Gone to the dark side

[Maddog]

need to replace rear tire. Went from stock 130/70/12 to a Yokohama 145/SR/12. This tire looked tall ! Just as I hoped it was app. 2 in. taller. The engine speed dropped app. 500 RPMs in final drive. The handling was
not much different from a "cycle" tire.
Too early to tell, mostly in town riding today, staying off the highways till after New Years eve.

[Gimpdog]

Nice!!!

[oldkid]

I'm surprised you had enough clearance in the transmission swingarm. I look at my 150 that had a 12 inch wheel and there is not much more room for the tire.

[bandito2]

I'm surprised you had enough clearance in the transmission swingarm. I look at my 150 that had a 12 inch wheel and there is not much more room for the tire.

Actually, on the Honda Reflex there is enough distance between the rear axle and the back side of the crankcase to fit a 155/80R12 tire. However, with the 155/80R12 there is not enough room between the sidewall of that tire and the muffler side of the swingarm without some modification. Carefully grinding a wide but shallow valley only a few mm in depth in the same arc as the tire allows that tire to fit. But it is much easier to just use a 145/70R12 or 145/80R12 tire which does not require any modifications.

The 145/70R12 is actually not too much taller than the stock Hoop. Going by the numbers; the 130/70-12 Hoop has a sidewall height of 91 mm and the 145/70R12 at 101.5 mm is only 10.5 mm taller. (13/32" which is just under 1/2")

Sort of funny (in an irritating sort of way to me) that there were folks freaking out about the car tire claiming absurd things like the rake angle would be changed too much by the taller tire and might cause instability.:s WHAT??? :wtf: Really? I mean REALLY???:nuts:

OK........ so here is how different it is............ back your Reflex scooter's rear tire up onto a piece of 1/2 inch plywood...... Now,...... Really, how different is that?

One caveat though is when using the 155/80R12 tire, the rear shock preload should be set a notch or two higher than your usual. The tire had rubbed the underside of the storage box on my Reflex on hard bumps until I fixed that. Not so much with the 145/70R12. The 145/80 is a bit taller than the Hoop and so should probably have the shock adjustment done when using that tire as well. :scoot:

The originator of using a car tire on the Honda Reflex scooter: Since June 6, 2008