Knee down at Paremata Roundabout

[trumpy]

D208f's. I think I will give some Conti Sport Attacks a go. The guy I was riding with today reckoned I need Pirellis cos they speak Italian. Smartarse, but he might be right.

Go for Pilot Powers, made a vast improvement on my bike (...although its not quite as solubrious as yours so it probably needed more help!). I tried the Contis and was not hugely impressed, although mine were Road Attacks and the Sports might be a lot better.

[Paul in NZ]

You may find you need to adjust your tyre pressures to get them up to heat onver the cold weather. It's not such a problem on my old bikes with skinny cartwheels but I use the 10% rule. ie, tyre pressure should be around 10% higher HOT than cold... Maybe lower your pressure a little to let em heat up quicker? I'm sure one of the racer types will know the good oil???

[madmal64]

Go for Pilot Powers, made a vast improvement on my bike (...although its not quite as solubrious as yours so it probably needed more help!). I tried the Contis and was not hugely impressed, although mine were Road Attacks and the Sports might be a lot better.

Got Pilot Powers on my Aprilia. Bloody good tyre for stickyness & heat up. Crap for distance.
Im another that will be trying Conti Attacks for the next set. They have been recommended to me by another Aprilia rider.
Be interested to see what ya think of the Clive

[roogazza]

I noticed you were quite restrained coming back over the Kaitokis ! and noticed your mirror missing, but didn't put two and two together. Your mate on the TL wasn't as restrained though, was he ? Explain to him what those solid yellow lines are !!! If its any consolation I don't think any tyres were gripping today or suspension working for that matter ? cheers G.

[sugilite:Me]

How many km's had you completed before your woopsie?
Was the road wet/damp?
When you entered the round about, do you kind of squirt across the 1st part before tipping in?

That roundabout would be one of the slipperiest I know as 3 gas stations are situated around it, so every loser cager that overfills their car, leaves cap off or what ever and a truck or two doing the same makes for a slippery time on that one.

My feeling is another brand type tyre will hardly make a difference to prevent that type of crash, though will be interested to hear the answer to above questions.

[trumpy]

Got Pilot Powers on my Aprilia. Bloody good tyre for stickyness & heat up. Crap for distance.
Im another that will be trying Conti Attacks for the next set. They have been recommended to me by another Aprilia rider.
Be interested to see what ya think of the Clive

Mileage on the Powers seems to be OK but I'm riding a 600 and I wobble about much slower than you guys ride so that probably helps. True enough about the stickyness and quick warmup tho'.

[Shadows]

Woohoo! Got my knee down at Paremata roundabout today...and my hip, shoulder and elbow. Dropped my bike in a suprise low-side. Not braking, not accelerating, just picking a nice line round. No aggression, just trying to be smooth.

If it makes you feel any better I did the exact same thing in the exact same place a while ago.
Like "wha...." and before I could say "....t the fuck?" I was sliding down the road behind the bike.
I was wearing jeans at the time, but as luck should have it the road was so perfectly greased I didn't even lose any skin!

[diggydog]

Ahh crap. You're not the first person to get into issues there. Wouldn't suprise me if the surface had been pre-lubricated.

Take it easy, and let us know if there's anything we can do.

As for the cosmetic damage, that just gives you more streetfighter cred.

sorry to hear about your bin,this is where i'm very cautious of round abouts as it's area you ca'nt see wheather any diesel or other substance is spilt by then it's probable to late.

[Clivoris]

I noticed you were quite restrained coming back over the Kaitokis ! and noticed your mirror missing, but didn't put two and two together. Your mate on the TL wasn't as restrained though, was he ? Explain to him what those solid yellow lines are !!! If its any consolation I don't think any tyres were gripping today or suspension working for that matter ? cheers G.

I had a quiet word with him when we got back. He didn't seem to think there was that much risk involved.
In response to other posts on here:
My Bike has done around 8,000km and I am guessing that they are the original tyres (Japanese import). O.k. tread but getting low on either side midway between centre and edge of tyre. I've been talking about changing them but didn't get round to it. Lesson learnt.
Prior to getting a work car I was doing around 25,000 km a year for the last 3 years on an FZR 750 and then SV1000s. Riding all weather and road conditions, but never on tired Dunlops. I'm used to getting a little bit of warning before things let go completely and I don't think I was riding any differently than I normally would today. That means scanning the road surface then looking through to my exit. I don't remember seeing anything on the road surface to be concerned about. I might have missed something. Lesson learnt.
I rode around 10 km's before the roundabout, a mix of corners, two roundabouts and the usual braking and acceleration. I thought my tyres had a bit of heat in them. Lesson learnt.
After a couple of bevvies and a quiet think; my best guess is that road surface, tyre condition and type, and the road and tyre temperature probably all played a part. The lesson could have been so much more expensive, so I don't feel too bad about it.
Thanks to you all for your feed-back and support. It's real helpful and keeps me thinking.

[muzz]

I have Pilot Powers on the duc and they are a good tyre they hold on real well and heat up quickly and have Conti attack on the Trump and find them good also. Looks like the Conti will ware better than the pilots.
And sad to here about the bin.

[Fryin Finn]

I read somewhere that these flash, soft and sticky tyres dont work as good when they're cold as the supposedly harder tourer type tyres due to the narrower operating heat range of the racier tyres.
I reckon these slower roundabouts get slippery due to the high numbers of slow moving traffic on them polishing the road seal rather than leaving a little rubber at higher speeds. I dropped my TRX at the Haywards junction to SH2 - the road was bone dry and I could hardly stand up in the corner it was so slippery.
A high side would have been the safer crashing option as you would have been flipped further onto the side of the road.
Glad you're OK and the bike didn't suffer too much though.

[sAsLEX]

damn that sux.. hope you're back on it in no time, and that you always remember to warm your tires first..

was wondering how hard it would be to impregnate some small very thin heating wires in to a tire and then have a small inductive warming circuit set up so you can "warm" your tires before heading off

[Sparky Bills]

Bugger mate!!
Glad to hear the bike (and you) is reletivley ok.

Take it easy.

[Mooch]

Having seen everything from an old gesser in a Jag xj , to wrx's , courier van and a bus loose it on that round-about over the years I'd say you hit diesel like the rest of them. I really don't think it would of made any difference on any brand. Sorry you ended up dropping it.

I found the 208's 208 gp's fine and if anything like a Diablo or Corsa would have had you dropping it quicker on the roundabout.

[Clivoris]

My mate has a Duke S4r with Pilot Powers and he swears by them. He's been around the traps for a while and knows what works. I had a look at the roundabout this evening after the traffic had slowed down and it is pretty mucky. Cold tyre pressures on the day were 35psi front and 40psi rear. Sorting out my insurance claims today and things are going smoothly so far. It looks like it might be worth claiming after all. Lots of little Italian bits that get real expensive when you add them together. Sawyers are on the job and I've even scored a loaner while they do the assessment. Barry has lent me a VT750 Shadow. My biggest worry is that I'll like it and have to change my lifestyle Bastard did it deliberately.