Modern Vespa

Hey all, I have been searching and reading about tires, but the posts on here are nearly 16 years old.

I am looking for info on grippy tubeless tires that work well in the rain in the standard 3.50X10. Being I live in Seattle and we have lots of grooved roads I need to avoid things with the center grove like the KENDA KOZMIC. ☠️

Right now I am told the new hotness are the BGM tires. I have not had great experience with BGMs quality control on other things. Anyone actually ride these?

Also Heidenau are mentioned a lot. Reading the info it seems like I would want the K58s. But I also heard they may be a bumpy and loud ride? Any recent first hand experience?

I tried finding info on Pirelli but they seemed to have limited options.

Please, let me know you current thoughts.

Heidenau shut down their scooter tire lines during the pandemic, but they seem to be back up and running.

I have Either K85's or K58's on all my largeframes and would have them on my smallie if I could have gotten 3.0x10's when I was buying the wheels and tires.

I don't find the K58 loud, but I may not be the best person to judge that. The K58S (snow tire) are the stickiest tires I've ever ridden on, but they wear really fast as a result.

I can't speak to the BGM's, but it's probably pretty easy to find out who's actually manufacturing them and make your decision from there.

Thanks for reminding me I can look up who makes the BGM. Its made in Germany by Heidenau.

More things to think about.

I have always been a fan of Heidenau tyres, although I found it annoying that they are wider than others.
Since the BGM came on the market, I have put them on all of my scooters and I am very impressed by their overall performance on all kinds of roads and weather conditions.

Not sure which of the Heidenaus BGM is marketing, but I've got some experience with those East German tires, and never met one I didn't like. I ran everything from the big chunky K58s (last forever, good on crap roads) to the racy K80s (best handling tire I'd tried, were still fine in the rain.) Then the pandemic came along, the Heidenaus disappeared, and I resorted to trying Michelin City Experts. And I'm a convert. They're the best all-rounder I've come across, just ridiculously grippy in the rain. You know that rear wheel skid you get from time to time when braking on a greasy road? I have yet to have one on the City Experts. Don't be put off by the 'city' in the name -- they were absolutely fantastic on long rides. Planted. Steady.

About the only downside to the City Experts I can come up with is that they're pretty ugly, not at all an obvious classic scooter tire. But who cares.

Hello Jim, what size are you running on the City tires?

100/90-10 on 10-inch tubeless split rims from Pinasco. I'm on my third set and so far so good. There's some clutch cover rub when they heat up, but nothing disastrous. I offset that, however slightly, with washers on the wheel studs.