Bandit rear wheel

After a few posts on here on numerous emails with Zoran at TWF, I finally managed to put in the bandit 1200 rear wheel. I must say I was surprised how easy it fitted once you had modified the brake calliper hanger! I was concerned about tyre clearances with chain and swingarm, but no probs at all!!

Now handling!! .... Incredibly I have not noticed ANY difference, well very slight difference but the bike still turns in as fast as it did before! To be honest I was hoping "the turning" would be reduced (if you can call it that way) as I prefer it that way. I guess a key aspect to remember is that the front wheel remains the same so the rear wheel change does not change the bike handling as much as one might think!

I did have a 170 Avon (vipersport I think it was) so perhaps the difference from 170 to 180 was not too noticeable, but I remember that changing from 160 to 170 did not change that much to be honest. If you are wondering about using a 170, the Avon I put on was safe to do for a 4.5" to 5.5" wheel, with the 5" being the optimum width for optimum performance. And I did prefer the 170 set up than the 160 (battlax brdigestone) set up I had, even if the difference was small!!

Now from 170 to 180, i felt very little difference, which I must admit I was surprised about, but am sure a lot has to do with tyre profile. Now I have (a nice looking ) 180 tyre with a Michelin pilot sport and it still handles very very well, and so worries about slow turning are unfounded in my opinion...as i said, particularly if you keep the same front wheel...In fact, I recently tried a friends sv with an old 160 dunlop d220 (i think is the one that comes stock) and because the tyre has "squared off" the bike handled like ****!!

Conclusion: absolutely fine to fit nice looking 180 rear tyres and if you are worried about handling just make sure you choose the right tyres for your style of riding! a 180 will make a small difference, but this is negligible when you think about how different tyres of same width will handle differently as well.

Some of you might disagree, but I just put what I have done, and I hope it helps others as others have helped me!! cheers guys...

Oh and a pic with the new wheel.... and seeing that handling reamins the "same", at least with 180 rear i now have more tyre options....