TYRE ADVICE

[Lou Girardin]

yeah - I like them too - But I rooted a 218 on the back of the Trophy in one 2-up pass through Wioeka Gorge. Bit of humour doing it but.

The Avons do work well on the heavy bike.

I'm going to test the new Shinkos next. The specifications for the price are very attractive. $334 for the pair - I volunteered to give them a work out. Z rated, I'm keen - I'll post know how they go when the Avons have had the biscuit.

Don't trust them on raised tar or white lines, they're not as grippy as the Euro stuff.

[Lou Girardin]

As pointed out most will never get to 3/4 's of the Tyres limit . If your happy & feel safe with what ya have then stick to them .

Dead bloody right, most people 'over-tyre' their bike because brand X is supposed to be the dogs nuts. Your average quickish rider would be better off on sport-tourers.

[Blackbird]

Dead bloody right, most people 'over-tyre' their bike because brand X is supposed to be the dogs nuts. Your average quickish rider would be better off on sport-tourers.

Totally agree except for the occasions when you really need traction, e.g, when you overcook it in a corner, it's a bit slippery due to it being damp, avoiding an unforeseen hazard etc. Most of the time, I only ride at 60-70% because I want to live to a ripe old age but it's nice to know that when it's really needed, your tyres won't let you down.

In my opinion, these are the times when you REALLY need good tyres, not when you're playing boy racers.

[vifferman]

Dead bloody right, most people 'over-tyre' their bike because brand X is supposed to be the dogs nuts. Your average quickish rider would be better off on sport-tourers.

True. You also have this silly phenomenon related to ego, where to many road riders run their tyres at race pressures (or run race take-offs) because they think they're Rossi.

One thing you've overlooked, Lou, and that is feel and confidence.
I had Shinkos on my VFR750, and they never really misbehaved, but I never felt completely comfortable on them, due to the way they felt.
Same with the earlier Azaros (AV35/36?) - better, but not great.
The AV49/46 combo on the FahrtSturm was good.

But (however) I do agree that good ST tyres are probably good enough for most things, better value for money than the stickiest sports rubber for road riding, and absolutely streets ahead of the best tyres you could buy only a few years ago.

Heh... I was reading this morning about a guy who's switched to car tyres on the rear of his Valkyrie. He gets HEAPS more mileage, they're more reliable (fewer punctures and less delamination etc.), and the only handling quirks are he has to counter-steer all the way through corners, and they tramline / bump-steer more than bike tyres.

[FROSTY:Me]

IMHO--bike tyres are a bit like airline pilots.Most of the time theyre just cruising along having a pretty relaxing time-then for about 30 seconds in a day they earn all that money you paid for em.
The other thing to concider is there isnt any one stop shop situation for tyres.
A guy who goes out and regularly does 20km of motorway before a really good country thrash on his -um-say gixxer750 has different tyre needs to the bloke that commutes to work on his XJ900 -The gixxer guy needs the tyres to get sticky but a slow heat cycle is fine.
The xj guy doesn't need as much grip--but he does need the tyres to start working propperly from the moment he leaves the gate.