Shinko 244's on the x

I decided i'd try these dual sport shinko's. They're not as aggressive as the pirelli mt21's that i had on before, but they're pretty good, & i think will be better on long pavement rides. They have about the same profile as the mt 21's.. although they were getting a bit worn. Here they are new on the bike.



The front is maybe 1/2" smaller in diameter than the mt21, which was about 3-4" bigger than the stock bridgestone.. i had posted about them here:
https://wr250rforum.forumotion.com/wr250x-specific-f15/stock-tires-vs-17-knobbies-t1060.htm



The back is about the same size.. maybe a little narrower. The front is a bit narrower, too. It doesn't have the tw200 look to it as much!

I went on a short ride last week.. nothing too technical, but i did get into some rocky, stepped climbs around camp verde. I rode some whoops, crossed some streams, & rode pavement, too. I can't say i noticed a lot of difference, except in some fast gravel roads.. the back was a bit more slippery. If i just touched the back brake, the rear started sliding. I mostly feathered the front going into gravel corners.



The verdict? So far so good. The more aggressive knobby might be a bit better in gravel, & perhaps mud. But for 95% of my riding, i think this tire will be fine. I would have stayed with the pirelli's, but they went up in price to about $100 each! These shinko's otoh, were $80 for both, shipped! They were at Motorcycle superstore.

I think it's easier to change the tires on the x. The bead takes some work to break, but the wider rims are easier to mount, imo. They slip on much easier than my old drz tires ever did. Another nice feature is they both used the same tube. I put a 4.60 on the front, & a 5.10 on the back. That is equivalent to the 120 & 130, i think.

I'll chime in with more once i get some longer adventure ride in on these.
scotty

Hi scotty, those tires look great!

Very similar to the Kenda tread. Looks great!

I've been wondering about those tires, please keep us posted. Thanks

Sarah

Wow, those tires do look very near the same pattern as the Kenda 270s & cheaper by about 17 USD shipped to your door.
Good find & very good pix.

I hope to be ordering a set by the end of the week. The Distanzias barely lasted 3000 miles, and I had to skip some routes because of mud puddles where I'd get stuck. I'll see how these work. Keep us posted.

EDITED TO ADD: I've put about 60 miles on the Shinkos. I picked up the Shinkos and an HJC SPX helmet at BikeBandit.com for about $140 shipped with closeouts, sale prices, and my AMA 10% discount.

I ordered a 5.1 rear/4.6 front.

The rear tire went on pretty easily considering it was the first motorcycle tire I changed by myself and the 3rd motorcycle tire ever. I found the front a lot harder. In fact I got the 2nd bead about 80% of the way on and then took it to the local shop to finish it. They did, no problem (good shop!).

With the knobbies, I'm much more focused on dirt and gravel than before. Here is a quick write up on the tires:

Freeways/smooth roads (up to 60 mph) - tires make a little more noise but in straight lines at speed, they're fine.

Sweeping corners on roads - no better or worse than any other tire. Handle fine.

Tight corners on roads - the Shinko's are noticeably worse than Distanzias. They have some resistance to turn in and then they fall in. The tires also tend to track seams in the road, making them hop around a little bit on patched roads. At very low speeds (parking lot) they noticeably bounce up and down on the tread.

Gravel - about the same as the original BT090s. They really dance around on the gravel. The Distanzias are FAR superior on gravel.

Dirt - Distanzias and even 090s are fine on flat hard pack dirt. These work so much better on steeper hills (up or down), grass, leaves, thin mud, etc. They do slide, but less than the Distanzias. And the motion is recoverable. My second biggest problem is locking brakes on steeper downhills then then lowsiding. These tires grab better and don't slide on the dirt like the 090s or Distanzias did. One "downside" - I'm climbing over logs and stuff more readily with these tires and I really do need a skid plate now. :)

Mud - I was by myself yesterday exploring 4-wheeler and logging roads, so I didn't try any deep mud. They do slide around in mud puddles like Distanzias do if you try to turn. But in a straight line, they'll find some traction in the mud and keep moving the bike forward. My biggest problem has been getting my bike stuck. The tires pack up with mud and then they just spin out. I'm left having to roll or drag my bike out of the mud. Hopefully these tires will hold traction better and keep moving me forward.

