Rear tyre questions.

im a first time sv owner and love the bike! however i recently put on new brisgestone bt-016's love the grip..however ive noticed that getting the tyer all the way over is near impossible...something i had no problem with my speed triple....i also noticed that my friend who owns an gsxr 600 with the same rubber (yes i know its a 180 rear and i have a 160) anyway the provile on the 180 was much more like a michellen pilot power, creating a much larger contact patch when leaned over....i came to the thought that my rear wheel is 4.5 inches rather then a 5 inch wheel and that although the tyer fits it is being pinched and distorting the profile of the tyer....anyone out there have good solid advice on what to do???...i really want to fix this problem i do alot of track days and need more contact.......thanks in advance

[johnnyrod]

If you've got the right size tyre, believe me you can grind the pegs but still have chicken strips. Doesn't mean it's a tyre problem, at least you're not running right off the edge of it.

I suppose if you wanted more contact patch (right size tyre fitted) you could try it with maybe 1 or 2 psi less in it?

thans for the responses so far....anyone know if a pilot power fitted has the same profile as that of a 180??

[jambo]

The tyre on an Sv is a 160/60, the GSXR is a 180/55 unless he's running some unusual rubber. The 180 tyre is wider and flatter (55% of it's width tall Vs 60%). If you want a 180 section's profile you can get a Bandit 1200 wheel or some others in there if it's a curvy (99-02) I forget what fits a pointy (2003+). This lets you fit a 180/55 tyre.

In all honesty, it's more of a percieved problem than an actual one. You can scrape the pegs on road tyres on the SV, still have a little bit of chicken strip on the rear. I can't see that as a bad thing myself.

If you wanted a tyre that looked less pinched you'd be looking for a 150 tyre, but that's more likely to limit your choice of rubber and I've got no idea whether anyone's tried it. I doubt it would give you more grip in any case.

Jambo.

[johnnyrod]

Seriously RVM I think you're wasting your time. I'm not really clear what the problem is - that you have chicken strips or that the grip is crap? I've used BT014s and Pirelli Diablos and you can lay everything on the ground - I don't ned any more than that! I've got a decent back shock and there's a lot of ground clearance, so it's not simply that it's wallowing down to the tarmac and decking out. If that wasn't enough, my mate uses Diablos with a ZX6 shock (hardly an optimal set-up) and he leaves me for dead, so there is a lot more grip in there than I'm using (he used to do it on the stock shock to TBH, *******).

cool again thanks for all the feed back...for the record i have an ohlins rear and traxion dynamics front internals...so the pegs are not scraping..however i am draggin my knee....and the front tyer has only 3mm left of a chicken strip....honestly i love the bike..handles great...i just would love to have more contact patch on the rear...im not opposed to putting a 180 on the rear but i am reluctant to do so...i dont wanna upset the good handling i have...and i dont want to have to go through all kinds of extra modifications to make the wheel fit...thanks for all the good input....this site is way better then svrider.com

[jambo]

I would agree with johnnyrod.

You're not sliding the rear or running out of grip, you have the maximum contact patch possible as you're not running off the edge of the tyre. Frankly it all sounds like it's setup very nicely.

Fussing about the fact the tyre is smaller than a GSXR's is fine if you want a discussion down the pub, but in practical terms you're trying to fix a problem you don't have. The minitwins boys run stupidly fast times with standard wheels & tyre sizes (albeit with comedy rubber).

Jambo

Just lean it over more, then you'll use more of the tyre. You're going to have less grip at high lean angles because no matter what you do the tyre is going to have less contact patch at max lean. If it's a problem when the tyre is hot, drop a couple of PSI from the tyre as mentioned by vardypeeps, but, first, I'd make sure the suspension is set up right.

scraping the pegs aint so bad - tis why they call hero blobs "bank angle sensors"