[Busa Dave]

Great tire!! Hooks up better by far than the MT as it broke a cord but it was a challenge getting the 275 60 15 under the fender. The strange thing is because of its rounded profile acts more like a motorcycle tire and takes the sweepers very well! I love being able to get the HP to the ground!!!! For those of you looking for something that will hook up this is the ticket!!

http://www.nittotire.com/tires_555r.asp

 

[CarburetorMike]

Hi Dave, I went to the nitto tire site and checked it out. It looks like the ticket for sure. Keep us updated on it's performance, wear, and if you have any trouble with it.

 

[fasteddie]

Dave - any pictures of the tire on your bike?? What tire did you have before? If you had the 130 avon , how close to the 230 corner handling is it?

FastEddie

 

[Zenbiker]

Dave
Will it fit under the stock small block fender on a 2000 without cutting? what made it difficult to get under the fender?
Joe

 

[Zenbiker]

Dave....what about load rating?
Joe

 

[CarburetorMike]

Tire size P275/60R15 107V Tread depth in 1/32 6.3/32"
Over all dia. 27.76" Width 11.10" Rim Width 7.5-9.5
Max load @44psi 2,[email protected] Revs per mile 748

 

[NcChopper]

I have been running a set of NT555s on my vette for almost 3 years and have been very happy with them. I can see where NT555R would do well on the boss. Not a bad price either. $141 with free shipping from www.tires.com. Here was one guys feedback with these tires on his car. I can't wait to here how Dave likes it in the rain.

The Nitto NT 555R Drag Radial is a great tire for those looking to tame a little extra horsepower in their ride. I've had experience with the 275/40/17 size in both this AND the BFG Drag Radial. The Nitto is a better tire all around. Judging by looks, the BFG looks as if the tread would allow you to hook up better but after using both, the Nitto is much more receptive to hooking the car up, AND it can be used for daily driving (albeit carefully in the rain).

The Nitto requires a healthy (smoke producing) burnout for best results, but once you heat them up you can expect sub 1.9 60' times at the local dragstrip. If drag racing's not your thing, you can still expect to be able to hook up a 300-350hp or so car pretty well on the street. This can easily take the guesswork out of trying to launch a sports car in critical situations.

Aside from racing, this tire has sidewalls that are stiff enough to carve corners decently (I actually know some individuals that use these when autocrossing!) and when new, the tread is decent enough for wet weather. Plan to get around 10,000 to 15,000 miles out of these with very limited wet weather driving after the 5,000 mile mark.

For drag radials that can serve various purposes, these are the best out there. If you are looking for a little less grip and a little more wear, try the other Nitto non drag radial tires or BFG G-Force KD's.

 

[Busa Dave]

Dave
Will it fit under the stock small block fender on a 2000 without cutting? what made it difficult to get under the fender?
Joe

Mine is a 2002 and we had to cut the fender on the belt side to clear the tire. The 3in belt was adjusted to run on the outside of the rear sprocket and the clearance from the belt to the tire is less than .25 of an inch. As far as height goes, everything fit and with the 3in belt, there is of course no belt guard. I rode in this morning and the handling is not that much different from the stock Avon. Rain we will have to see but I do not go on long trips on this bike as 10mpg gets ugly and I do like to mix in a little 114 with the 93. I keep a bottle of octane booster just in case I get caught out and need to add a little helper to the 93, which is all we can get at the pump here!

Bottom line is that this is the best tire I have ever used and so far (400) miles it will be the only one that I plan on using on the back. I use Michelin on the front.

 

[Busa Dave]

New information--Do not use this size tire on our bikes! Have discovered that because of the very thin sidewall and the high hp of my application the severe headshake that has almost thrown me from the bike a couple of times. The headshake usually starts at about 125 and gets worse until about 150 when it peaks which coincides with the shift light coming on at 6200. From what was observed behind me the tire squats and tries to tq to the left, compressing, and distorting the tire. This is not a good thing so I am getting am 18-inch wheel from Marv and going to the BFG gForce drag radial. Hopefully, and according to Marv the shorter and stiffer sidewall (275 35 1 will keep this from happening. The motorcycle tires are right out as I discussed this with the engineers here and thru my contacts at Goodyear. Those tires are an accident waiting for a place to happen unless you are an old geezer who just puts around never putting any stress on them from the hp and maybe with a small block you could get by with it. If I were, a dealer I would be making you sign so many waivers that it would make your head spin. I know that there are some doing it and they will be sued the first time a tire fails and it becomes known that the tire was not rated for that application!

