Newbie experience on D220 stock tyres

Hope this can be helpful to any newbies on the stock D220s

Someone on here (forgot who sorry) said that the D220s were well suited to the bike and newbies wouldn't know the difference between D220s and "better tyres".

I have to say that that could not be more wrong!

I'm relatively inexperienced and only been riding a few months so I naturally read all the threads on tyres. I decided to persevere so I put the "skittish" handling of my new K6 down to my inexperience and lack of confidence.

However, I thought my ability would improve steadily and I would slowly dial out the slides etc. Wrong! I've put nearly 2K on my bike now and the handling has got no better which made me think it wasn't progress in my ability.

So....I got an experienced mate to ride the bike and his first words were "crap tyres". Everything I explained to him about tiptoeing round bends, roundabouts and slides etc he agreed with.

I went to Strathearn tyres this afternoon and got some stradas fitted. From the very minute I got on it was like a completely new bike. Even running in I am able to lean the bike into bends more, carry more speed (without even trying), my riding is so much smoother and the bike now feels much more stable.

I know there are loads of very experienced riders on here who know their stuff but for newbies like me reading their advice, it can be quite daunting.

I couldn't care less if my strips were wide or not but on the D220s I had 1+ inch strips. As a comparison, the strips on the Stradas afterafter 80 odd miles running are a half as wide and I wasn't even trying!

If there are any newbies like me then I can vouch for the hype about the stock tyres. You CAN tell the difference with new tyres and its HUGE.

Hope this helps.

I would agree with that!

[21QUEST]

Originally Posted by stuartyboy

I'm relatively inexperienced and only been riding a few months so I naturally read all the threads on tyres. I decided to persevere so I put the "skittish" handling of my new K6 down to my inexperience and lack of confidence.

You already have preconceptions about the tyres so from there on you can only lose. Of course there are grippier tyres but the OE tyres IMO are far from crappy.

There are inexperienced and experienced riders who say they are only fit for the bin but we just have to agree to disagree on that.

Not being funny etc and not directed at you but I bet there a few peeps who couldn't keep up with me on their what ever fancy tyres they are running. I'm not that fast(read, I'm s)low and definitely not the most subtle with the throttle. .

I think I've said it before(getting boring now ) down to almost the edge on the front including plenty of trail braking , stoppies blah blah blah

The main thing is that you now have confidence in the tyres you nowhave .

Tyre profile plays a part in the size of chicken strips.

Cheers
Ben

Originally Posted by 21QUEST

You already have preconceptions about the tyres so from there on you can only lose. Of course there are grippier tyres but the OE tyres IMO are far from crappy.

I would agree with that to a certain extent but I did take it into consideration. After a while it was just far too obvious that it wasn't a preconception.

Whatever the reason, you're right. It's much more enjoyable on the bike and that can only be a good thing.