I've started studding my front tire, but I'm not going to have enough clearance on the rear with the studs I bought. I'm running Maxxis IT Desert front and rear. Any suggestions what might require a little less space than my 120/100-18, and work well in the winter?

Front with studs

Rear clearance

 

You could try getting some flat stock and making a shorter set of suspension links. That would raise the rear of the bike up, for very little cost too. If you have endless coin, you could lace up a smaller rear rim and get a tire to stick on it. Not sure if you can find a 16" coarse tread tire, but I'm thinking you could. Otherwise I got nothing.

 

Or you could use tunnel protectors like on the skidoo.

 

I picked up raising links from ebay for cheap, but don't see them on there now.

 

What about using a longer chain? Or both a chain and links?
Those studs look serious, is this for ice racing?

 

Here's another thought. I'm on my second Shinko (Golden Boy) 3.5 x 18 trials tire. Picked up both cheap from CL. It is definitely smaller diameter and the trials tire runs great in the snow. red said he didn't like a trials tire in the snow, but I was impressed and did much better than buddies with their regular knobbies: https://www.kawasakiforums.com/forum...-tire-s-35829/

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com...port-Tire.aspx

 

Kenda makes the 270 dual sport tire in a 4.60-18 and 4.60-17. If it is anything like the Yokohama I had, the numbers are deceiving, because you'd think it was a 4.60" wide tire, but it's not. The tire is 4" wide with a low profie as indicated by the .60. I don't know if it was a 60% profile, but it was really low. The tread should be good for the screws too. Do some research on this tire to see if it is low profile or not.

I don't know for sure, but Kenda may have bought the tire tooling from Yokohama for their tires, so I am not sure it is the same low profile I had. I know Shinko got some of the tooling when Yokohama quit doing motorcycle tires, maybe Kenda got in there too.

 

Thanks guys. I don't think height is my issue as much as width and swing arm length. My Maxxis is 5.25 in wide, so something like the Kenda might be just what I'm looking for.

IDRIDR, what kind of conditions were you running the trials tire in? Hard/soft snow, ice? I've never used a trials tire for anything. I'd love to try it sometime.

As far as the studs go, no I'm not racing. I walked into a local dealer, told the parts guy I wanted to try studs on my KLX, and that's what he gave me. He said he used them on his YZF 450 for trail riding. I looked at everything from the ones I got, to carbide tipped, to Tapcon screws installed from the inside with the point sticking out. After all the research, I decided I knew nothing, and whatever was in stock was going in my tires.

 

In my limited experience...I've found the most useful studs are the ones directly underneath you(where I have the least on my rear tire). Or in other words, I would leave out the side ***** and just do the middle of the tire where you will be 95% of the time.
I ride on the road though. And when there is real snow on the ground I have to crawl down the road. My stud choice was for icy roads, which last much longer here than snowy roads do. I wish for something like those studs on days when there is more than 3" on the road.
When I'm riding I feel the studs on the side of the tire as a negative to handling feel and are rarely necessary because in bad conditions I would never be using that part of the tire. That feeling is mostly from the front. My rear has a pattern that skips every 3rd **** in the middle(the wide one on a D606). I did it for normal road conditions. Next time I will put 2 studs in that **** and skip the sides, or put bigger studs in the side knobbies for trail/ice riding and snowy times on the road when running lower pressure can bring those studs into play.
But I digress...again.
If you follow the pattern of the front tire you did...won't it work?
I used D606 in stock KLX sizes(120/80?) because the K270s have a dimple in the middle of the *****, which I feared would make my studs to deep in the **** and be useless, probably not a problem for your studs, but might limit the number of studs per ****. Just another thing to consider. But the price of the K270 is hard to beat. I got 4000 miles from one with 200 of good trail abuse thrown in, before it started to spin too much in the dirt.

 

If I even get to ride the bike this winter, I plan to only ride trails, rivers and lakes, so I'm expecting I might need the side lugs studded, as well. And even if I don't need them, I'll feel better knowing they're there... Kind of like a helmet, or knee braces.

The pic of my front tire is from when it was only partially done. I ended up doing one stud in every lug, with the exception of the far outside lugs. For those, I did every second one in order to save a few studs, until I know how many I'll need for the back.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here: Stock rear size (according to TotalMotorcycle.com) is 100/100-18. If I go with that, instead of the 120/100 Maxxis IT Desert I have, I should gain 10mm of clearance on each side in theory. If I can find something that has smaller lugs on the sides, or a different angle of lug than my IT Desert, I should have lots of room. Right???