John Boelte

I've experienced dirt only tires on the pavement - they are horrible, dangerous even! I don't plan on doing much riding on the street, hardly any really. So I'm not too concerned about street perfomance. However, I think that I'd like the option of being able to run on the strret is I chose to do so. That's where I come back to a DOT tire...

I found Bridgestone ED03/04's to look pretty good. Any opinions? http://www.motorcycle-karttires.com/glamou...amp;LookupID=21 http://www.jcwhitney.com/BRIDGESTONE-ED-SE...14316_10111.jcw

I'm looking for some new tires for my XT550 (3.00x21 FR, 4.60x18 RR). I don't plan on doing much on road riding, so I'm considering some dirt only tires for max dirt traction. Are there dual purpose tires that are as agressive as dirt tires? I've been looking around online, but the pictures make it kind of difficult to tell how agressive the dual sport tires really are.

Thanks Blackhat. I'm going to order a manual for it, so that should help too. I brought it home and began figuring things out. The battery appears to be good, but some wires have been cut (one is the chassis to battery ground wire!), so I'll need a schematic to figure that out. After a few kicks it started to come to life, it idled for a little bit but then died. I spent some time kicking it over, getting it to run for a few seconds and wore out my leg qnd worked up a huge sweat. I started taking the fuel lines off from the carb to see if there was bad gas or something. I opened the valve to ON and got a drop or two of gas. hmmm Turned to RES and got a lot of gas. hmmm It's out of gas??? yup. Put more gas in, put it all back together, fires up the first kick and runs like a champ! I took it around the neighborhood for a little bit and really had no complaints, there's really not much wrong with it other than the battery wiring. I'll get that fixed and put some new tires on it and go riding!

I'm getting a XT550 soon, I'm not sure which year it is. The guy I'm getting it from tells me the battery keeps discharging and it can be difficult to start. Could be a bad battery or something draining it - is this common? I'm getting a really good deal on it, so it's a no-brainer decision. I've read a little about them on the Interweb; they seem like decent bikes, not going to win any races or anything, but looks like fun. Is there anything I should look out for?