There are three good tires for the TR1: Bridgestone BT45, Bridgestone BT45, and Bridgestone BT45.

Gruss,
Georg

It's always a god idea to have one in reserve...

100/90-19 and 120/90-18 are the right dimensions. You don't nee the speed index V, that's right, but i think they do not cost very much more than the H-rated tyres...

Bye,
Georg

Thank you Georg and Alex.  
I find that I can have the pair of V-rated BT45s delivered to me for <$200.00 so it seems like the right thing to do.

I'm a bit late, I suspect, into this party.  I've posted a similar question this afternoon. I'd agree that BT45s are good, having had them on a Suzuki GS650GT and a Yam XS650.  But!  I've heard some good things about the new Avon AM26 Roadriders.  With tyre (sorry, tire - we must make allowances for our colonial cousins... ) technology moving constantly forward, and the Avons being a considerably newer design, logic suggests that they might be the equal, or even the superior, of the Bridgestone.  Oh for the olden days, when the only tyre (sorry, tire... what the heck; we invented the darned language!  Tyre!) to have if you ever took a corner - apart from nothing Japanese, of course, was the Pirelli Phantom!  Now that was a great looking tyre, and very sticky as well.  I wonder how they'd compare nowadays...?

Funny how perceptions change.  It's a bit like bikes themselves.  Way back in the dim and distant past, the Triumph Bonneville was the dog's wotsits, with magazine tests banging on about 'arm-stretching acceleration'.  Then in the seventies we had the Honda CB750, which 're-wrote the book' on performance.  then came the Suzuki GS1000 and the Kwak GPZ900R, which are both now called 'slow', when compared to the latest tackle.  I'm rather glad I decided early on to opt out of the horsepower race, preferring to take the Rolls-Royce view - 'sufficient' is, er, sufficient.  TR1s rule!  Back on topic: anyone have any experience of the Dunlop Arrowmax GT501?

Er, further or no further...?  I concur with the KZ1000 comment - a friend had a late seventies Kawasaki Z1R - it looked fantastic in white, and it really could move. But when I actually rode it, it felt like a dog compared to the TR1 I owned at the time.  There seemed to be no low-down power, even though the magazines praised this aspect of the 1015cc Kawa engine.  It felt like the throttle cable was damped, and made of elastic! The brakes felt wooden and extremely unresponsive, and the handling... well, the handling didn't inspire confidence - top-heavy and with a riding position that felt like sitting on a plank, a bit scary.  No doubt after riding it for half a day or so it'd've started to feel ok, but as it was I was glad to hand it back.  Going back to the TR1 was a revelation - the power was there when you needed it, not several seconds later, the riding position was much better - sitting 'in' the bike, rather than perched on top, and the suspension and brakes were a couple of generations better.  Of course, the TR1 was a bike with 'modern' architecture compared with the kwak then, but I can't help feeling that moderns now have taken a couple of retrograde steps regarding riding position.  My poor old knees wouldn't like the degree of bend required to ride even a modern 'naked', never mind a sportsbike.  Even my beloved TR1 initially felt cramped in the knee department after my old XS850!  Back to tyres (tires?), I'm still intrigued by the Dunlop Arrowmax GT501s and the Avon AM26s.  I know the Bridgestones are good, but they have been around for a while, and the classic scene has made a bit more of an impression on the world of motorcycling in general lately (I think it's all those bad backs and cramped knees!) so one does wonder whether these tyre manufacturers might have started to put more thought into their tyres for the oldsters...?  Maybe I'll be the first to put Avon AM26s on a TR1?  Or perhaps the Dunlops?  Or do I play it safe and go for the known quantity that is the BT45s... I'll report back, whatever I do.

You're not wrong there!  I mean, TR1s are scarce as it is, without smashing up one of the few there are...
'Course, as soon as the shakedowns are complete, you must join me in educating the youtube audience in the delights of the TR1. Moving, that is...



Keith

Quote from HolKel on 17.02.10 at 20:52:45:


Hi Holger,
die 110er Avon sind sog. Combo Grössen. Sie haben weniger Profilhöhe als andere Avon Hinterreifen, werden deshalb hinten nicht gern genommen. Fast alle Hersteller bieten in dieser Dimension eine Freigabe für die Montage auf dem Vorderrad in umgekehrter Laufrichtung.
Mit Hinblick auf die umgekehrte Traktionsbeanspruchung des Vorderrades scheint mir das immer noch ein probates Mittel bei Fahrwerksunruhen. Jedenfalls hast du wahrscheinlich nicht mit "Shimmy" Effekt infolge von Sägezahnbildung zu rechnen. Falls Sorge besteht, dass ein Hinterreifen "härter" gemischt ist als ein Vorderreifen, empfehle ich dir, vorn Speedindex "V" zu verwenden.

Gruss, Olaf