 

[CarburetorMike]

Thanks for the update busa Dave.

I'm running a Firestone PV40 on my 97 ZZ4. And I have noticed this High speed wobble. Increasing the Air Pressure helps a lot. Along with a good wheel alignment.

Just wondering what PSI you were running? And your thoughts as to how the Nitto would work with a ported and cammed ZZ4. My best guess would be 410HP at the crank.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Busa Dave]

You know that tire and wheel just might be the ticket because under normal acceleration---no wobble. The tire is rated for 46lbs and so far, we have gone to 41. I am a little leery of going to 46 because the tire is less than .25 from the 3in belt! I only have a couple of hundred miles on the tire but it hooks up so good it scared Curtis over at TBH! He used to drag cars and bikes and says it is the fastest one he has ever ridden because of the hook up! With the HP you are talking about this may be the ticket for a small block as mine is very close to 700 in both HP and TQ at the crank.

 

[Busa Dave]

The 18 inch 9.75 wheel from Marv at Chopper City will be here tomorrow and it will be mated with a Michelin Pilot Sport 275 40 18XL. This tire is rated to over 1700 lbs and has a very thick sidewall and it holds 53 lbs of air! This will cure the wobble problem (I hope) with respect to the tire, as there are no others with this thick of a sidewall. I have discussed this with some in the tire industry and there is just not a tire built that will do exactly what we want it to do: wide, flat for hook-up, low profile, very sticky tread not a slick in case you get stuck in the rain—who cares about tread life on this tire, YR speed rated, and most importantly built for a motorcycle.

The tire and wheel will be mounted tomorrow if Marv does his part on shipping in a timely manner and we will know soon. Anyone need a factory 15 inch rim with a Nitto 555S with less than 300 miles? Should work better on a bike not running 700hp and tq. The tire hooks up so well it is scary because you just launch and from a roll on it is like being shot off the end of a catapult.

 

[V8GRUMPY]

Dave,

Think your tire got shipped today, I stopped by Marvs to drop my rear wheel off last night and he had just taken yours to be balanced.

Had the same conversation with him regarding the handing of all of the tires being tried on BH......his theory is that a lot of the ill handling is resulting from sidewall flex, even in the 230 Avons. I noticed a lot more stable ride on the 280 Metzler, probably because of the 35 aspect ratio.
I think when I went to low profile on both front and rear it really stabilized the bike in turns.

Tim

 

[Busa Dave]

Dave,

Think your tire got shipped today, I stopped by Marvs to drop my rear wheel off last night and he had just taken yours to be balanced.

Had the same conversation with him regarding the handing of all of the tires being tried on BH......his theory is that a lot of the ill handling is resulting from sidewall flex, even in the 230 Avons. I noticed a lot more stable ride on the 280 Metzler, probably because of the 35 aspect ratio.
I think when I went to low profile on both front and rear it really stabilized the bike in turns.

Tim

Thanks for the Update! The flex is rather ugly in the turns with the car tires and the 280 I would not run on my bike if you paid me! I have some background in the tire industry and spoke with a couple of the engineers as well as our tire engineer here and they all said they would not run them either. The issue is heat, and load, which translates into how much hp and tq, is going to the rear and in my case are about 700 for both at the crank. The stress on the tire would be (Metzler and Avon) brutal--over twice what it was designed for not to mention the weight rating.

On a stock small block, I might be tempted to use the 280 and it looks cool but my life is not worth losing over a tire. The issue is that the way Marv tests a tire has no bearing on how I test one because the conditions are so different. The temperatures that we get here far far exceed anything he would ever see. The heat cycles that my bike would see given everything else being equal would be orders of magnitude more than his. This is why the tires are tested and qualified before we ever get to see them and heat cycling is a large part of this—no one wants a catastrophic failure while riding.

When you talk to engineers for any length of time it always makes my head hurt!

 

[V8GRUMPY]

Dave,

Hopefully someday a tire company will spend the $$ to develop a tire for these beasts. There sure would be a lot of potential customers the way these thing shell 'em out.

I am going to a Sumitomo HRZ II on my small block. 265/35x18 on the 9 3/4" rim......these are ZR rated (168mph+) and load rated at 1433#. In addition they have a well rounded shoulder and a low aspect ratio sidewall which a few of the guys I talked to that have them say they are pretty good in the turns for a car tire. Very little flex or bounce.

