Hitcher
25th March 2009, 10:22
After winding off something just over 8,000km of reasonably spirited and enjoyable riding on the Shiver's OEM Qualifiers, my rear went terminally flat about 80km from civilisation (in the form of Gisborne). A slowish and careful ride to a tyre shop ensued.
Motorcycle shops in New Zealand's provincial regions don't do much in the way of tyres for road bikes, as the majority of their business is quads and off-roaders for farmers and recreationalists. This meant that I didn't have much of a smorgasbord from which to choose, and added a few more km touring round the township of Gisborne on a dead-flat rear tyre looking for a dealer with a matching set of something appropriate. I was counting my lucky stars that I wasn't riding an ST1300 with its oddball front and rear tyre selection!
I finally settled on a set of Avon Storms. I had run several sets of these as my tyre of choice on my FJR1300, and Mrs H is on her second set on her Bandit 650.
I had been mulling about what tyres to change to on my return to Wellington as the rear Qualifier probably had about another 1,000km left in it, but the dead flat brought that decision forward by a couple of days.
The 120km ride south from Gisborne to Wairoa atop the new Storms was taken reasonably steadily, given that the tyres were new and the road wet from recent showers in places. But there were sufficient corners able to be taken at a well canted pace to scrub the rear to within a few mm of the edges.
The following day involved traveling southwards down the wonderful SH2 to Napier. This has to be one of New Zealand's better main highways for riding. The traffic was light, apart from the occasional incursion of logging trucks and tourists in campervans. By the time we had reached Napier, the rear Storm was fully scubbed from edge to edge. Road conditions were dry to damp, and we pushed into a brisk 70kmh southerly the whole way.
So what about those Storms?
Marvellous, bloody marvellous! Steering is precise, quick and clean from apex to apex through twisty corners. Grip is prodigiously confidence inspiring -- a Storm's handling is exactly the same be the road dry, wet or merely moist. I had learned this on the FJR, and an 80kg-lighter bike mirrored that experience.
Braking handling is also nice, as the bike doesn't demand to stand up if the front brake is applied through a corner.
The Storm front is a better match for the stock Showas than the Qualifier. Indeed any shimmying through corrugated or rutted corners is now significantly mitigated.
A couple of hundred km down the road, the day was nicely capped off by the return journey over my beloved Rimutaka Hill Road which I cracked through with consummate ease.
On the Hitcher 1-10 scale, if the Qualifiers (which I quite enjoyed) were a 7, the Storms are a 9.
Buy some.
Motorcycle shops in New Zealand's provincial regions don't do much in the way of tyres for road bikes, as the majority of their business is quads and off-roaders for farmers and recreationalists. This meant that I didn't have much of a smorgasbord from which to choose, and added a few more km touring round the township of Gisborne on a dead-flat rear tyre looking for a dealer with a matching set of something appropriate. I was counting my lucky stars that I wasn't riding an ST1300 with its oddball front and rear tyre selection!
I finally settled on a set of Avon Storms. I had run several sets of these as my tyre of choice on my FJR1300, and Mrs H is on her second set on her Bandit 650.
I had been mulling about what tyres to change to on my return to Wellington as the rear Qualifier probably had about another 1,000km left in it, but the dead flat brought that decision forward by a couple of days.
The 120km ride south from Gisborne to Wairoa atop the new Storms was taken reasonably steadily, given that the tyres were new and the road wet from recent showers in places. But there were sufficient corners able to be taken at a well canted pace to scrub the rear to within a few mm of the edges.
The following day involved traveling southwards down the wonderful SH2 to Napier. This has to be one of New Zealand's better main highways for riding. The traffic was light, apart from the occasional incursion of logging trucks and tourists in campervans. By the time we had reached Napier, the rear Storm was fully scubbed from edge to edge. Road conditions were dry to damp, and we pushed into a brisk 70kmh southerly the whole way.
So what about those Storms?
Marvellous, bloody marvellous! Steering is precise, quick and clean from apex to apex through twisty corners. Grip is prodigiously confidence inspiring -- a Storm's handling is exactly the same be the road dry, wet or merely moist. I had learned this on the FJR, and an 80kg-lighter bike mirrored that experience.
Braking handling is also nice, as the bike doesn't demand to stand up if the front brake is applied through a corner.
The Storm front is a better match for the stock Showas than the Qualifier. Indeed any shimmying through corrugated or rutted corners is now significantly mitigated.
A couple of hundred km down the road, the day was nicely capped off by the return journey over my beloved Rimutaka Hill Road which I cracked through with consummate ease.
On the Hitcher 1-10 scale, if the Qualifiers (which I quite enjoyed) were a 7, the Storms are a 9.
Buy some.