Since i did a pretty challenging, do everything ride this last week, i thought i'd report on the tires. I went ~250 miles, almost 150 on 70+mph freeway. The rest was on easy gravel roads, a half dozen or so water crossings, several very gnarly, steep, &/or rocky sections that needed every bit of traction you could get.. some deep sand, & washboarded sandy roads. All in all i am very pleased with them. They are much better on pavement than the full knobby pirelli mt-21's, & almost as good off road. The only difference i noticed was a little less traction on gravel corners.. the back would slip loose a little easier. I made them a little better by letting out a bit of air.. running 10/12 pressures front/back. I could probably let out a little more, but then i'd feel like i would need to air them back up before hitting the pavement. So this is pretty decent all around air pressure. If i were doing longer road rides, i'd probably put in more air.

They look like they will hold up pretty well. I got into lots of sharp jagged rocks, & all the knobs are fine. ..should get plenty of miles on them, too. I might be going up to moab early next month.. that will be another good test for these tires.





l8r

Here's a followup on the tires.

I went to moab last week, & put about 750 paved miles, & 250 offroad.. some pretty technical. I had about 30# for the pavement, & dropped it to ~ 10# offroad. They are much better than my last set of knobbies (Pirelli mt-20's) on the pavement, & equivalent off road. I suppose if it got into some deep mud the bigger knobs would have to be better. Perhaps they would have been better in sand, also.

But for most of my riding, these tires will work well for me.. & i like that they are cheap & it looks like i will get a lot of miles out of them. I'm pushing 2k miles & they hardly look worn.

rydnseek wrote:

Here's a followup on the tires.

I went to moab last week, & put about 750 paved miles, & 250 offroad.. some pretty technical. I had about 30# for the pavement, & dropped it to ~ 10# offroad. They are much better than my last set of knobbies (Pirelli mt-20's) on the pavement, & equivalent off road. I suppose if it got into some deep mud the bigger knobs would have to be better. Perhaps they would have been better in sand, also.

But for most of my riding, these tires will work well for me.. & i like that they are cheap & it looks like i will get a lot of miles out of them. I'm pushing 2k miles & they hardly look worn.

I've got 4 months and 1200 miles on mine and they are showing a little wear. My guess is that they'll last 2500 - 3000 miles. I have no idea why this little bike chews up tires like it does -- this is my 3rd set of tires in 6400 miles! Tires on my 600 with almost 4x the horsepower and 33% more weight lasted 3x longer.

I rode about 20 miles of wet, muddy trails and wet roots 2 weekends ago. No real mud holes, but just all around general wet. The tires were good compared to the rider's (my) ability. They did tend to pack up with mud unless you rode fast enough to fling it. My buddy on his 250R and Pirellis with more open knobs got better traction. I rode at 30# street and 20# dirt. The Shinkos will (obviously?) go a lot more places than Distanzias will, but they still favor speed to keep the gaps mud free.

The Shinkos on wet roads are SCARY. Be very careful, especially on the back brake. I've locked my rear brake up twice on wet roads, something I've never done on the OEM 090s, Distanzias, or my previous 600. On dry or wet roads, straight line is fine. Corners are a little uncomfortable (the bike wants to fall into corners). Braking is very definitely degraded in feel and outright power before lock up.

I'm liking the Shinko 244's on my X

They're working fine for me, as well.. I just got back last night from a 1000+ mile ride into utah.. lots of gnarly rocks, gobs of gooey mud, & miles of hard, flat pavement. ..over 5k miles on them, & still a thousand or 2 left.

what sizes did u go with?

4.60-17 Front
5.10-17 Rear

One thing i've noticed with these tires is how stiff the sidewalls are.. they might actually ride flat like a teraflex. But because of that, i've found the tire pressures to be a major factor in the ride. On smooth pavement, ~30# is fine.. they roll good & probably get better mileage. But once you get into rocks, mud, etc, they do not handle as well. I've dropped them to well under 10# with no issues. It makes a world of difference in traction. Gravel corners are much easier, & the ride is much softer in rocks. I do not have rimlocks, but with the tight fitting bead & lower power of the wrx i don't think it is a problem. Maybe if you high revved it & dumped the clutch on a hard rock surface the rim might spin.. i've not tried it. But under normal riding conditions.. even in pretty technical terrain.. the tire stays tight on the rim & the lower pressures make the riding easier.

