2 Monsters but very different riding technique needed

[johnster]

Put a 190 on your S4.

Then when you go back to a 180 you'll feel like it's diving into corners with no effort at all.

 

    Correct me if I'm wrong (I may be), but I always thought that the opposite would be true. Sure you can squeeze a 190 onto the OEM S4 rim, but you are doing just that; Squeezing it on. This would make the tire's center contact patch smaller + its leaned-over patch bigger (think of a "V" versus a "U"), thus making the 190 feel like it wants to dive in more than the 180 on the same rim. Of course if you ran a wider rim to accomodate the 190, then yeah, it would be a little more sluggish. Just throwin' it out there... 

    I noticed the same thing when riding my S4 compared to a friends carbie M750 though. That bike felt SO small + nimble compared to mine, and it probably had a lot to do w/the 160 versus the 180 rear tire. One thing that really seemed to help me though, was adding a set of clip-ons. The stock bar height on the S4 was a little too high for my liking, and I noticed that getting myself a bit more hunched over really made the bike handle closer to how I want it to. Ideally, I'd also like to raise the rear ride height, but it seems to be one of those things I talk about but will never actually get around to!! 

   

[Rameses]

Maybe it was b/c the center of the 190 was squared off, but when I switched to a 180 from a 190 on my S4 it felt a hell of a lot more nimble.

[jerryz]

I will never be able to make my S4 handle a well as my M750 but thats not the point , the M750 is perfect in my eye but the S4 front end is crummy,its also a much higher C of G and less steering lock at slow speed.I just want to get it as good as possible and its the front forks that are the only fixiable limitation after all the other changes like ride height etc ..