish in Oz]

I never had stability problems with the 180 on the 14 and definately never had problems on the FJR and Bandit. And how often can you travel at the high speeds on a public road to worry much about the "stability" issue, with the rating of those tyres I can't see 110 kph or 70 mph giving any high speed straight line problems.
I'm still looking for that 60 profile.

[Irish in Oz]

A 180/50 will be "pointier" or put another way, the slope of the side of the tyre will be steeper than a 190/50 as a 180 section tyre has less width, so to achieve 50% of it height in profile, it has to be steeper.

Wrong. The reason being they are the same both have a 45 degree angle (slope).

The 180/55 is a different story is about 2 degrees more making it a little steeper.

I can say I never really noticed the difference having had both on my 1400.

P.S. You probably made a typo above but I know where you are coming from.

[GSXKING]

Some bloke just have way too much time on their hands