I'm not sure if this is the same model Sumi that Elliot and some others have used, but I'm gonna give 'em a try

Tim

 

[Busa Dave]

Dave,

Hopefully someday a tire company will spend the $$ to develop a tire for these beasts. There sure would be a lot of potential customers the way these thing shell 'em out.

I am going to a Sumitomo HRZ II on my small block. 265/35x18 on the 9 3/4" rim......these are ZR rated (168mph+) and load rated at 1433#. In addition they have a well rounded shoulder and a low aspect ratio sidewall which a few of the guys I talked to that have them say they are pretty good in the turns for a car tire. Very little flex or bounce.

I'm not sure if this is the same model Sumi that Elliot and some others have used, but I'm gonna give 'em a try

Sounds good--my engineer suggested the Lt Wt *-16 MLG tire it has a 22 ply rating but where can you get 300 psi to fill it!! HAHA

Tim

 

[Zenbiker]

Damn...the more I read about tire problems the more confused I get. Then again Busa Dave describes a wobble at speeds that I'd be wobbling at before the tire.
Until a tire company will fully stand behind their tire's use on the Boss I'm sticking with the Avon rear and front for that matter. When Avon says don't use their 250....they get my attention and I'm not betting my life on anyone's evaluation of sidewall flex. load rating, etc. except he manufacturer who pay a lot of money to engineers to calculate these things, For all we know the compounds used in different tires may be different enough to affect handling in and of itself.
Be safe and use your brains.
Joe

 

[V8GRUMPY]

Joe,

I kinda agree with you, especially with the M/C tires we're all trying. I will admit that the 280 Metzler road well, handled good in the turns and didn't make me 'queasy' due to the load rating.....but as Dave said, the power to the rear wheel of these things is considerably higher than any bar bike that these tires are rated for.......my only concern about the Metzler is the odd wear pattern it developed in the first few hundred miles, and I believe that could be from running it lower on air than I should have, but I was looking for traction. After increasing the pressure, it started to wear quite normal, but the traction was not much better than the 230 in my opinion.

That is one of the only two reasons I'm going to try a car tire. I know they are rated high enough in both weight and speed to handle the BH, much higher than the Aon 230, and I want the lighter 'feel' in stopped traffic....I am hoping the handling is acceptable and that I believe is an individual thing for each rider, some hate 'em and some love 'em.

We'll see, I know Marv still has a lot of guys looking for the 8 3/4" wheels and tire set-up......if anybody is looking for a used one, mine is for sale through him for $1000.....that includes a 280 with less than 2000 miles on it..........that's about $400 buck under a new one.

Tim

 

[Busa Dave]

Ok--the latest--I love the wheel from Marv! With the 265 40 18 Michelin Pilot is sits almost the exact height as the stock wheel and tire but it looks soooo good with the matching sprocket for the 3in belt. The tire is the XL and is rated for 1830lbs I have 45 lbs of air in it started with 50 and it is stable as a Rock!!! Took it to about 180 on the way home and it was SMOOTH as silk (took .5 ounce to balance). Now the bad part—the hook up is not in the same league as the Nitto!! It is much better than the stock tire by far but I got used to the bars almost being yanked from my hands!! I can break them loose at even when heated up even at 80 to some extent! It is going to take some working with the throttle to learn how to make the most of the tire.

It was a good thing that this was planned because the Nitto was cut in 2 places down well into the cord from the tire hitting the screws and the actual fender! Lucky that it did not wrinkle up the fender and me with it!

So far I am real happy with the handling—took some sweepers and no wallowing and even used a little throttle in the turns (the Nitto would have left me on the pavement) to test and was very impressed. If you want stability, controllability and pretty good hook up this is the ticket!
















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[HAWK88]

Michelin Pilot

OK, is there a Michelin Pilot available for an 03 stock rim 15"? Like a couple others, these possible choices are well above my head, and I don't know a reliable "tire" person to converse with. I've made a couple calls, but my 1/2 bass ackwards work schedule makes it hard for me to contact anyone. I was going to go with a PV 41 until some said it wobbles too. Granted, I'm just gonna "Olde Pharte" them with a stock ZZ4 motor, but spank in as much Giddy-up as I can occasionally. I do ride a lot, and want a safe tire on the machine.
Thanks.
C: 321-426-5243
H: 321-639-3969
HAWK88
Jack Phillips