I really didn’t fancy another dodgy winter on the original plastic Chinese tyres, so a few weeks ago I bought a pair of Continental K62s, which I finally had fitted on Friday. Following a recommendation from Mike on the Electric Motoring forum I went for the 3.50 profile instead of the original 3.00s, as these have 4 potential advantages:
1. They give an effective wheel diameter increase, which results in a less optimistic speedo reading.
2. Said wheel diameter increase also results in a slightly higher theoretical top speed – theoretical because that also depends on other factors such as available current, wind resistance etc.
3. The bike now has a bigger ground clearance, so it can be leant further into corners without the risk of grounding the centre stand, and…
4. The chunkier tyres now make the scooter look much more “butch”! 
A quick road test today confirms that it now feels more sure-footed, but of course I need to do some proper tests to work out how much more accurate the speedo is and what my true top speed is now. I do feel that the acceleration has suffered very slightly, but a quick phase wire check put my mind at rest that any extra current it may be pulling is not causing any extra heating effect.
The only disadvantage that I know of so far is that the increased wheel diameter has drastically reduced the clearance between the wheels and the ground when using the centre stand, which is only ever likely to be a problem when testing the motor – given that the balance of the scooter front-to-back is marginal anyway, it would be all too easy for it to tip backwards while the back wheel is spinning, resulting in it shooting forward off the stand! I notice there are some convenient-looking holes in the bottom of the centre stand, so there may be some capacity for screwing some form of spacers onto the bottom of the stand legs – more when I have experimented.
So let’s see what difference it’s made to the daily commute!
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