Squirmy front end

[Sizzle Media]

Hi

Over the weekend I went for a blast around some local twisties and for the first time I noticed my front wheel squirming under acceleration around a very long right hand bend. The bars wobbled which caught me off guard a bit. Tyre pressure was fine, the tread is probably on the low side but still legal. The only change that I made was I notched up the preload on the back just to see what difference it would make to the ride, its two stops short of fully loaded (btw what is the default setting on the preload?)

Have I tinkered the preload too much or do you think it might be something else?

As my tyres will need replacing in the next 500 hundred miles, can anyone suggest a decent tire choice for a curvy. Mostly used for sunday fair weather riding around twisty roads.

[dkid]

Putting rear preload back as it was and see if problem goes away would be the first thing I'd try.

[appollo1]

as mentioned try putting the adjustment you made back to how it was and try again to see if it makes any difference.

as for tyres just do a search as there are lots of threads on the subject

[jambo]

As above

As a side note, how old is the oil in your front forks?

[granty92]

ive had my bike a year now and not changed the oil in the forks? would it preferable to get it changed, bike does get used daily

[Sizzle Media]

The fork oil is less than a year old and the machanic put in a firmer oil but its been fine up until now. Ive set the preload back to whats it was an its still squirmy.

As for tyres, ive read so much recently that my brains fried on the topic, I'm at the point where i'm thinking either Pilot Road 2 or 3. I'm currently running PR2's but as its my first bike, first set of tyres - I have nothing to compare against. I read that PR3's a far superior in the wet but i'm not planning on doing any riding in anything other than ideal conditions for 80% of the time.

[Mark_h]

When a front PR2 goes off it's a right bugger to ride. Bike feels like you are constantly driving along the white line in the middle of the road. Any sort of lean and if feels like it wants to chuck you off.

Basically as it wears the softer compound on the sides wears faster than the harder compound in the middle leaving a c2 inch wide raised bit that you ride on in a straight line and effectively fall off of when cornering.

It's really hard to see the squaring but you can feel it. Run your finger across the tread at about 45 degrees. You'll feel a little ridge as you get about a third of the way across if it's gone.

PR3's get awesome press reviews and I recently upgraded from PR2s to PR3s but PR2s are a lot cheaper. If you plan on doing lots of wet weather riding PR3s are probably a good bet if you can afford them else see if you can get a deal on a pair of PR2s.

[Sizzle Media]

I'll check that later today. i did notice the pattern was wearing in a strange way. The tips of the ridges that meet in the centre of the tyre seem to be almost bald whilst the main body of the pattern is still well within legal limits.

[Sizzle Media]

@Grant. Changing the fork oil made a big difference to my bike.

[Bibio]

how many miles are on the bike?

could be a case of the shock has given up the ghost.

[Sizzle Media]

Just clocked 19,500. Seems fine bouncing on the seat :bounce: