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Alright, I figure this is worth typing out, so let's talk about tires for a bit. First: A disclaimer: I am not a rep for any tire company, and I'm still far from an expert. I've run a variety of tires at trackdays and races, as well as street riding, and spent some time in schools learning about compounds, construction, and profiles, and have experienced the differences on the track, as well as listened to the opinions of other riders as they changed brands. The intent of this thread is to help riders understand the difference and potential gains for between different brands of tires, and to give people some idea of the different types of construction and setups, and how that will translate to rider feedback. None of this should be taken as gospel, or the One Truth of tires. It's just what I've learned over my years of riding. If I've missed something, made a mistake, or skipped over something you feel is important, please, bring it to my attention. If you'd like to cross post this elsewhere, feel free to do so, just credit me and let me know via e-mail, PM, or the thread so that I can improve it with other people's feedback. What do the numbers mean? When dealing with tires, you will often see alphabet soup on them, for example: 120/60ZR17 Michelin Pilot Power First, the 120 is the width of the tire in milimeters. The 60 refers to the height of the tire, as a ratio of width. So the tire is 120mm wide, and 72mm tall. The ZR is the speed rating, in this case, 149+MPH. The 17 refers to the rim size, in this case, 17 inches, a fairly standard sportbike front tire size. The other main number of note on the tire is the date code, example in the box below:  The first 2 letters are the week that the tire was made, the last 2 are the year that it was made. This tire was made on the 3rd week of 2005. If there's only 3 numbers, it was made before 2000, which means the tires are ancient and should be replaced immediately. On motorcycle tires, the numbers are usually in their own oval without any letters preceeding or following. When should I replace my tires? If they show any cracking or splitting, or if they are more than 5 years old. Tires will lose grip over time, even if they're just sitting, as they age and dry out. This can be especially dangerous to novice riders who don't have the experience to know that their tires are done, and inevitably ends up with them crashing, sometimes multiple times, before realizing that it's not that they're doing anything wrong, it's that the tires have turned into stone masquerading as rubber. Check your date codes, you'll be amazed at what is sold as "new". What sizes should I run? 120/60 or 120/70? You will have no problems running the 120/70. The taller profile will improve contact patch while leaned over. The only thing to be aware of is that you may have to adjust your fender to get the tire to clear. Just check the tire for any signs of rubbing after you put it on. Check again after your first ride, as tires do expand somewhat under use. How much wider can you run the rear tire? In general, not more than one size up. For those with 160 tires on the rear of their bike, looking for a "fatter" look, do not go over a 170 profile. A 180 will be squished on the rim and will flatspot and wear quickly, as well as reduce contact patch while leaned over. For track use, some makers offer 190s for a 5.5 inch rim and 200s for the 6 inch rims. Tire size in this area will often turn into personal preference, try the sizes recommended by your tire guys. At worst, you'll learn you don't like it. What pressure should I run? There's not one catch all answer here. Each motorcycle will recommend a different pressure. Some bikes can recommend as low as 26F/26R, others can recommend as high as 38F/42R. In general, the baseline that most agree on for standards and sportbikes running modern radials on the street tends to be around 32-34F/34-36R, depending tire construction and the weight of the bike. The big bikes will run higher pressures to compensate for the additional weight. Tire Construction Tires can vary in 2 major ways. The first is sidewall stiffness, the second is profile. Sidewall Construction Brands that have a soft sidewall: Metzler, Pirelli. Brands with a stiff sidewall: Dunlop, Michelin. Bridgestone is an intermediate construction. So...what does that mean to you as a rider? Soft sidewall tires will flex more as they encounter imperfections in the road. This additional squish zone will act as an additional damper in your suspension, which can make bumpy roads and tracks feel smoother. This can also help calm down bikes that are set to be particularly twitchy, as the tires prevent minor bumps from getting through to the suspension and chassis. Especially noticible while leaned over, where your suspension is at it's least effective. Soft sidewall tires will also flex more under load, increasing the heat that the tire builds up through use. Most soft sidewall tires will run higher pressures as a result. If you're running a soft sidewall tire, sometimes you'll find that under heavy use, the tires start to feel numb, or under commuting use they wear and flatspot quickly. If you discover this behavior, bumping up the pressures will often solve the problem, as chances are good that the tire is overheating. Pirelli Diablo Corsa 3s are particularly well known for this, prefering pressures of 34F/36R even for track use, and sometimes upwards of 36F/38R for street use, even on supersports. Stiff sidewall tires will provide more feedback from the road in every way. They don't have the insulating effect of the softer sidewall tires, and as a result can exacerbate twitchy handling characteristics. Michelin and Dunlop race tires can run as low as 18R in some cases. Profile Construction There are 2 types of profile construction: Triangulated and rounded. In general, the tire profiles by maker look like this: Triangulated tires: Michelin, Dunlop Rounded: Metzler, Pirelli, Bridgestone Triangulated tires will help the bike feel lighter on it's feet, turn in quicker, and respond well to midcorner line changes. Some will feel that triangulated tires feel flighty and more prone to headshake. Rounded tires will require more steering effort, but will also hold a line more consistantly and tend to feel more planted, and can help calm down a bike that's prone to headshake. Mid corner line changes will require a good amount of input to the bars. Some will consider these tires "sluggish" and "heavy". Compound In general, you want to use the hardest compounds you can get away with. On the track, using softer tires when you can't exploit the grip will just result in quick wear and inconsistant grip levels as the tires go off. The major exception to this is the front tire on low HP bikes, where you'll probably be running the softest compound no matter what, as there's simply not enough hard braking to push the front into needing a harder compound. Your tire vender will have the best advice given the conditions and the track abrasiveness. For street use, it's worth taking into account that more street/track oriented tires will tend to perform much more poorly in cold/wet conditions than sport touring tires. This also applies when the tire has not been brought up to temperature yet, and is another reason that it's prudent to stick with sport touring tires if your bike is going to see commuting more than the track. Sizes, revisited Different brands of tires can have significantly different physical sizes, even if they're both marked as the same size. Ideally, you measure both tires, inflated and on the bike, and see how much things have changed. Some will religiously adjust their ride height for these changes, some will not. I tend to leave settings alone and go out there and see how the bike works before changing things. Breaking in tires Cold tires are slick. New cold tires are doubly slick. There is no longer any mold release used in the molds, however, the tires still have a very uniform surface out of the molds which will reduce available traction. On street use, one decent ride where the tires get warm and you slowly work up your lean angle will have your tires completely broken in. The trick is to slowly increase lean angle so that at no time while you're leaned over is your entire contact patch in the smooth section of the tire. On the track, I've tossed on new tires, done the warm up lap, and gone racing. The very abrasive nature of a track helps the tires break in much faster. If your tires will come up to temp in a lap, by the end of the second lap your tires will be more than ready to go. Heating up tires The most common claimed reason for crashes is usually "cold tires". However, there's more to it than that. Not only do you tires have to come up to temperature, your rims and suspension must come up to temp as well. Cold suspension will react slowly, causing harshness, poor handling and potentially a loss in grip as a result. A hot tire on a cold rim (for example, on a windy day with tire warmers) can cause what feels like a sudden loss in available grip when the warmers come off and the rim begins to leech the heat out of the tire. With that said, a cold tire crash is actually a failure of the rider to accurately account for the conditions, and never the fault of the tires. How do you know if you have the right pressure? What you're looking for an increase in the range of 5-7 pounds from cold to hot. If you're getting too much increase in pressure, you need to boost your pressures to reduce the amount of flex in the tire. If you're getting too little increase, you need to reduce your pressures in order to get more flex and heat in the tire. While rubber balling up on the tire is fine, you don't want any tearing or gouging in the tire. Tearing and gouging can indicate either a problem with suspension, pressure or tire compound. Consult your local suspension expert and tire guy. Weaving to heat up tires Bullshit. Motorcycles simply do not generate enough cornering load when weaving to build heat in the tires. The only way to get tires up to temp is to flex the carcass, with heavy throttle and brake use. If you want to get your tires warm, don't weave back and forth but instead run up and down, accelerating heavily through first gear and braking heavily. You will still see riders weave for 2 reasons: To feel out the bike, and to scrub off the tires. Heat Cycling Each time you heat cycle your tires, you leech out some of the internal oils that help a tire stick to the ground. Now, this is not a concern for the all but 1% of street riders, who will probably already be aware of this. I know a very select few who do nothing but ride twisties, and ride them hard. Usually their fronts start to go off at around 5k, while they still have what appears to be good tread on them and they're almost done with their second rear tire. On the track, the primary use of tire warmers is not to keep you from ending up on your head on the warm up lap, but to prevent heat cycling. By using tire warmers, you can help extend the life of your tires. However, you also have to be aware that you can cook your tires by leaving your warmers on high all the time. Personally, I don't use tire warmers. If it's sunny, I park the bike with the sun as full on your tires as possible. I've discovered this allows me to be more comfortable on the warmup lap. That doesn't mean I ignore my warm up lap, it's just an easy thing that helps keep the tires warm. When I'm racing, at my 2nd call I'll go do laps in the hot pit, accelerating through first/second gear and braking hard. After 8-10 passes, my tires will be mostly hot, after doing my outlap at around 85% speed for the first half and 95% speed for the second half, the tires are completely warm and I can go hard straight off the launch without worrying about things. This is probably overkill, but I like the security and the additional time to warm up my tires and suspension, as well as the time on the bike to feel everything out. Mixing and Matching Tires Mixing and matching tires is usually fine, as long as you have the awareness of what you're doing. Ideally, you want to mix tires that have a similar design and construction, so try and group them according to sidewall stiffness. You will change the handling of the bike by doing this. It may be a positive change, it may be a negative one. It's up to you to safely feel out those changes. I have tracked my SV with a Dunlop 209GP (Euro) on the front and a Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa on the rear. Doing this taught me more about how tire construction affects a bike than any words or explanation or paired set of tires ever could have. I could get on the gas and feel very clearly the difference between the stiffer front tire and the softer rear tire. In my case, it maintained a lot of positive feedback from the front for confidence while trailbraking while removing what I felt was unneeded feedback from the rear, as well as keeping the bike more stable and less twitchy over bumps. This was at an A group pace. I don't know how noticible the differences are going to be and how much gain someone would see from doing this at a slower pace. As long as you have some understanding of what you're getting into (I knew I'd feel the rear move around differently from the front), there's nothing wrong with mixing and matching tires. The only other words of warning about mixing tires I'd mention is that some makers claim that their tires have specific siping on the tires that are designed to work together as a matched pair to move water out of the way. If this is true, I've never ridden hard enough in the rain to notice, but it bears consideration. Plugging vs. Replacing Tubeless Tires On this front, I feel it's fine to patch a tire internally. However, I'd avoid plugging something near the sidewall. I've helped people limp home with the rope type plugs in their tires, to some success (they got home, it usually still leaked some air). Other people will disagree and say that any plug is asking for trouble. I'd be fine with a plugged tire for commuting or casual twisty use. I wouldn't use one on the track. I have seen people use plugged tires in the C group on the track without any problems, however. Tire Choices (Street) My general recommendation for daily riders is Sport Touring tires. If you've got a bike that's doing double duty on the track and street, or is purely a weekend pleasure ride, then Street/Track tires are a good choice. Tire Choices (Track) For C group, as long as your tires area in reasonably good shape, you can run just about anything. For your first trackday, Sport Touring tires are fine, although you'll probably have more fun with some Street/Track tires. Once you move into the B group consistantly, my recommendation is to run at least DOT Race tires. While a skilled track rider can ride Street/Track tires at an A pace, they're not pushing their limits, they're going to be well within their personal limits and will be able to handle the tire potentially misbehaving and sliding around. As you improve, you won't have to worry about suddenly exceeding the limits of the tires after a particularly good session and having them go off on you, perhaps with drastic consequences while you are pushing your limits. The other advantage is that DOT Race tires go off much more smoothly and slide more consistantly than Street/Track tires. Bias Plies The only Bias Plies left are pretty much the best of the bunch, so if you've got a bike that still runs them, you pretty much can't go wrong with any of the offerings from major tire makers. I'm partial to Pirelli Sport Demons, personally, but have seen the 250 guys absolutely hauling rear end on the bridgestones as well. The rest seem to be lower in popularity for whatever reason. Tire type rundown Pirelli Sport Touring, newer design to older: Diablo Rosso, Diablo Strada, Diablo(OLD) Street/Track Diablo Corsa 3 DOT Race Diablo Supercorsa, Dragon Supercorsa Metzler Sport Touring Z6 Interact, Z6 Street/Track M3, M1 DOT Race Racetec Michelin Sport Touring Pilot Road 2, Pilot Road, Pilot Sport(OLD) Street/Track Power One, Pilot Power 2CT, Pilot Power DOT Race Power One, Pilot Race (They make the Power One in both a "street" and a "race" compound) Dunlop Sport Touring Roadsmart, D220 Street/Track Qualifiers, 209F DOT Race 211GP(Euro/Ntec), 209GPA (Euro/Ntec), 211 (US, non-ntec) (Although the 211 (US) is technically a "newer" tire, the Ntec is the prefered tire) I covered the tire types from memory, so apologies if it's a bit off, feel free to correct me. Anyone who's got anything additional to contribute, has questions about things, please post up 
Z3n fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Jul 24, 2009 |
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Jul 22, 2009 06:33
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Do dual/triple compound tires last that much longer? IME they do and their worth the extra money. Thoughts? Also how long do tires usually last on a 600? 1000? My first set of tires on the F4i were Shinko Stealth 003 Softs (cheap single compound). That rear lasted 4500 and it was bald at the end. 1 track day, rest commuting. Next I had Pilot Power 2CT's (dual compound) and the rear lasted 5800 miles until it got a nail and I replaced it. It was almost to the wear bar, but had about 500-1000 more miles in it I would guess. 2 or 3 trackdays, then commuting. So let's say that rear tire would've lasted 6500 miles and I loved the grip it had. I now have a BT-016 (triple compound) on the rear and 2CT on the front. So we'll see how long it lasts. It feels just as good as my 2CT so far, haven't tracked it though.
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Jul 22, 2009 07:09
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Gather around kids, Z3n's gunna teach us how to use rubbers  Dragon Supercorsa 3 Pro's came on my KTM 690 SMC and I can't rave about the stickiness of these babies enough. Last set of aggressive tires I used were PP CT2's, which are also excellent tires. Id say the Perilli's are noticeably more confidence inducing, with the downside that they seem to get used up and square off much quicker than the CT2's. 2 cent review. They make awesome supermoto street tires. Also anyone looking at semi offroad mainly street tires for 17", considering Avon Distanzias (SP?) should go for it. I slapped a pair on my DRZ, sticky enough to drag hard parts on pavement, quite fun in hard pack. Slick as hell in mud but what do you expect. I would run these all the time on a DRZ and am probably going to throw a set on over the winter on the KTM to deal with the rain and mucky roads.
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Jul 22, 2009 07:24
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I just want to say that for old bikes Cheng Shin used to offer almost exact matches for the original OEM tires and they were great tires. I'm greatly saddened by their exit from the tire market.
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Jul 22, 2009 12:11
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aventari posted:Do dual/triple compound tires last that much longer? IME they do and their worth the extra money. Thoughts? Also how long do tires usually last on a 600? 1000? There's a lot more factors than simply saying "multi/progressive compound tires last longer". The new Power Ones have 3 compounds, yet they aren't going to last as long as a 2CT as due to softer overall compound choice. The 2CTs are actually the same compound as the Pilot Powers in the center, so you would have gotten the same mileage out of a single compound tire in that case. There's also tire pressure to take into account. The higher the pressure, the less the tire will heat up, deflect, and wear. And finally, another major factor on tire wear is simply how aggressive you are with the throttle. Trackdays don't have a major effect on tire life as typically you're wearing out the center long before the sides, and you spend the majority of your time roasting the sides at a trackday, not the middle. Allow me to also add: I am not a rep for any tire company, and I'm still far from an expert. I've run a variety of tires at trackdays and races, as well as street riding, and spent some time in schools learning about compounds, construction, and profiles, and have experienced the differences on the track, as well as listened to the opinions of other riders as they changed brands. The intent of this thread is to help riders understand the difference and potential gains for each person between different brands of tires, and to give people some idea of the different types of construction and setups, and how that will translate to rider feedback. There's a number of things I haven't posted on yet, things like heat cycles, mixing and matching tires, suspension setup changes as a result of changing tires, etc. that I'll get when I've got some time. Spiff, what pressures are you running? You can try boosting them to maybe help avoid them squaring off. Or just say gently caress it and do burnouts. It's also worth noting: OEM tires, what you get on your bike out of the factory are almost always a harder compound than the tires you'd buy off the rack. Especially in the case of really soft DOT Race level tires, they're a special compound designed to get more the 2000 miles or so you'd get out of a DOT Race tire under street use. I was sad when Cheng Shin decided to pull out of the tire market too...On the vintage bikes we'd run almost exclusively the cheng shin tires. My avatar is me on cheng shin trials tires on the 75 CB200 dragging a knee on pinehurst. They're great tires for old school bikes. Z3n fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Jul 22, 2009 |
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Jul 22, 2009 16:18
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aventari posted:Thoughts? Also how long do tires usually last on a 600? 1000? Hayabusa rear Dunlop ZR = 4,000 miles  Heavy, high-torque bikes will eat a rear tire like it's not funny.
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Jul 22, 2009 16:20
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aventari posted:Thoughts? Also how long do tires usually last on a 600? 1000? I'd say it's more in how hard you play with the throttle than the size of your engine. I got close to 6500 miles out of my Pirelli Diablo Corsa 3s on my 929, including a trackday, but on my ZX6E I tended to only get around 3000-3500 miles. I also ran my pressures too low on just about everything until the 929.
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Jul 22, 2009 16:23
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8ender posted:I just want to say that for old bikes Cheng Shin used to offer almost exact matches for the original OEM tires and they were great tires. I'm greatly saddened by their exit from the tire market. Maxxis still covers this market. The Promaxx series are a great way to get a modern street tire in old-bike sizes.
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Jul 22, 2009 16:31
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Z3n posted:What sizes should I run? To illustrate the "wear quickly" and "decreased contact patch" thought, here's a 140 series Dunlop D208-SM Sportmax tire on an '08 Ninja 250 after 1800 miles. The stock size is 130.  Also, Z3n, you forgot those of us without access to fancy radials. Pirelli Sport Demons are pretty good bias ply tires.
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Jul 22, 2009 17:49
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Those are called chicken strips, phil. 
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Jul 22, 2009 20:44
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Simkin posted:Those are called chicken strips, phil. It may be hard to see, but that area is actually pinched in because the wheel is too narrow for the tire.
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Jul 22, 2009 20:51
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Yeah, I know, just being a dick. I ran larger tyres on a CBR125 - the rear went from 100->110 - and the combination of narrow wheels, and suspension barely capable of coping with a rider over 70kg, meant that the footpegs would have been smouldering nubs before I ever scrubbed the outer edge.
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Jul 22, 2009 21:28
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This is probably a stupid question, but what are the advantages/disadvantages of running tires with tubes versus without? Are tubed tires more commonly found on dual sports and dirt bikes?
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Jul 23, 2009 01:19
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JebattoRocket posted:This is probably a stupid question, but what are the advantages/disadvantages of running tires with tubes versus without? Are tubed tires more commonly found on dual sports and dirt bikes? Spoked wheels get a tube, the other ones get tubeless.
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Jul 23, 2009 08:22
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Plugging vs. Replacing Tubeless Tires Being that I am an extraordinarily lucky guy I've had the blessing to receive 2 gigantic gently caress-off screws in my rear tire within a year. Sick of paying $150 every time some loving idiot contractor forgets to do such advanced things as "close a box" or "shut a tailgate", I started looking into plugging motorcycle tires. What I didn't expect is that this is actually a debated issue amongst motorcyclists of all types. I was told mostly by mechanics, a few people I know personally, and on the internet that the only tire you can plug on a motorcycle is a tubeless one, and that's if you also replace the tube within. Otherwise, it's generally a bad idea to plug a motorcycle tire. I had a hardcore Harley mechanic working on some old shovelheads tell me that "he wouldn't suggest ever running on a plug". He wore a brain bucket and short sleeves when he rode, so that kinda caught me by surprise. Again, on the other side of the debate, I've been told that plugging is generally harmless on a bike tire, again by people I know personally and on the internet. A few have told me that they feel most people can't/won't ever stress their tire to the point where a plug would show it's weakness, so you generally won't run into issues. If you're racing, plugging is a dumb idea. If you're commuting, probably not. I personally decided to replace the entire tire because I am a Carrying a spare wheel/tire is a hell of a tough thing to do on a bike, so I can see why this is such a debated issue.
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Jul 23, 2009 11:56
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Ripoff posted:Plugging vs. Replacing Tubeless Tires I would think most people realize and agree that carrying a plug kit for emergencies is a lot easier and more feasible that carrying a spare tire on a motorcycle. I would also assume that they will agree that you can ride that plugged tire back home. The argument comes in with people who believe you can continue to ride on the plugged tire and those who do not believe you can safely. Personally, plugs don't scare me.
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Jul 23, 2009 15:04
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How do you feel on the subject of using race take offs for street or trackdays? I recently mounted a pair of used Michelin Pilot Race's I got off of ebay for the street the seem good enough. Would a noob be able to use them on the track without any worries? Are track day providers likely to shoot them down in tech? Otherwise as long as you can do the mount and balance yourself seems like it's a good way to get quality tires on the cheap. front  rear 
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Jul 23, 2009 20:49
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What, no Bridgestone love in the OP? BT-021s are amazing sport touring tyres that balance good grip with great longevity, especially if you do a lot of upright motorway miles. I've tried BT-016s too and they're really good for fast road riding; they warm up quickly and give shed-loads of grip.
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Jul 23, 2009 21:06
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Sick_Nukes posted:How do you feel on the subject of using race take offs for street or trackdays? I've done it, I don't think it's the end of the world. You have to be aware that you may have compromised grip until they get up to temp, and that in a lot of cases you simply can't run the pressures that you'd normally run with those tires on the track, but they'll work. ranathari posted:What, no Bridgestone love in the OP? BT-021s are amazing sport touring tyres that balance good grip with great longevity, especially if you do a lot of upright motorway miles. I've tried BT-016s too and they're really good for fast road riding; they warm up quickly and give shed-loads of grip. I have zero extended experience with modern bridgestones. Only experience I have is with teh crappy old OEM battlaxes I had on my E when I first got it. Horrible tires. Haven't run them on the street or the track for any reasonable amount of time yet, so no opinion, good or bad, on them.
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Jul 23, 2009 22:04
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Sick_Nukes posted:How do you feel on the subject of using race take offs for street or trackdays? That's pretty much all that I ever ran (with the exception of the last set, that was sold to me for a song by my sponsor  ). They will vary in quality - some of the ones that I picked up I probably shouldn't have even bothered wasting the energy to bring back to my garage, but for ~$25 a tyre, it's hard to say no. I failed on the whole 'mount it yerself' bit, though, which really ended up compounding costs.Oh, also, make drat sure what compound you're getting. DO NOT BUY QUALIFYING COMPOUND TAKE-OFFS. Most manufacturers will have some little code letting you know what hardness the tyre compound is, and it usually ranges from 0 (softest) -> 3 (hardest). 2 or 3 is usually perfect for track days and longer races.
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Jul 23, 2009 22:35
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Mercator posted:Spoked wheels get a tube, the other ones get tubeless. BMW has those wacky cross spoke wheels that run tubeless.
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Jul 24, 2009 01:48
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SHUT UP, Z3N!!!! Excellent write up, and if it's ok with you going to do a quote and post on a different forum I post on. Deleting out the "ask questions" part because eh I dunno nothing bout em. I've been pretty much michelin only and loved them. Currently on Pilot Road 2's and digging those for the 4-5k miles I have on them, hoping to get 8k+. Before that it was 2ct's. Between the two I think I'm going to love the longevity of the roads, but the profile is more rounded vs the 2ct's in which I really really dug a brand new set of 2ct's on the bike. That thing just whomped into turns. Anyhow, let me know on the quote thing, I'll probably not edit the picture and rehost if that's cool, just quote the whole thing. 
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Jul 24, 2009 03:35
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Silver posted:SHUT UP, Z3N!!!! Yeah too many god drat words, even for me. Trying to proof read that poo poo is agony. I updated things a bit in the OP. Feel free to post it where ever, all I ask is that you give me credit and link/e-mail/PM me where you're reposting it, so I can keep an eye on it and improve it with people's feedback.
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Jul 24, 2009 05:55
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Fancy poo poo. Will do mang.
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Jul 24, 2009 14:54
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Good overview! Thanks for the post :]
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Jul 24, 2009 15:05
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Mercator posted:Spoked wheels get a tube, the other ones get tubeless. My early reverse-comstars (from 1979) say "Tubed Tires ONLY" even though I'm pretty sure they can use tubeless. The guy at the shop refused to put tubeless tires on the wheels for this very reason. Is this just "We didn't know what could be done in 1979" or is it legitimate? I'm 90% certain later comstars (from 80 on) used tubeless just fine, and they were identical wheels.
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Jul 24, 2009 16:40
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Well I'm not going to say anything against the guidelines of the manufacturers lest the motorcycle gods pay negative attention to me.  I'm no walking motorcycle encyclopedia (we have nerobro for that) but I would not hesitate to use tubeless on casted wheels from whatever era. The warning is a complete mystery to me to be honest.
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Jul 24, 2009 22:58
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Spiffness posted:Also anyone looking at semi offroad mainly street tires for 17", considering Avon Distanzias (SP?) should go for it. I slapped a pair on my DRZ, sticky enough to drag hard parts on pavement, quite fun in hard pack. Slick as hell in mud but what do you expect. I would run these all the time on a DRZ and am probably going to throw a set on over the winter on the KTM to deal with the rain and mucky roads. I am picking up some Distanzas ummmmm tomorrow! Cycle gear is currently having a pretty universal tire sale, for anyone interested.
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Jul 24, 2009 23:33
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Ripoff posted:Plugging vs. Replacing Tubeless Tires http://www.ultraseal.com/Pages/function.html
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Jul 25, 2009 00:26
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Anyone have any experience with either Slime or Dynabeads?
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Jul 25, 2009 02:30
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Retarded Pimp posted:Anyone have any experience with either Slime or Dynabeads? I used tire slime in my 250 once to stop a very slow leak. It was effective enough. It makes a huge, absurd mess if you change your own tires though.
