Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Well i'm looking at purchasing my VERY FIRST set of bike tyres for the big ZXR 2 fiddy!

I'm just looking for some input from you lot as to which brands i should look for based on your experiences and also some help regarding stores in Sydney that have good service and pricing! I'm aware that a good tyre is probably based more on an individuals personal opinions and tastes, buy like i said, i'm just looking for some input to lead in me in the right direction

Cheers, Mick.

Dunlop Alpha 10

Misho's Pilot Powers for my taste although the Bridgestone BT 016 on the new zx10r are also a very good tyre.

Thats if they make them for the 250's

There are lots of good tyres but the stand out for all round performance are Pilot powers. Cant beat them I reckon.

most people seem to be fond of the the old Battleax bt045's for the LAMs bikes

I'll be getting a new set of dunlop gpr alfa 10's in the next week or two, still waiting on for the rear as it's a 140/60/18 , they didn't have it in stock so waiting for it, and i'll give you the head's up myke on how they perform . I've heard really good comment's about them from other 250 riders from other forum's , so will see how they go on mine since you have the same bike as me. cheers brendan

i have a set of dunlop grand touring jobbies for that bike not the greatest tyre out there i ant goin to lie but will last ages and i done a few track days on them and didnt have a problem till i tried production race tyres(not road legal ) theres plenty of tread left in them P.M me if your interested.
Alpha 10's are a phenominal road tyre for these, Shinko also make a good road tyre for these
cheers Tim

Not having owned a performance 2 fiddy I'm only taking an educated guess here..

I'd imagine if you push it pretty hard , a softer / stickier tyre would be your choice and being a lighter less powerfull bike your not gonna destroy soft rears in under 2500km as you can on a litre bike.

Also you will (I dare say) be focusing on high corner speeds coz you can!! So you'll want something that is sticky yet progressive hard over.


I'm quite happy with the Dunlop Roadsmarts on the Fairyblade. Bout $40 cheaper than the Pilot Road II's / $80 cheaper than the original Corsa's and seem to hang on OK even first time out (after cleaning wax off with rag and brakeclean-works well!!).Will be interesting to see how long they last.(Pretty good considering I HATE Dunlops usually!!)

The 10 runs Pirelli Corsa III's now. I've always liked the feel of the Pirelli's but they just don't seem to last !! pretty pricey too

Michelin PP's have great grip and turn in but IMO they are a bit unforgiving at the limit on some bikes..
Road II's are pretty hard to go past and seem better than most when the weather gets nasty..Last farkin ages and wear evenly too!!

Only my opinions based on my exp' on larger bikes ... hope it helps

I run Dunlop GPR Alpha 10s on my track bike. Very nice tyre with excellent feed back and grip. If you're after grip in a road tyre on a 250, these are the tyre to get IMO. They'll never last as long as the less grippy stuff, though.

ive got bt45s on the new 250.... pushed em hard in the dry and fairly goodly pushed on wet roads and seem to last fine and grip well....

rear started to show signs of squaring after about 2750kms, im now at 4000kms and the square is more pronounced however id imagine that if i didnt do any track days id get another 3500-4000 ks easily....

front seems to have good grip in high mid corner speeds and ive been all the way to the edge on it....

just my 2c

FFS, doesnt everybody know "YOU CANT GO FAST ON SKINNY TYRES............."

Well i put roadsmarts on the 9 after running m3s for ages and i also didnt like dunflops but im pretty happy with these

Thanks for all the feedback guys! Hopefully i'll get a chance to get in and grab me some new rubber in the next week or 2, i'll definately be doing my homework between now and then

Phil wrote:FFS, doesnt everybody know "YOU CANT GO FAST ON SKINNY TYRES............."

So you have been out with The Black Pearl Phil ???

FFS what applies to your 9 or ten doth not apply to a 250 of any vintage. The tyre technology in those corsa's and powers isn't anywhere even near a tyre carcass that will fit on a 250 (unless you really start forcing the issue, and then i wouldnt want to be within 5 km of you if you did).

The two tyre makes that wouled fit a 250 that i've used, and continually been very happy with are the Dunlop GT 501's (i think these are the grand tourer mentioned earlier) as well as BT45's. The 501's have a nice profile and tip in very readily, but the BT45's just have an even sweeter feel to them, and are dual compound to boot and are even more durable as a consequence when using them on the commute.

Others I've been considering but hadn't had an opportunity to try were the IRC and continental tyres. so no feedback good or bad about them from me.