A little story about tyres, Data mentioning France reminded me of it. I wish I coulld remember all the details of the tyre but it was about fifteen years ago. IT was on our first tour of France the bike was a XJR 1300 fully loaded with top box and panniers. We meandered down the east of France till we picked up the route Napolean and wound up in Nice ( a place best avioded) though we got there via the Canyon du Verdon ( a place I would recomend to any one, absolutely beautiful). Then we set off back, I noticed that the front tyre was getting past it's best. By the time we got back up to St Quentin it was well past redemtion so we found a bike shop and got it changed. The french mechanic, realising we were on holiday changed the tyre straightaway half an hour later we were back on the road. The tyre he put on was exactly the same as the one he took off except for
one letter, which designated the strength of the tyre wall it wasn't as strong and the bike handled like a pig. I hoped that when we got home and got the luggage off it would improve, it did, but not much I put up with it for a while but had to change it.
Getting the right tyre for a particular bike can be a bit of a minefield. This is where sites like this and discussions like this come in handy.

That's interesting knight. Had exactly the same with my GSX1400. I always run with puncturesafe in the hoops (known as Ultraseal at the time). Still do. I used to cover near 30,000 miles a year at the time, mostly in Europe. One year hitting almost 40,000 miles. An expensive way to travel as tyres were needed frequently. Had a front tyre split at speed but the Ultraseal stopped a blowout. Only tyre I could get was a lower spec one, can't remember the make. Couldn't get new Ultraseal either. But the bike handled really poorly with the lower spec. Again changed out the tyre as soon as I got home and all was again ok. My Burgman tyre was the right spec though, just a slightly smaller section and boy did that affect it badly at speed.

It makes sense very similar bikes, I was running with ultraseal as well always did when we went abroad, never needed it though. The man who put me wise to it was the manager at National tyres Barnsley he was brilliant with bike tyres, sadly he's retired now, still go there for my bike tyres though, have done for the better part of twenty years. I was going to put his name in the post but I,m always wary of doing that with out permission.

I fitted a Metzler Feel free which has a load index of 66 the OEM Bridgestone was a load index of 56 so no issues there. Also the 150/70 is actually 10mm wider at the widest point than the OEM tyre it just has a slightly rounder profile.

Don't think it got mentioned in any of the previous posts, but be careful to always check the tyre's CONSTRUCTION, not just size.
IF a X-ply tyre is fitted to the rear, then to comply with MOT and Construction and Use rules, a X-ply must be fitted to the front also. (UK regs, others may differ).
Examples might be -
160/60 R14 65H would be Radial
150/70-14 66S would be X-ply (Note the "R" is missing).

And also the load rating. That's the letter and number after the main numbers ie: the 65H or whatever. We used to get bikes come in to the workshop with the right size but wrong load/speed rating. All some owners used to see when ordering a tyre was the price. Lower spec tyres are cheaper. Can have very serious consequences. Also, very important to use brand new wind in the tyre, not secondhand wind! You don't want a wind failure at speed!!

Several hundred miles in and I won't be going back to a 160 the 150 make the bike easier to get on/off the centre stand has greater load and speed rating and makes the bike handle much better.

Glad you are happy with it.

very happy and it has made my speedo read to within two mph of the GPS do an added bonus