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Looks like we have and entire new crew owning Rs and as such the wide tire discussion is upon us, so thought I'd revive what it does to the R and why.
The R was HD's attempt to produce a bike actually capable of going around corners and they did a pretty good job of it. The tire size they chose was probably the best size in their common tire lineup to take on the task at hand. They also raised the bike quite a bit to gain much needed ground clearance so that it could actually lean enough for a reasonable pace in the corners.
Two common mods done on the R are lowering and wide tire. Both will essentially destroy the very thing the R was designed to do.
The impact of reduced ground clearance by lowering is obvious, but the wide rear tire not so much.
A wider tire not only slows handling due to increased rotational inertia and gyroscopic effect, it actually requires the bike to physically lean more to take any corner at a given speed. The wider profile means that the contact patch moves further towards the center of the corner on a wider tire than a narrower one at lean. When cornering clearance is your issue it actually decreases ultimate cornering ability. This is why Moto GP bikes have to lean further in corners than their smaller cousins.
Last issue is that the wider tire and resulting greater offset in contact patch is how that offset impacts rake and trail at lean. The greater offset results is a greater misalignment of the steering head from effective lean angle. This results in decreased stability at full lean.
So there you have it. If you are wanting to extract the best performance from the R you are far better off keeping the 180. The wider tire has no advantage beyond complying with an expected look needed to conform to a current fad.
The R was HD's attempt to produce a bike actually capable of going around corners and they did a pretty good job of it. The tire size they chose was probably the best size in their common tire lineup to take on the task at hand. They also raised the bike quite a bit to gain much needed ground clearance so that it could actually lean enough for a reasonable pace in the corners.
Two common mods done on the R are lowering and wide tire. Both will essentially destroy the very thing the R was designed to do.
The impact of reduced ground clearance by lowering is obvious, but the wide rear tire not so much.
A wider tire not only slows handling due to increased rotational inertia and gyroscopic effect, it actually requires the bike to physically lean more to take any corner at a given speed. The wider profile means that the contact patch moves further towards the center of the corner on a wider tire than a narrower one at lean. When cornering clearance is your issue it actually decreases ultimate cornering ability. This is why Moto GP bikes have to lean further in corners than their smaller cousins.
Last issue is that the wider tire and resulting greater offset in contact patch is how that offset impacts rake and trail at lean. The greater offset results is a greater misalignment of the steering head from effective lean angle. This results in decreased stability at full lean.
So there you have it. If you are wanting to extract the best performance from the R you are far better off keeping the 180. The wider tire has no advantage beyond complying with an expected look needed to conform to a current fad.
