Tyres...argh, sticky this sticky that :( ;)

[21QUEST]

Rant coming up

Not entirely a serious thread mind but just had a thought regards tyres been classed as rubbish. Talking road here.

I've recently been riding on a tyre which universally is agreed to be crap and really haven't had mcuh of an issue with it.

Either I'm as smooth as a smooth thing or folks are just too cack handed etc and are just passing the buck onto the tire. The thing in all honesty is that I don't even class myself as that smooth a rider.

To be honest, I'm not that good but I can't help but sometimes think "what am I doing wrong....." . I understand you have to be confident in your tyres but the way we would sometimes speak about certain tyres, one would think they are made of marble.

Have bikers turned into a bunch of tyre worshipping wotsits and all problems is the fault of the tyre and not the pilot. No one interested in gain "feel" anymore .

One of my personal dislikes is new riders being negatives thoughts about with regards to suspension or tyres. They've only been on a bike a day and already their heads get filled with negatives. Yeah, I blame the internet


okkkk...I know I'm crap at rants

Loved this post from Lozzo and I'm not even that old. Hehe, just jesting mate

I've fitted Pilot Road 2s to my Daytona because I've never had any trouble with good quality sports/touring tyres sliding or lacking grip. In my opinion, tales about tyres being crap and lacking grip are only told by bloody good racers, the hamfisted who can't ride, or bar-room heroes who want to look flash - I believe the former, and laugh at the latter two. Average riders like myself don't notice the difference.

Ben

Take the standard Dunlops fitted to the pointy when I bought it (220's) and a novice road rider who's used to off road riding (that'd be me then).

Add a couple of thousand miles for the engine to wear in properly on the brand new bike, I think it was around the 4-5k miles mark. I was already pushing the bike so hard that the tyres were loosing grip & sliding. I felt like I could push the bike harder, but the limiting factor was grip (or rather lack thereof).

Yes, you could argue that after 5000miles the wear on the tyres would be affecting grip, and brand new 220's might not do that, but I wanted something that would last longer. So I stuck on Z6's.

Yes, I've got to the point where I can slide on the Z6's (even on freshly scrubbed in tyres), but that's quite a bit further than sliding on the 220's.

IMO, tyres are a definite factor in how hard you can push the bike, and some tyres give before others. On the SV, the comparison is a lot closer, and I suspect that many wouldn't even notice. I remember Petevtwin650 commenting that he doesn't think he'd feel the front of his curvy starting to slide, and the man has covered many more miles than I have, yet I can feel it starting to go. I didn't notice it on the 220's, but I'm putting that down to me being a novice. I have been able to feel it on every Z6 I've had fitted to the bike.

On more powerful bikes, the difference in tyres, on the road (I haven't ridden anything but the SV on a track) is more noticable.

[SoulKiss]

A wise man once said that with the state of the art in modern tyre manufacture, ALL tyres that you can buy (from reputable manufacturers) are excellent.

The D220's are more than up to the job of keeping the SV on the road (unless you are me :P)

However when its time to change, there are better tyres available for the same money.

[Red ones]

[quote=Baph;1200523] I was already pushing the bike so hard that the tyres were loosing grip & sliding. I felt like I could push the bike harder, but the limiting factor was grip (or rather lack thereof).

/quote]


Or looked at from a different angle - You couldn't push harder as the tyres were the limiting factor. Tyres should always be the limiting factor - suspension, power etc should ALWAYS be more capable. The problem with tyres is that they rely on the road surface for grip and the road surface is notoriously inconsistent.

Interesting post.

Reminds me of a long term member of this forum telling me I'd never be able to ride my ninja as it was intended (i.e. at all quickly) on the road once I switched from sports to sports touring tyres.

Quite frankly on the road I hardly notice the difference between tyres.

[dirtydog]

Originally Posted by 21QUEST

folks are just too cack handed etc Ben

Hey when have you seen me ride???


lol




I gte what you're saying but people prefer some tyres to others.i had a set of Z4s on my Sv and i hated them, didn't give me much feel and made the bike harder to turn and had the back end stepping out all over the place in the wet felt the same about the Avon azzaro ST's but agiun it's down to to peoples riding style, i'm rather aggressive with the throttle and can destroy a rear BT020 in about 4/5 k

Originally Posted by Red ones

Or looked at from a different angle - You couldn't push harder as the tyres were the limiting factor. Tyres should always be the limiting factor - suspension, power etc should ALWAYS be more capable. The problem with tyres is that they rely on the road surface for grip and the road surface is notoriously inconsistent.

Hmmm. That's a meaningless paragraph. How can suspension and power be 'more capable'?

Suspension and tyres both work together to produce grip, so untill suspension can follow the roads surface pefectly without transmitting any bumps yet remaining firm it will always be a limiting factor as much as tyres are.

[Stu]

Ben, I notice you intentionally didn't mention the tyre, are we talking worse than 220's?
I think you can use & enjoy a bike with something like 220's & personally wouldn't pay to get them changed if they had life in them. But when changing them, why not get the best available (limited obviously to sports touring) just as Lozzo above getting PR2's

Worse still you just hear people reciting jurno tripe on the latest flavour as dogma!!

I run all sorts of rubbish on my bike and its all good, I’d like to think that I can determine available grip levels and just ride accordingly.

The only thing I didn't like was the 70 section front ... but that wasn't 'grip' just that I had to 'correct' the steering at slow speeds as the front kept wanting to 'fall in' ... which was most irritating ...

Oh and I’d safely agree with an above statement - any modern tyre as long as it is up to its working temperature will offer as much grip as needed for road riding … and I am even talking about the 170 section remould I have on the rear of mine at the mo! .. oh and I have an 020 on the front … yep, I just don’t care ... put any old rubbish (as long as it is free or cheap ) on there and I'd ride it!!

I've just got big Cojones, you bunch of nancies.