[Megadan]

Honestly, I don't want or desire the ability to go past 60-65 on this bike anyway. As you said, it's such a light bike, and being so tall and not very aerodynamic, it is already a bit of a handful as it is.

Personally, I am quite happy with the 17/43 gearing now with the mods on the bike. The exhaust and intake really woke up the bike across the rev range. Before the gearing felt too tall and almost anemic at slow speeds, but now it can throw me back pretty good in the low gears and has the top end to achieve the cruise speed I am most comfortable with on the bike for how I use it - 60mph for short jaunts, but still has plenty of get-up-and-go for around town and dirt roads/light trails. As eveRide would say, it has better tractor factor.

Honestly, the only reason I would put a 39 tooth rear on the bike would be specifically to take some kind of longer trip, and mainly to get the rpms down a bit more.

To answer the tire question, I have two tires in mind. As much as I would love to put some road only tires on it, I did buy this bike with the idea that it would see some trail use. With that in mind I am currently torn between two tires.

First tire is the Shinko 700 in 3.00x21 front and 4.6x18 rear. It's the more aggressive of the two being a 60/40 tire, but all of the reviews on it show that it meets the general requirements I am after. Decent wet weather, good in a majority of dirt scenarios aside from deep sand and mud (which is common for most 50/50, 60/40 tires anyway).

The second tire is the Avon AV53/AV54 trail rider 90/90-18 front and 120/80-18 rear. Being a 90/10 tire, it would be the best for on-road use. Rave reviews on it for it's road manners, while obviously the off-road capability is pretty much dirt and gravel roads.

Both tires and their respective sizes are rated for the rim widths of the Hawk by the manufacturers. The only real difference is price. I can buy both Shinko 700's for the cost of just one Avon tire. However, the Avons were designed for more much powerful and heavy bikes and have incredible mileage capability, aka they last a while.

Most likely I will go with the Shinko 700 simply because of the cost, and once they wear out I may give the Avons a try. Interestingly, the 700's have better on-road reviews than the 705's, which is why I decided to go that route. The only thing the 700's seem to really suffer from is a little more vibration, which I can live with.