front tire - narrow or wide?

[dreygun]

What points can you tell me about which would be better to have? M50 is wide but I'm thinking of HD rocker but front tire is very narrow. What's better for handling?

[m50Joe]

Since no one has answered I will give my "opinion".

Wide tires are better for stability and grabbing the road with more contact patch. Skinny tires offer better manuvering.

[cardude720]

too skinny will not handle well nor will too fat. something like the vrod or m109 look good but their tires r too wide. on the other end of the spectrum a vmax (pre-200 or sportster have the dragster look but the front wheels follow rain lines in the freeway too easily. I think the m50 is just right (like goldilocks hehe) but I might have a biast...

[dreygun]

goldilocks lol, nice. gotcha. going by experience, would the tire width on the front of HD rocker be nimble with stability still on hwy or more a lower speed cruiser? i take mostly hwy everyday with very little city riding.

[nativenyerintexas]

I agree there's a trade off when it comes to maneuverability and stability but there is a happy medium and that medium is found on the M50. My other choice of bikes was a Honda Spirit 750, which has smaller tires both front and rear. I can't imagine the Honda 750 handling as well as the M50 due to that fact alone. I used to laugh at other guys back in the 80's who has super wide 50's on the rear of their cars and rediculously small tires on the front. Their cars handled very poorly. Whereas I has 245/60R 15s on all four corners on my 1970 Firebird. It handled like it was on rails, especially after I imstalled KYB shocks. As a rule I go with bigger is better when it comes to tires but there's a point when too big is counter productive. I like the way the M50 handles and manuevers. I wouldn't change a thing about it.

[cardude720]

im not sure about the hd rocker. you would have to test ride it on the freeway. compare and contrast. if you dont ride that hard then anysize (stock) tire should be just fine.

[cyclechris]

I think that in general, bikes are engineered to a purpose and then get tires that fit in with that. Some bikes do well with tires that wouldn't work as well on other bikes due to steering geometry etc. But yeah, in general a narrower wheel turns quicker, to a certain point. I think it's tough to answer really definitively without understanding all the physics behind it.

[nicocorea]

Two other things I'd consider are rotational mass and friction. Bigger tires have more mass and thus require more energy to accelerate and more braking power to decelerate. All other things being equal, my VZ800 with stock-sized tries will accelerate faster than your VZ800 with up-sized tries. Mine will also stop faster. True, the difference will be marginal, but there will be a difference. There's a reason Lance Armstrong's bicycle tires are razor thin...

A larger contact patch also means more friction between the road and the bike. Again, more friction means more power required to accelerate and more power to maintain a given speed. But more friction between the road and the bike can be a good thing when you need to stop really fast or take a sharp turn at high speed or when the road surface is wet.

[dreygun]

Wow a lot of great points. I agree with the tires matching the type of bike. Sat on the rocker yesterday and have to say I was thrilled at hoq comfy it was. Loved the forward controls. Have to get for m50 for sure until tradein would be more in interest and season for the dealership. On the rocker the front tire seemed to feel proper rather than a wider tire. The front end is shaped more narrow. But on m50 it feels great cause the bike is wide through the whole body shape.