If i'm doing a long ride, i'll air the tires up to 30-35# for the pavement, then drop it to soft when i get offroad. I usually don't use a guage, just push on the tire to feel the firmness. It is fine for the return ride on pavement, but if i'm going a long ways.. over 100miles, i'll stop & air them back up.

I've got about 5k miles on these so far.. i'll take some pics of them sometime to show the wear.

So even with quite a bit of low pressure usage, have you seen any cracking or chunking of the knobs?

Thread revival!!!!

Anyone try the 3.00-17 for the front? Any reason not to run a 3 instead of the 4.6?

jpatt wrote:

Thread revival!!!!

Anyone try the 3.00-17 for the front? Any reason not to run a 3 instead of the 4.6?

You may want to check but that size should be way to small for our rim. A 3.0-17 is only a 75 width and stock is a 110.

Our front rim is a 3.0-17 so theoretically it would fit, just not so sure about rim coverage or bead setting. At 30 bucks I may want to grab one as an extra and just see what it does. It may eliminate the TW look and function well, or it may destroy the rim. either way I'm getting a set of these so I can shred in the OHV parks :)

jpatt wrote:

Our front rim is a 3.0-17 so theoretically it would fit, just not so sure about rim coverage or bead setting. At 30 bucks I may want to grab one as an extra and just see what it does. It may eliminate the TW look and function well, or it may destroy the rim. either way I'm getting a set of these so I can shred in the OHV parks :)

I considered it, too, but thought it would probably be too narrow. It is cheap enough to try, though, but the geometry of the tire might also change. A bigger tube might be needed to handle the extra width at the rim. If you try it out, let us know how it works. Guinea pigs are always appreciated!

I put the 244's on my X thanks to this thread and they work great. The performance off road is drastically better than stock. At first, I felt that the on road performance was worse, but now that I have broken them in and gotten used to them I am hitting the curves just as fast as I did with the Stocks. I will say that I am getting some head shake at above 70 MPH, though. From Motorcycle superstore the pair was $90 delivered, and I paid a local shop $80 to put them on the rim. I used the same sizes (4.6 front, 5.1 rear). Highly recommended

Have any of you riders with Shinko 244 tires updated to a larger rear sprocket? I put a 48 tooth on the rear wheel today.

I just mounted the 4.1 up front and the 5.6 in the rear. Man has this scooter has grown tall! I've lowered the shock, added a yama-link and mounted a 1.0 lower "Seat Concepts" seat but I'm still gonna have to get some "platform" boots to touch the ground now.

Any other ideas for a lower seat height ?

Thanks,

Shorty

Thanks for the come back, Yep! I've pushed the forks up 7/8" I guess I could mount bar risers and get another 1/4" but then it may steer like a "speedway bike". I talked/showed Robert at "Seat Concepts" that I wanted to shave another 1.5" off the top of my new seat but he advised against it and I don't wanna lose the seat comfort. I've set the rear sag at 3.0" and any more and she feels kinda mushy back there when on the trail. I guess my next bike will have to be a tw200!!

you're Distanzias are way lower huh!? May be my only other choice...

Let's ride while we still can!!

Yah, I don't know the diamater of the shinkos, but probably more then my distanzias. If I was riding alot of dirt I'd rather have the shinko's. I lowered the rear shock and put on the yamalink, but found that I liked the handling best with the forks down about 10mm. My inseam is 30" and I would not like the bike to be any higher.

Hi, I got question about the tire tube, what size do I need? is 70/100x17 ok?
Also, do I need rim lock for this? ( what size,? they have 1.40/1.60", 1.85", 2.15")
I'm gonna use OEM wheels and 5.10-17 rear and 4.60-17 front shinko 244 tires

could be silly questions but I'm still learing about this stuff :)