I was thoroughly embarassed years ago when riding an EX500, and i thought I was riding it hard, til I met Dave Mirra (God Rest his soul) on his 'tweaked' C元50 Scrambler, and he showed me some shit! He knew what his bike would do, I didn't.Ī 'larger' tire won't do anything productive for you.
If I get uncomfortable before I find the limit, the bike is better than me, and I'm fine with that. I never have more fun riding hard than when I can comfortably find the limitations of a bike. That's not to say the XS is not big fun, ridden to it's potentional, quite the contrary. Upgraded suspension does help, but there's a lot of money between an XS, and something like a tuned SV650, for instance. There is no 'sticky' tires in these sizes, but the frame and suspension won't be able to overwhelm any of these tires. I have not personally ran either, but I know people that do, and they seem to do very well. I prefer the RWL S-11, because it just seems to scream '1979' The Avon AM26 is a good tire, and the Dunlop GT501 Arrowmax. I ahve ran both of these tires, and would use either. The Bridgestone S-11 is top shelf stuff for these bikes on stock rims, in my opinion. Run the front 130/90 on the back for better rear grip, although you will never tax either tire with a stock XS. Pirelli MT66 is not a 'sport' tire, but is a good one.
