I've been buying strictly Shinko tires. I like every aspect of the buying, delivery and the quality of the tires. I buy them from Chaparral on ebay, I'm paying about $50 - $69 per tire, free shipping, they are drop shipped from a Shinko warehouse less than 50 miles from me, I'm getting them next day or 2 days later. One big plus.......every tire has been around 3 months from manufacture according to the DOT code. I buy the 230 TourMasters when possible because of the higher load rating, or the 712's. The Shinkos are just a bit bigger than other brands of the same size. I believe the quality and handling are very comparable to the Bridgestone Spitfires. Better than the Bridgestones since I had a rash of bad Spitfires a while back with deep sidewall cracks with less than 2 years from DOT date. I just bought stock size 712s for my bobber, knowing that these run bigger than others, haven't mounted them yet. A rear Shinko 110/90-18 is probably real close to 120 in other brands. $50.88 per tire, hey, these ARE NOT hard compound cheap tires.
Scott