A lot of places (read:forums/websites/magazines) poo-poo Shinko Tires, saying they are garbage. Most of these riders have never owned a set or have tried them on the wrong weight class of bike. I went exploring the interwebz to find some non-bias reviews of them and the story behind all the bad word-of-mouth.
Turns out they are the same exact tires as Yokahama’s, Shinko having bought the molds, compound “recipes”, and most of their intellectual property after Yokahama shut down their motorcycle dept. as a result of the tsunami destroying their factory.
(Ref. http://bikerinfosite.com/2010/04/shinko-tires/ )
In my search for a decent, late season set of tires for the SuMo I happened across reviews that stated they were horrible from the reviewer but almost every response post praised them. “Why the giant discrepancy?” Surely this amount of people cannot be wrong and a paid writer be the end-all-be-all when the rubber hits the road. Then I came upon this review(s) from a guy named “Mity Mouse” that, I’m willing to bet, has more knowledge of bikes, tires, and pushing the acceptable limits than a good chunk of us do put together.
The further I looked into these tires and the more harder to find reviews from non-paid writers and actual riders the more they confirmed what I had thought. Much like any other industry that relies on brand loyalty and advertising, they don’t pay to be in places and seen by the press. For this they are written off and never really given any thought to be a contender in today’s market. Instead the produce over 200,000 tires a month under some of the strictest manufacturing standards in the world and make a lot of money doing so. $175 a full set of rubber designed and researched by Yokahama… I’m in.
I’ll be sure to post a review when they are on the bike and have had some time to beat em in a little.
Let us know how they are. I’ve personally never heard anyone praise them, but I’d be interested to hear a good unbiased review from an actual user. What other tires have you used that you can compare them to?
I used to run Pilot Powers on the Sumo, not really impressed or un-mpressed as I was just really getting used to a dirtbike on the street. Then I got Pirelli Dragon SuperCorsa Pros on the Husky 510 which I love for warm pavement and grip superb, (enough to touch pegs). You have to run them a little soft on a motard as they are weighted for a heaver MotoGP-like bike but work well at about 25-27. Good-average ride time length but after 1000 miles they slide a lot… If you lay the thing down and they suck in rain. (yes I ride in the rain and it’s great!)
I rode a set of Conti TKC (80’s I think) on the 1150gs for a while, they were ok but tore a lil if you rode a lot in the chunky hard stuff. great on the pave for the first 1500 easy. Switched to Metzler Sahara’s and loved em. Sick grip and very responsive in the dirt as well as gravel and do not vibrate your balls off on the pavement. Rode Conti Trail Max’s to Oklahoma and back in 4 days (over 3000 miles) They held up ok but was 1-2mm left and flated out.
As for street bike riding I had a 97 Honda Nighthawk 1100xx with Bridgestone BT’s? It was the yr 2000 and I was more concerned with being a bad ass than to remember what tires I put on it or not to ride drunk. RIP Azrael
Cool, sounds like you have some pretty good tire experience
I still really like the original Pilot Powers. Considering how “old” the technology of them is (2004), it is still an amazing tire and probably still better than the majority of street tires out there today
its funny you posted this because I was just looking at tires… everyone bashes them online but like you said very few have actually ridden them and tested them out…ive had both the shinko stealths and 005’s on my TL1000r and GSXR 1000 and never had problems with either
the 005’s were decent in the rain… only had two incidents where I got caught out there on them… fairly sticky once they warmed up and could hit turns pretty hard and confident
the stealths were horrible in the rain but in dry conditions were super sticky and could drag pegs on my TL no problem, warmed up quick and felt very confident with them in the turns
What about wear? I mean if they wear out twice as fast as higher end tires then whats the difference? I have no experience with them, though I have researched and thought about using them before.
What pair? What model? How many miles? What did he have them inflated to? What did he ride? How good a rider? How many years? Size? Suspension settings? How did they wear, flat, sides, tear,?
Just my two cents… I didn’t like them. Got my 14 with a new set on it. I don’t know how you ride or if they’ve upgraded since last year, but feeling the ass of my bike walk out while i’m burying a turn is not my favorite. I run Michelin power pure 2ct’s and I love them. Have heard great things about the metz 2ct as well.
2006 r6s, they lasted about 2000-2500 miles. Idk what model they were, it was a year ago, i just remeber shinko, He’s a good rider, 10 years under his belt, ~190-200lb, stock suspension settings. He had just got the bike from me and got the new tires on it, rode the wheels off it for that first month and said the tires were too slippery. he got stuck in the rain 1 time and was terrfiied of it with those tires. they were evenly worn, no chicken strips.
also, the Shinko 003 is used by many in the drag racing world as a drag radial. really sticky tire, not sure how its street manners are, but its certainly not a dumpy tire.
