I went the whole life of a rear tire using a wider version of what was recommended. I could only go 140, Dunlop D404 140/90-16, as I recall. I do not encourage it. It looked great of course. (1983 550 NH, shaft drive) When they mounted the tire they gave it to me with a really high pressure fill. I had to go down to about 60psi before the normal bloat of the tire stopped it rubbing the shaft. Even after that if I carried a passenger on a warm day eventually I had a small melted strip on the left side of the tire and I would be trailing a bad smell. She was just a lightweight teenager too. After that I looked at the steel in the shaft housing and actually ground away a little and shaped it around where the tire would rub as much as I dared, I pained it back up. That allowed me to ride the rest of the life of the tire as long as I neither over-inflated it nor let it get too low, and never carried too much weight.
So there, that is practical experience with a bigger tire on a shaft drive 80's NH. Mod the other bikes, keep the stock magic in the NH. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
