Currently my F4i has Dunlop Sportmax Qualifiers on it. These tires came with the bike when I bought it a few months back and they've been performing great. Unfortunately I found a large nail in my front tire yesterday. I plugged it with a car tire plug as a quick fix for low speed riding around town but I want a new tire to be safe.

I found a Dunlop Sportmax D205F 120/70ZR17 front tire brand new for $40 and jumped on it. The tread is quite different from the Qualifiers I have now and the listing called this a "Touring" tire so I'm wondering what that means and if this tire is right for me.

If it's ok for me then I'm gonna try to find a brand new matching tire for the rear. So what exactly is the intended use for this tire and would it be ideal for my bike?
Dunlop Motorcycle - Tyres Sportmax Touring D205

 

Where are you located?
What's your riding style?

 

I live in Florida. I don't do any track riding, just street riding. I like leaning far on corners(not knee down far but pretty far). I like racing and hitting maximum speed occasionally. I do wheelies often but no other stunts besides that.

 

Then those tires are probably too hard for you. Sell that tire and get another qualifier, or comparable tire, for the front. That tire would be good for a road trip and going straight, not hard cornering on a light bike.

Doesnt that tire have white letters on the side? Ewww on a sportbike.

Just my $.02

 

I have no idea when it comes to tyres and did not realise there were so many differnt kinds I just get what I can afford and take it easy usually slowly pushing it up to find their limits. Current tyres are not too good at stopping in the wet.

 

i've never ran across any touring tires for sport bikes. Tires that give you 6-7k miles of thread life is hardly touring. The way sport bikes are setup, touring tires would probably be unsafe, and I would be surprised if anyone would actually make them for sportbikes.

Anyways, according to Dunlop's Euro site, the Dunlop Sportmax Touring is described as "sport/touring."

LINK: Dunlop Motorcycle - Tyres Sportmax Touring D205

but yeah... i dont know if those fancy sell phrases mean you should try it or not.

 

Im not trying to be rude but that is one of the most un-educated statements I've heard on this board so far. Fret not, Im sure someone will out do you one day.
The only difference between sport touring and sport only tires is compound and rain sipe design. They interchange like they were designed to be [they were] and which one you choose is completely dependent on what type of riding you do. They don't design tires for specfic bikes, they design them with a type of riding in mind and a rim size to fit on.
Say you have a BMW S1000RR. 180hp to the rear wheel. Throw some pure touring tires on it. It won't hurt anything. Just don't go to the track with those tires as they won't grip very well compared to the speed the bike is able to generate. It goes both ways too. You can put race slicks on a goldwing if you want. If you use the bike for touring, you buy touring tires. If you use it for the track, you buy track tires.

 

haha. you are trying to be rude. you dont need to try to hide it. moreover, you misread what i stated. I made no claims that "sport touring" and "sport" tires are different in terms of physical dimensions. In the previous sentence to what you quoted, i had suggested that touring do not really exist for sportbike. I dont know this for a fact, and so stated that this is a conclusion based on my lack experience: i've never encountered touring tires for sportbikes in the past.

By touring tires, I mean those tires that get like 20-30k miles, usually people who ride non-sport bikes will make these claims. I never heard of any tires for sport bikes that would get anything close to those figures. Obviously, the compound would be softer, and because of this, maybe touring tires dont really exist for sports bike due to safety reasons.

anyways, your disclaimer about not knowing how to spell and being a jerk, you should also include illiteracy... i mean..not trying to be rude... but you can't read for ****.

 

I read your statement correctly. It said the same as this one Again, tires aren't designed for bikes, they are designed with a type of riding and rim size in mind. You can put any touring tire that fits a 17" rim on the F4i and go long distance cruising to your hearts content. A couple of my friends run road 3's, one on a gsxr750 and another on a zx6 [I know, horrible friends with those bike choices]. They get at least 20k from the tires using them mostly for commuting to work and back. They can also get some great corner speed when we go on airport runs. Running touring type tires doesn't endanger you unless you push them past what they are able to do, but that goes for any type of tire including race slicks.

 

Try out this site...
rockymountatv.com
Lots of tires to choose from at very reasonable prices. Shipping is also very reasonable and sometimes free!