BannedCR500Riders.com

Ok so some of you may have already know I purchased a VERY good condition 1993 CR500 a month ago. I have since installed the a Twin Air filter, Boyesen Rad Valve, brand new FMF Fatty with powercore II silencer and brand new chain and sprockets and a brand new PWK 39mm carb jetted spot on (for the current weather)

My next mod while I install the rear sprocket is a new rear tire. I have read so many conflicting opinions and different feed backs on so many different tires. I figured I would ask it here since you Hoons really have the correct answers for everything!

I will be running 60% trail, 30% open field through 6"-8" grass/weeds and 10% occasional mud.

So, what kind of tires should I be looking for- what size tire and is there anything else I should be aware of while back there replacing the tire and rear sprocket?

Thanks Ladies!

IRC M5B.

Nodge wrote:IRC M5B.

140/80

I have heard this tire size and combo before, any other kind of tire and size anyone else can suggest?

For the 500, the 140/80 M5B really is the way to go.

I always do the chain and sprockets as a set.
A stretched chain will eat a new sprocket.
A worn sprocket will also eat a new chain.
Grease your wheel bearings while it's apart.
If you've got it that far apart, when was the last time you greased the linkage bearings? Swingarm bearings?

Another vote for the IRC M5B

Excellent info!! Looks like MB5 is it! Thank you for the tips Mojo I will most certainly follow your advice!!!!

IRC VE33 mounted backwards. Doesn't hook quite as well as the M5B but you don't have to put a new one on every other ride. No argument the M5B is probably the best tire and if I was going to race it in a 100 mile desert race, that's what I would run, but they just get eaten up way too quick for my wallet. Regular trail riding behind my house....2 full desert tanks and it's cooked.

2 tanks?!?! So like what? 6-7 gallons?

Good god man. Are you one of those whiskey throttle riders? (full throttle, full brake, full throttle, full brake, etc. etc.)

Got a 1/8th turn throttle tube?

Show me a picture of "cooked".

I get a full season out of them. Sometimes 2.

Do you guys run tubes with the MB5?

I run tubes, the fatest I can get, currently running the STI's from Rocky Mountain.

Mojo those M5B's are cooked like knobs flying off everywhere after 2 rides behind my house. I will admit I love hillclimbing and have many behind my house that have not been topped. The dirt behind my house is the hardest on tires of anywhere I have ever ridden and is well know locally as the tire shredder. I would show you a picture of a cooked M5B but I have not bought one in years because they just don't last. The last one I bought was back when I was running our desert races here and it was well over half gone after one race.

My buddy who I regularly ride with was our open expert #1 plate for 3 years in a row. He is obviously pretty fast and he is notoriously cheap. If you take a tire off that is only half smoked He will take it from you, put it on his bike and smoke you on your own used tire. I use this as my scale for when a tire is gone. If the tire is so hammered that he wouldn't take the time to spoon it on his bike then it's cooked. M5B 7 gallons of gas behind my house so 140 miles or less...cooked. Andy would not mount it.

m5b or ve33 are great, but for higher speed stuff they dont turn very good

my favourite all around rear tire is the mitas c16 110 90 18, last year i got 11 harescramble races out of one (and it gripped good the whole time)

Rhino why mount the VE33 backwards ...... are the lugs cut different on each side?

Mounted backwards the cups are turned the same direction as the M5B and in my opinion it hooks up better. I love shooting hills and have some great ones behind the house. Many of them the lower half is sandy/shaley and then turns to rock at the top. If your tire wont dig and generate speed at the bottom you can't get enough speed to launch yourself out of the top. If you dont make it you find yourself clinging to the side of a rock cliff like a lizard.

I need to check out the tire 2 stroke is talking about, I will agree the VE33 especially when new is not the best turning tire, just haven't found anything that hooks up great for hill shooting and turns well.

Man I looked at the Mitas...kind of a Canada thing for now it looks, you can get them here but the shipping from Canada plus price puts it at two of anything else. They have almost zero selection on ebay, and they have a very limited distribution network in North America....like none.

Last time I checked, Canada was in North America
just giving you a hard time

dont get me wrong, the mitas dosent pull in a straight line as hard as a m5b or ve33, but it corners as good as any moto style tire out there, but works 100 times better than one on rocks, wet roots, logs and trails in general

i have never not made a hill with the mitas and said, if i had a m5b i woulda made it

mitas makes a tire that looks like the ve33, but i prefer the ve33

Kuma wrote:Last time I checked, Canada was in North America
just giving you a hard time

My bad, guess I meant the lower 48, I actually was sort of thinking that when I typed it. Anyway if you get stuff from Canada the shipping kills you...more so than Alaska, doesn't make sense.

Yeah nothing goes straight as well as the M5B second to the VE33 but both of them stand the bike straight up when you hit the gas, they don't turn well.....but I run that 33 sometimes on the back of my XR650R and it slides around and turns fine.

I can't see whatever you posted 2stroke

LOL! Northern Montana has really good fishing so it's not completely uninhabited

Maxxis Desert IT. Works everywhere. Deserts, single track mountain riding and after yeterday i can say it works great for crazy deep mud. last a real long time.

I'm OK with the IT rear, never really hooks up great but always gets it done and wears like Iron, total bitch to mount with a super stiff sidewall. The desert IT front on the other hand is not at all my favorite or anywhere close. I hate the IT front.

Yeah Rhino i hear you on the front tire i have a Maxxis but the maxx cross which has worked well for me. I have heard people that say the same as you about the traction but it hooks up great for me in lots of varying conditions. This mud i rode in this weekend was so slick and i was making it up stuff nobody else was.