Why mix bias & radial when you will no longer have need to? The tire choice in the 160/70-17R or 170/60-17R rear range is going to to be huge when compared to what you now have and you will need an Accountant to keep up with the 120/70-17R front choises.....

But again, more interested in rear tires which will last longer than 3 or 4 thousand miles before being junk or so squared off that turn in is met with a giant bump.  What about dual compound?  When I got the Mean Streak rear wheel, there was still a Bridgestone Battleaxe BT021 radial on the back.  Still lots of tire left on it before the wear bars, but so flat in the middle it would almost be like jumping a curb when making a turn.  The freakin' tire (new) probably cost more than what I paid for both the rim with the tire still on it!

I'm also running a dual compound Avon Storm 2 Ultra with 5000 mi currently and still a round profile. I'm very happy with the tire and could expect to see maybe 10000 mi out of it. It's a big improvement over the Avon Azaro stock size. Mark

  I was looking at reviews on these (both front and rear) tires.  Your advocacy of them helps a lot, since I trust the word of people on this board more than I tend to on vendor's sites.  Was also looking at the Storm 2 Ultra like Mark mentioned.  As long as I don't have to replace tires, especially the rear, every 4 or 5 thousand miles, I'll be happy.  How well do the Shinko's work on wet pavement?

To be honest I try my best to not ride in the rain but I have been caught in drizzle to an absolute down pour that soaked me in under a minute (NO BULL) and they seemed to work just fine and did not try to step out or slide on the admittedly sedate ride home where I wrung myself out in the garage. I think that the 005 Advance delivers all-round performance at a very modest price tag of 160 to 170 for the pair.

I may be drinking the adversine koolaid, but the pr2's/pr3's are the premier tire in the 17's IMHO.  I have the 170/60 rear and like the extra pickup, although I haven't tried the 160.  I started on roadsmarts and they were crap with extra suck after 2k miles.  I'm stubborn so I rode them to 6500 rear, 10k front.  I have a PR2 on the rear and a PR3 on the front because that was what was available when I needed them.  They are supposed to be good to 15k as well.  I'm at 6K on the rear, and I'm just barely starting to notice that maybe there is a little flattening of the center, visually.  So I think that may bear out.