New Tires: Rosso II or Michelin Pilot Street

[CycleCam303]

Originally Posted by mania

I run a 140 as that was stock on the 2013 250
But many here go bigger ( for looks )

For performance
My opinion is I look at Moto3 GP
The 250's there run front/rear: Dunlop 95/70-17 / 115/70-17
on the KTM moto3 production racers. They also hit max speeds of 220-240kph at times

If anyone was interested in traction it would be them.
Granted these are race tires but still. They turn & accelerate have less rotational mass/weight. I always cringe when I see 250's here go for a bigger rim & stick a crazy large tire in there.

Not saying a 140 is crazy large. But if this bike I have came stock with smaller I would run that no problem.

The moto 3 bikes run small tire sizes because they weigh half of what your ninja does and only make maybe 50hp. I run similar sized tires on my 150r supermoto because it also only weighs 180 lbs. the 250 weighs almost as much as a 600 at 375 lbs. that's an apples to oranges comparison.

The 140 fits fine. In my opinion go with the longer life tires. Rosso II/bt45 front the hardest tire you can find for the rear. This bike only makes 30 hp. It's never going to light up the rear at any kind of speed.

[CycleCam303]

Originally Posted by kdogg2077

The Rosso II's are supposed to get 8,000 front and 5,000 rear, according to Pirelli. Not terrible but not great either.

A long time ago @Alex corrected me saying I would never get 5k miles out of a high performance rear tire. Well lets just say that he was right. My rosso II rears were bleeding cords within 3900-3500 miles. It got old really fast. Granted I don't exactly ride like the average commuter. Just ask @tfkrocks and my tire longevity habits.

[rojoracing53]

I did a 1500 mile trip to SoCal and back on a brand new set of Rosso IIs so there was plenty of strait line cruising at costant speed. When I got back they looked like they wore quite a bit. At 2800 miles the rear tire has cords showing 1/2 the way around so I said **** that and went with a much harder tire.

As for Moto 3 tires
Those bike have narrower wheels I believe so we screw up the profile a bit stretching them onto our wheels but it works good enough for the ninja 250s. I'd imagine with the 300s wider rear that stretching effect may further screw with the important profile shape.

[mania]

Originally Posted by CycleCam303

The moto 3 bikes run small tire sizes because they weigh half of what your ninja does and only make maybe 50hp. I run similar sized tires on my 150r supermoto because it also only weighs 180 lbs. the 250 weighs almost as much as a 600 at 375 lbs. that's an apples to oranges comparison.

Actually I was not saying to run moto3 tires. I was saying look at what they run
& do fine for their given weight, hp etc.

We run tires 20-25% larger than moto3 on the Ninja 250/300 & they are fine for this bikes given weight, hp etc. I would not go larger myself