Hi All,

I am looking for advice on which new tyres to get for my bike : TVS RTR200.
My bike's odo is at ~21,000 kms and it looks the there is still some thread left but I didn't want to take any chances.

I believe the bike's tyre specs are as below:

Tyre Size (front) 90/90-17" Tubeless
Tyre Size (rear) 130/70-17" Tubeless

From a quick glance at the recent pages of this thread, it seems like MRF Masseter and Michelin Pilot Street would be decent choices. I guess both of them are radial and Masseter seems to be available with multiple compounds. However, the MRF online site doesn't show this tyre (in 140/70R17) in stock.

I use my bike mostly for short city commutes (10 kms max so those tyres that perform well after heating up might be an issue) in Bengaluru and my primary considerations are for a tyre that has great dry and wet grip while being less prone to punctures (I guess this could be a oxymoron). I do use the bike for short rides of about 350 kms (max) during weekends once in a month or so. I am good with up-sizing as long as it doesn't require any modification to the bike or mess with the riding dynamics too much.

As for my budget, I am not yet decided on this since this is my first bike and the first time i am changing tyres. I generally don't like to compromise on anything related to safety but I am planning to switch my bike sometime next year and didn't want to spend a lot on a new set with daily commute of less than 25kms.

I did see a lot of praise for MRF Zapper FY1/Vyde in this thread in the initial pages. Are these tyres still available in India or has the Masseter replaced them.

Thanks in advance for all the help.

I changed my RTR 160 tyres about a month ago from Michelin Pilot Street to MRF Zappers, even though there was a lot of tread depth left on the former. The Zappers are much better than the Pilot Streets w.r.t dry and wet grip, and when it comes to punctures, only time will tell. One thing in favour of the Pilot Streets was that I didn't have a single puncture in 3 years of usage. I paid a total of Rs.3250 for the Zappers (90/90-17 tubeless, 110/80-17 tubeless).

Cheers,
Vikram

Masseters are brilliant. In case you don't find it on the site, reach out to mrf through their dealers or distributors. They can source it for you.

The next option is the newly launched eurogrip models. They are standard on the new bs6 apache 200. Good reviews from shumi of powerdrift too.

https://www.bikewale.com/expert-revi...ion-43919.html

I know my below query may not sound logical. But, since it consistently happened, posting this doubt

Have been riding multiple bikes for more than 25 years. I had Bajaj super for 5 years, Suzuki samurai for 5 years, pulsar for 5 years, unicorn for 10 years and we have Activa in home for more than a decade.

All these 2 wheelers put together have not had more than 8 to 10 punctures in total.

But, I purchased Dominar six months back and been riding on same road and to the same office. In the last 6 months, it has seen almost 6 punctures

I know it doesn't have any logic but is it something that we can infer based on the shape and other Dynamics of the tire? Tires are stock. Have not made any modifications to the bike or tire

Please suggest

Dont worry about the tires, the infamous nail mafia of Bangalore must be back in action. What is the route that you take?

Bangalore Mirror link.

Oh yes. This is certainly a big Mafia. I didn't know this

I travel from Banashankari to EC through BTM layout and under flyover on hosur road.

Thank you for your response. If these are better than Michelin Pilot Street then that would be great (my colleague who uses Pilot Street on his CBR250 was all praises for them). Can you please confirm the variant of the tyre though? It seem that they are quite a lot of Zappers and RevZ variants for MRF.

Is this the tyre that is used in Yamaha's R15 that members were all praises for in the starting pages of this thread?

Yep, I am considering the Masseters but i think the rear tyre alone is listed for Rs3900 in MRF's website(for the MCT one). I am not yet sure if I want to spend that much since I most likely wont have the bike for long.

I did see the reviews on the BS6 variant of the RTR200 and it does seem that they have improved the feedback from the rear. But i thought that was down to the tyre being a radial one now.

The drawback I see my TVS tyres is that they take too long to heat up (I guess its down to them being a hard compound) and in my short commute during Bengaluru's cold days I would never actually get to experience the full potential of the tyres. Thank you for the suggestion though. I will add these to my shortlist.

The previous gen R15 ie V2/S came with MRF zapper FY1 90/80 front and Revz 130/70 at the rear. Both 17 inches. Super grippy and better than the rest in and around that price range.

Hi, these are the tyres that I bought:

Front: https://www.mrftyres.com/products/tyres/172

Rear: https://www.mrftyres.com/products/tyres/175

Posted this query on N1000 thread and posting it here as well:

Hello BHPians

I purchased a used N1000 last year when it had around 7,000 kms on the Odo. The bike is just perfect and a very logical upgrade from my N650. The bike is currently at 9.5k kms and i am running stock tyres. From what i observe, my front tyre is about to give up in the next 1-1.5k kms (just an estimate) and i have started my research on the same. The rear tyre might still be good for another 3k kms. I have a couple of queries:

a) Do you think it will be a good idea to replace the front tyre first and then the rear tyre within a gap of 1.5-2k kms? Or, should i replace the complete set in one go. Cost is a big factor here for me.
b) My requirements are: good tyre life (12-15k kms), decent wet + dry grip (i find the stock Bridgestone's to be good), and zero track usage. Which will be the best tyre for my use case? Michelin Pilot Road 4/ Angel GT/ Rosso Corsa/ Metzeler M7?. My limited knowledge tells me that the M7 will have the least life amongst these so that is last on my list. Also, Rosso Corsa would be an expensive bet.
c) Best place in Delhi / NCR to get these tyres and is balancing necessary while putting new tyres?

I am super confused with all the models around. I plan to stick to stock size for front tyres. Rear tyre, i am hearing good reviews with 190/55 section . Please suggest

It is totally subjective in my opinion. Depends on the route you take, whether you ride mostly on edges of roads, tyre puncture mafia etc.

I too have a dominar for ~25 months now, not a single puncture. I use stock tyres as well.

Maybe you should change the route once in a while, try to not ride on road edges(both left and right) and update the changes.

The tyre compound makes a difference as well. Soft compound tyres like what many Metzelers use provide superior grip but are more prone to punctures and last less compared to hard compound tyres.

On my Fz16 I had a stock soft compound tyre and I used to get a puncture every month as I had a long commute. After I changed the tyre I switched to a hard compound tyre. My cornering grip reduced quite a bit and even on wet surface I felt the grip was a bit less. But the tyre had barely 2-3 punctures a year and it lasted me double the life of my earlier tyre.

Get the Michelin Pilot Road 5. Bestest options for big bikes to be ridden on Indian road conditions

Is anybody on the forum running Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR's? I have heard only good things about this tyre. Sufficient grip on tarmac, excellent manners off it and good ride quality.

I would like to know what kind of life these tyres provide on an average. I am otherwise convinced that these are my next pair for the rear.

^^ Been using these for the last 3 months on my 2013 duke 390. Done about 4K kms so far. Front and rear. They cost a pretty penny but are the best dual sports out there for the price. Besides the incremental ride height and the purposeful looks, this tyre is just phenomenal on broken roads and twisties. I haven’t had a chance to test them on the wet but I am fairly confident they will do really well. Just one word of caution though, due to the increased height of the sidewalls, my rear tyre knocks off the rear reflector every time you push the bike hard on bad roads, happened to me 4 times, Ive let it be now. But the fact that this tyre gives you the ability to almost go anywhere, road or no road makes it a super bang for your buck! This will be my replacement set for sure!