PW80 tire choices

I bought my son a used PW80 last year and have been doing some mods to it this spring to give it a little more go. So far I have put a fatty pipe and PC2 arrester on it, raised the needle clip 1 notch (as well as cleaned out all the crap in the carb), air filter and filtered vents in the box, 13 tooth front sprocket, and some boyeson power reeds.

The little bike goes MUCH better now and my son is really excited about it all. I must admit, I have become a little addicted to working on it cause it is so small and simple. With someone to help I can throw the whole bike up on the bench, work on it, then take it down and go annoy the neighbors trying it out. It used to be in pretty hard shape when I first bought it. It still needs to have the top end gone over but I'm not sure if I want to go that far with a PW80. I can hear piston slap. Does anyone know if that would make a big difference or can I just let that go?

Anyway, my real question is about the tires. The rear tire needs to be replaced. The stock one is a Cheng Shin 3.00-12 and I was looking around to see what other choices I had and don't see any other 3.00-12 size tires from other manufactures. There is however 80/100-12 size tires from several other makers like Michelin's Starcross. Is this a comparable tire size that I can use? I would appreciate any input.

PW80 Fatty Pipe

Yeah the pipe made a pretty good difference but yes $200 is alot. It did make it go better, look better, and sound much better though so I dont mind. The 13 tooth sprocket made the most difference for like $15 from dennis kirk. The pipe made the next best difference followed by reeds and air filter making little gains. It is still and will always be a kids bike though..only so much is possible. Thanks for the tire link.

Dunlop Tire purchase

BTW...I just ordered one of those $20 tires and a Kenda $5 tube (i think it is a tubed tire so to be safe) and $13 shipping costs. My $20 tire turned into $38 in a hurry :think: . Aint that always the way.

The way I see it... Even though it is easy to spend more into a bike with limited value, when you see the excitement the kids get make it all satisfying. Plus it is fun to make a neglected bike have a new life.

Fatty pipe vs original

The biggest difference in construction of the FMF Fatty pipe and the stock unit was the stock one has a welded restrictor for about an inch in the cylinder end of the pipe. It was about 1/2 inch in diameter compared to the full 3/4 or so on the fatty. The square boxy end before the spark arrestor on the stock pipe was absent on the fatty as well, but I think that just contained packing to keep noise levels down. I was really suprised to find the other external dimensions of the Fatty to be identical to the stocker. I have read on this site where people have either die-grinded or large-drill-in-drill-pressed this restriction out and had good success. It wouldn't supprise me if they had basically the same results for free. But then again, it still isnt shiny nickle plated :) . I have read post here too where some have modified there stock arrester for better flow but if you cut off some of the pipe in that make sure you make straight cuts or you can get a whistle (so I have heard).