General Comments

Still, wider tyres have their disadvantages.  The main one of these is loss of agility, making the bike slower and heavier to steer.  Some tyres may be slightly squeezed by a rim at the narrow end of their acceptable range, producing a more triangular profile.   There's also the possibility of clearance problems -- while that shouldn't be a problem on the front, that would cause me to avoid 130-width tyres on the rear.

So we have a difficult choice...

Pirelli makes a sport-touring style tyre specifically for small motorcycles, and that's the new MT75.  It should work superbly well on this bike, and is actually available in exactly the right sizes, including the hard-to-find rear.

The downside is that availability in the U.S.A. might be very limited.  If that's the case, you still can't really go wrong with the General Purpose / Touring selection, which would be an excellent choice too.

The rear is a simple choice.  There is no better value for money than the Kenda K657 Sport Challenger.

The front is a more difficult choice.  The Bridgestone SE11, otherwise a good choice, is only available in the wider 100/90-18.  While it's definitely an option, I'd prefer to stick with a 90/90-18 front, and that means paying around $75.  While the Pirelli Strada is less expensive, I'll pick one of the more highly regarded fronts.  Normally the Avon Roadrunner AM20 would be my choice, but the price difference between it and the Bridgestone BT45 tips the scale in favour of the latter; the two are both excellent, but with cost a consideration the BT45 is the clear winner.

I'd love to put a set of Avon Roadrunner AM20/AM21 on the Nighthawk 250.  The excellent stability, good wet and dry traction, and good profile make them a clear winner for a small standard.  Unfortunately the Roadrunner rear is only available in the wider 130/90, and I would prefer to stick with a 120.  Still, the AM20 front is designed to work well with all sorts of other tyres, and so many of the benefits of the Roadrunner can still be gained with a suitable rear from another manufacturer.

While the Tight Budget choice of a Kenda on the rear will also work well for General Purpose, if you think it's worth an extra $35 you can go with the Pirelli Strada, which should last longer while delivering decent traction.

In fact, rather than put a pair of Pirelli Strada's on this bike for Touring, I'd keep the Avon on the front and just run the Strada on the rear.  The benefits in terms of stability and all-weather traction outweigh the slightly shorter tread life, and this makes for a very good Touring combination.

You could also go with the full Tight Budget selection here.  While I like the Metzeler ME-33, I'm not sure how it would combine with the Pirelli rear, so I would not choose the Metzeler/Pirelli combination; if you want the cheaper front, the Kenda rear is probably a better choice too.

For true sport riding, the Avon Super Venom AM20/AM18 is a superb tyre.  Traction is excellent, and with the AM20 front the combination delivers very good highway stability as well.  The rear will wear quite quickly, and tend to square off if you use it for more upright riding, but for sporting use you can't beat the Super Venoms.

This does involve going with a front that is wider than stock, but the benefits in traction by using the Super Venom compound are very high.  A 100 still isn't really too squeezed on a 1.85" rim, and for sport-riding the more triangular profile won't hurt; also because of the excellent stability of the tyre, straightline stability shouldn't suffer.

If I could find them, I'd definitely go with the Pirelli MT75's.  If not, I would consider the Avon Roadrunner / Pirelli Strada a good alternate and wouldn't regret selecting that instead.

Avon

Bridgestone

Continental

Dunlop

Firestone

IRC

Kenda

Metzeler

Michelin

Pirelli

Key: