Respecting/disrepespecting your rear tyre

[Instigator]

Got a new rear last week. Have had the bike about 4 months and done 4 - 5k kms in that time. I was pretty sure when I bought it there was plenty of tread left Had Dunlop I think previously, got a Pirelli Sport Demon and fuck me what a change. First time I did the weavy side to side thing I nearly dropped it cause the cunt changed direction so quickly Looking at my old tyre it was kind of /-\ shaped.

I may of done a small burnout or two and bulk wheelies on the old tyre but wasn't expecting to need a new one already.

So what do I need to do/not do to take care of my new rear and how many kms roughly do you guys get out of them? By the time I need another I'm hoping to have a set of dirt rims so will get something more road/sports oriented (pilot powers are good?)

[SLO78U]

2k out of pilot powers on my old bike.

Depends on how you ride.

[rorz]

Yep, all depends how you ride. My best/worst is starting a ride day with a brand new Pirelli Supercorsa and needing a replacement just after lunch.

Rolling on the throttle smoothly off the turns rather than slamming it open helps a lot but if you are pushing hard, you're going to wear the tyres quickly regardless.

Pilot Power's are okay for a street tyre but there would be better options out there.





I'm not sure which of these come in tard sizes but I'd be looking at:








Where it says Supercorsa SP in the ad there, that is the street compound. You want the same tyre in SC1 front (soft) and SC2 rear (med) which should last a bit longer for you. They stick like glue.


These are very good also:


Dunlop D211 GPA:




Metzeler Racetec's:

[Kyle]

Struggling to find any sort of confidence with the contis on the duke so watching this thread with great interest

[rorz]

Struggling to find any sort of confidence with the contis on the duke so watching this thread with great interest

Ditch them mate, new tyres are a lot cheaper than a stack. What pressures are you running?

For street only, I'd probably be looking at Dunlop Q2's (should be able to get a pair for $399 fitted locally) or if you want to spend a little more for extra grip at the expense of longevity get a set of Supercorsas (tits).

What pressures are you running the Conti's at?

[Sketchy]

Can attest to the Pirelli's sticking like glue but fuck they feel awful cold, like a lump of wood on the front end. much preferred the Michelin Pilot Power Pure and surprisingly the factory Dunlops on the RC8R. Dunlops tend to feel a bit squidgy when really warm though IMHO, but that could be tyre pressure because i'm a slack cunt and havent checked it in 4000kms

[EVOSTi]

What bike is it?

I got 6K out of my factory fitted battle axes (Bridgestone) on a 600. They still had decent tread left when I ditched them too. No burnouts, wheelies or track days just weekend fanging.
Got Pirelli Diablo Rosso's on there now and they are much better. Way more grip than the Bridgestones although the back can move around a bit when cold. Have done 3 track days and probably less than 1000 road K's and they still look mint, so wear is good.

[Fraud]

saw thread title after clicking "new posts", didn't see it was in the bikes section, assumed it'd be a thread about VN Commodores. Carry on.

[Kyle]

Ditch them mate, new tyres are a lot cheaper than a stack. What pressures are you running?

For street only, I'd probably be looking at Dunlop Q2's (should be able to get a pair for $399 fitted locally) or if you want to spend a little more for extra grip at the expense of longevity get a set of Supercorsas (tits).

What pressures are you running the Conti's at?

35 front, 37 rear.. OEM say 34+36.


I need a tyre that's good in all conditions as I do a bit of wet weather riding.

These are the contis that are on it, they're only about 3000k's old : http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/p/...otorcycle-Tire

Have been thinking maybe pilot road 3's.. anyone tried them?

[Spoonfed]

+1 for 211's, use to run race take offs on the street and strip, great tyre.

[matlennon]

I got a pair of pilot road 2ct on the z1000 and its a good compromise between grip and durability. I would go so far as to say tyre pressure can cause more issues with feedback/confidence than quality of tyres (to a certain extent).

edit: i ride rain/hail/shine/flood and never had an issue.

[rorz]

Can attest to the Pirelli's sticking like glue but fuck they feel awful cold, like a lump of wood on the front end. much preferred the Michelin Pilot Power Pure and surprisingly the factory Dunlops on the RC8R. Dunlops tend to feel a bit squidgy when really warm though IMHO, but that could be tyre pressure because i'm a slack cunt and havent checked it in 4000kms

I don't find the Pirelli's too bad from cold. They don't have the same feel as they do when warm but I can still get knee down on the first lap without using warmers. Which Dunlops did you have? I found the Q2's pretty good for a street tyre, more than up to ride days. The Michelin Pilot's seem a little hard for the track, never used the Pure's though.

35 front, 37 rear.. OEM say 34+36.


I need a tyre that's good in all conditions as I do a bit of wet weather riding.

These are the contis that are on it, they're only about 3000k's old : http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/p/...otorcycle-Tire

Have been thinking maybe pilot road 3's.. anyone tried them?

Pressure sounds spot on, I normally run 36/36 on the street. Those Conti's look shit mate.

I reckon Q2's are what you want. Heaps more grip and better feel than what you have, good in the wet, will last a fair while and they're well priced. A sport touring tyre will last slightly longer but the Q2's are cheap and you'll still get plenty of km's out of them.


http://www.jakewilson.com/p/52/-/344...otorcycle-Tire

[Kyle]

I'll order the shit outta them next week I think

[Et!]

I managed a 1:10 (GPS) round lakeside on Q2s on a VFR400, they are a pretty bloody good tyre.

[rorz]

I'll order the shit outta them next week I think

Do a ring around of your local bike/tyre shops before you ordered them online. A lot of places are doing them for $399 fitted which is probably cheaper than getting then from OS when you include the price of fitting etc. If they are still trying to charge more than that, tell them you can get them for $399 fitted and ask if they'll match it. If no danish, then import them.

I managed a 1:10 (GPS) round lakeside on Q2s on a VFR400, they are a pretty bloody good tyre.

For a street tyre they certainly punch above their weight on the track. I don't think they're quite on par with Supercorsa SP's but they're cheaper, last longer and have better wet weather grip.

[Et!]

Im going supercorsa SC1 front and SC2 for the next race meet, can get the for $450 fitted through the contingency program.

[rorz]

You'll love them. The Q2's are good but on the track I found the rear would spin up if you tried to wind too much throttle in too early. With a fresh set of Supercorsa's you can roll on an absurd amount of throttle and it doesn't spin at all, just clean drive. Do you have warmers? I normally set them at 33-34 front, 27-28 rear hot- so on the warmers at full temp. What size wheel do you have on the rear and what size tyre are you going with? My GSXR-750 has a 5.5" rear wheel the same as a 600 (1000 has a 6.0" rear wheel) so should really run a 180 rear but I tried a 180 and 190 (a friend told me to try it out, he runs a 190 on a 5.5") back to back at Phillip Island and was 2 seconds a lap faster on the 190?

I'd look at going up a size to what you would normally order if you have clearance to your swingarm/chain etc. When fitted to the smaller rim, the bigger tyre gives it more profile at a sharper angle which puts more rubber on the road at high lean and also raises the rear ride height which improves turn in. I thought I'd have to lower the rear ride height when swapping to the 190 as the gain in rear height is quite a bit (IIRC 20-odd mm) but I left it as is and it felt really good. Faster turn in without losing stability. With the 400 you might be able to get away with an SC1 rear with the 60 profile (SC2 is 55) which is an amazing tyre, grip is insane... I just couldn't get it to last on the 750.

[theblacktexta]

I dont know if they still sell them but I ran P Zero's on several of my bikes - my favourite by far but in soft compound they never lasted too long. The other thing I did for a couple of years was hooked up with a local Superbike racer who sold me his race tyres for $50 a set which always still had ~30-40% tread on them - sometimes more. They only lasted a couple thou kays but at $50 a throw it was good times for top of the range soft tyres and they were already profiled nicely.

[psssi98]

I run a Pilot Pure front and a Power 2CT rear - I got about 2500km's out of my last front tyre . That was with a weekend ride for about an hour every Sunday and I commute on my bike daily.

STG has Pure sets for $279 if you run a 190 rear or $249 for a 180 plus they are usually $70 or so shipping - http://stores.sportbiketrackgear.com/Detail.bok?no=8412

[Kyle]

http://www.jakewilson.com/p/52/-/344/751/-/26870/Dunlop-Sportmax-Q2-Front-Motorcycle-Tire[/URL]

Cancel that, Just checked the pressures, front had 21, rear had 26... Fuck me drunk!

Set both to 36. Only had a quick squirt across town and back, feels better. Still getting new rubber but

[psssi98]

Fark I run 38 front, 42 rear.

[Jay_G]

Fark I run 38 front, 42 rear.

Fucking hell, that thing would light the rear up all over the plce in the wet wouldnt it with those pressures? 32 front 34 rear on CBR 900RR

[rorz]

42 rear is quite popular, whenever I get a new tyre fitted at a bike shop they always seem to put 42 in the rear. I always ride straight to the servo and drop it down to 35-36 for the street. 42 feels too hard for me but my suspension is set fairly hard too. I have preload, compression and rebound maxed at the front of the Daytona and pretty much the same at the rear, I think 1 click from full hard on comp and rebound.

32 front seems fairly low for the street, what tyres are you running? You'd have to be riding like a cunt to keep the front hot enough to be at a good pressure on the street. It's all personal preference though, if it feels good to you it probably is. I know one of the BSB lads runs 40 psi hot in a Supercora at the front?? Everybody I talk to runs 33-34 but he still races at the front of BSB so it obviously works for him. Have been meaning to give it a try but I'm afraid of tucking the front at the first corner!! Different tyres are different too, I know you can run the Dunlop Ntec's crazy low on the track- I've heard 17-19psi rear hot.

[psssi98]

Lighting up the rear or not should be right hand dependent not tyre pressure. I have my bike set up pretty firm as well but no don't have an issue and I ride every day in every kind of weather. Yeh you can spin it up if you want but it's a 1000cc sportsbike so it's not that hard to do if you really want to.

[Instigator]

OK so went for a good ride on Saturday and have a question for the PF biker collective before I take it back to the shop and get them to check/test ride it.

I don't know if it's even related but I noticed some head shake for the first time @130km during some private road testing. Is this normal and was masked before with the old squared off rear or is there something loose/not right that I need to check?

[Jay_G]

Upped the pressures 900 to 36-38 today and rode like a bit of a prat on the way to work to test it out, makes it nicer to tip in but i will wait and see next time it is wet, i am a bit tentative these days after stepping the back out merging once at 100 in the wet (fuggin white line)

[rorz]

OK so went for a good ride on Saturday and have a question for the PF biker collective before I take it back to the shop and get them to check/test ride it.

I don't know if it's even related but I noticed some head shake for the first time @130km during some private road testing. Is this normal and was masked before with the old squared off rear or is there something loose/not right that I need to check?

Head shake and it's mate tank slap can be caused by a heap of different things. It is more likely to occur when you have raised the rear or lowered the front. This increases how quickly the bike will turn in although it also reduces stability. Head shake isn't necessarily a "bad" thing as long as it doesn't feel out of control or like it's going to progress into a full blown tank slapper. One of my mates actually sets his bike up so it head shakes quite a lot as he likes it to turn in really fast. In comparison I have my bike setup fairly neutral as I prefer it to be stable in high speed turns and don't mind muscling it through the slower ones. That said, I do still get head shake when pushing hard at the track. It happens when I'm rolling on a lot of throttle out of the turns which makes the front wheel hover just off the ground in a little power wheelie. When that is happening it will often give the bars a playful little wiggle- especially when changing from 2nd to 3rd or 3rd to 4th because the front wheel will come down during the split second the throttle is closed to change gear. When it comes down the front wheel isn't perfectly straight to the direction of travel so it'll try to correct itself but when it does this it "over corrects" by going past dead centre. This is what gets a slapper started as it keeps going past dead centre repeating on the other side which gives you that side to side motion. Anyway, it's only on the ground for a split second but that's enough to get it to start to shake then a millisecond later I'll slam the throttle back wide open (having changed gear), the front will lift again and the shake will subside.

There are a couple reason why it subsides.

A) loose grip on the bars- this is uber important. I know it's easy to say "Yeah, just keep relaxed and grip the bars nice and gentle" while it's slapping like a mad cunt but that's what you have to do. Death grip on the bars can turn a mild, almost enjoyable little head shake into a big nasty slapper.

B) steering damper- basically a shock absorber for your bars. You'll know straight away if your bike has one because you can feel resistance when moving the bars from side to side. I just run the OEM one on the GSXR but you can buy aftermarket ones that are fully adjustable (OEM only has one setting). I've never bothered as I don't find head shake to be a major problem. My ER6N has no steering damper at all and while it does feel a little flighty and does get some headshake I don't find it a problem (although it might be more of a problem if it had more power).

C) on the back wheel- with the bike on the back wheel the problem of the pendulum over-correction affect from having the front wheel coming down off centre has been removed as the front wheel is no longer on the ground. With the cause now gone, it's just a matter of keeping a loose grip on the bars, staying calm, looking where you want to go and riding it out.


That's how it works on sportbikes, as I've mentioned before I know pretty much nothing about motards so other than what's above I can't really help you out.

[Instigator]

Thanks heaps for the detailed reply Rorz, exactly what I was looking for, if you're ever in Penrith my shout for beer & a feed

Yeah I played around with it a bit when I noticed it and could easily start/stop it happening through the bars. I get what you mean about almost enjoyable, other than freaking out that something was wrong initially I did it a few times on the way home just for fun. Pretty confident it's normal and was just hidden by my old rear. There's a youtube guy that makes lots of videos on his DRZSM that reckons the steering dampner was the best mod he's done so might look into that, would have to pull it off for dirt duties though yeah?

[rorz]

No problem mate.

Not sure about taking it off for the dirt, don't see why you couldn't leave it on. Just adjust it to minimum damping if it's cramping your style.

[psssi98]

Yeh I know guys that leave them on in the dirt but wind it right back as Rorz says so it's not making it harder to turn. You'll be going slower in the dirt and losing traction so won't need it for shake (unless you are fucking awesomely fast on dirt in which case you'd be good enough to not need one anyway)