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Jul 27, 2009 22:12
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No love for those of us that go incredible amounts of miles on the interstates and never get too crazy in the corners? I do remember reading a while back on another forum about people that put car tires on their bikes. Met one guy awhile back that actually had a car tire on his rear wheel. These were riders that usually did over 50000 miles a year though, and weren't too fond of replacing tires twice a year. Some had been through several sets too, so it seems pretty safe for those of us that are slab riders. Too bad my wheels aren't big enough.
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Jul 27, 2009 23:21
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ick pik posted:No love for those of us that go incredible amounts of miles on the interstates and never get too crazy in the corners? This doesn't look safe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZKhoFbL7Fo
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Jul 27, 2009 23:25
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ick pik posted:No love for those of us that go incredible amounts of miles on the interstates and never get too crazy in the corners? It's a motorcycle, tires are the 2 very small contact patches keeping you connected and in tune with the road. If you want to increase mileage out of your tires, be gentle on the gas and brakes, and keep your pressures on the high side of the spec that's comfortable for you. You can replace a couple of tires every 10-20k, or you can take the risk of ending up off the side of the road or under a car when you hit the wrong circumstances all at once...
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Jul 27, 2009 23:27
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Simkin posted:That's pretty much all that I ever ran (with the exception of the last set, that was sold to me for a song by my sponsor Thanks for the advice guys I will be sure to watch for the compound when buying them.
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Jul 30, 2009 02:36
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frozenphil posted:This doesn't look safe. Yeah, that tire changes its contact patch all over the silly place, doesn't it? A bit scary when you start thinking about the varying levels of traction as it does that. I don't think I'd run a car tire on a regular bike like that, although I've seen it done. I probably would use car tires on a sidecar rig, though. Car tires on the rear and the sidecar, bike tire on the front.
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Jul 30, 2009 18:16
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EvilDonald posted:Yeah, that tire changes its contact patch all over the silly place, doesn't it? A bit scary when you start thinking about the varying levels of traction as it does that. I don't think I'd run a car tire on a regular bike like that, although I've seen it done. I probably would use car tires on a sidecar rig, though. Car tires on the rear and the sidecar, bike tire on the front. It's one of those videos that you just know the person who made it uses it to show people that it is perfectly safe because the tire is never on the sidewall. Am I crazy for not trusting the IRC tires that came stock on my bike? I haven't felt any reason to be concerned about the tires, but the Internet seems to believe I will die.
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Jul 30, 2009 18:37
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frozenphil posted:Am I crazy for not trusting the IRC tires that came stock on my bike? I haven't felt any reason to be concerned about the tires, but the Internet seems to believe I will die. The internet tends to get very strung out about using anything but the best tires. As long as you ride with the understanding that your tires aren't going to allow you to maximize the cornering and braking performance of your bike, it's probably fine. However, considering that it's your first bike, I'd recommend getting them changed at some point, simply because you (probably) lack the experience to know if they're really bad or not. It's amazing the things that I've seen people pull off on bikes with horrible tires just because they didn't know any better.
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Jul 30, 2009 19:32
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frozenphil posted:Am I crazy for not trusting the IRC tires that came stock on my bike? I haven't felt any reason to be concerned about the tires, but the Internet seems to believe I will die. Thats really going to depend how hard you ride the bike. If you're planning on attacking the twisties at high speeds then you'll probably want to replace them but otherwise I wouldn't bother. I have Cheng Shins on my bike and I have yet to reach the limits on them even with some pretty significant speeds on the corners. Then again my bikes handling setup was designed for tires (1970s bias ply Dunlops) that were probably worse than the Cheng Shins so that may factor into things. 8ender fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Jul 30, 2009 |
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Jul 30, 2009 20:17
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Z3n posted:Sidewall Construction Question regarding this: Doesn't sidewall stiffness have to do more with the plies/material used for a given size/tread style? Isn't it a little to broad of a stroke to say "this brand is a stiff sidewall, these do not" as the same manufacture will greatly change construction qualities based on size and type?
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Jul 30, 2009 21:44
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