Hey Guys,
I live in lovely state of MN. And I was wondering what affordable alternatives I have when it comes to purchase & installation of a new back tire for an '03 F4.
I checked with the local Honda dealer here and prices are steep from the dealer - $190 for installing both tires & about $350 for front & back OEM quality tires.
Any recommendations?

Thank you !!

 

As far as installation goes its really up to you to find the best local price. Just open the phone book and start making phone calls.

These are the tires I ran on my bike. They are technically "sport-touring" tires but they are plenty sticky for me. They held good for 70+mph on clover off-ramps. And with 10,000 miles they showed very little wear.

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com...aspx?P=0&F=320 (they are the Diablo Stradas)

They are very well priced and also shed water extremely well if you ever get caught in the rain.

 

Also, maybe give us an idea of what kind of riding you plan on doing...

If you plan on doing any trackdays or knee dragging you may want to consider some real sticky tires.

 

Hi DBEAU,
Thanks for your response. Here is my typical riding characteristics:
-I will be using this bike for mostly highway commuting only (75 miles round trip).
-I like to hit local twisty roads too and like to crack the throttle every once in a while.
-I don't ride in rain, unless I'm on a multi-day bike trip and have no other choice. But that happens only about once a year.

I will look into the tires you recommended too.
Thank you

 

Based on this I have to recommend the diablo stradas 100%. They are great tires for communting and are sticky enough to hit the twisties also. The reason I chose them was because of my commuting habits and they did not let me down. Since I put them on I accumulated roughly 12,000 miles and there is still plenty of tread left.

 

Thank you DBEAU!
That was very helpful. I found a good article about this tire too:
http://www.motorcycledaily.com/07oct...lli_strada.htm

Also there is a sportier version too:
http://www.motorcycledaily.com/10oct...lli_diablo.htm

Thanks again DBEAU!!

 

i'd say that if you can, i'd take off your wheels and take them to the dealer to have your tires mounted
i work at a dealer and can say that is a ridiculous price just to mount/balance/install your wheels and tires

look on ebay for a set of tires, i don't do that style of riding so i'm not going to recommend anything for commuting
my "commute" to school and work is about an hour a day of carving
i run michelin pilot power 2cts and will run them again when i need some new ones

 

what about dunlop qualifiers? compared with the pilot power 2cts
these 2 seem to be the most common ppl like

 

I bought pilot power 2cts tires not too long ago and I have no problems since. For installation buy the tires you want and install the tires on your bike yourself. It’s too easy and saves you some money.

 

I commute 60 miles round trip a day. I've had really good luck with my Metzler M3's and will go with them again when I need new ones. They are affordable, plenty sticky and wear nicely. I've got a little over 4k miles on them and they still look great. The local shop here was going to charge me more if I brought in my own tires so I made a deal with them and they ended up coming as close to the price that I found for the tires as they could. I had front and back replaced and took my whole bike in. Tires, mount and balance ran me around $500. Maybe $550.