these bikes are designed to ride in any weather condition any time of the year. i wouldnt try it on icy roads though lol! i doubt they had that in mind. i know some riders in my area that ride these bikes year round. they change the tires to a different brand for all season riding. i dont recall the brand though. michelin is always a good brand to consider. do you plan on winter riding? if not then i would just go with a good all round street tire.

how deep are you going on those tires in corners? almost sounds like your tires are worn down alot or the road conditions are not the best for what you are doing.

 

I have no doubt the bike motor, suspension will operate int he temperatures I want it to. But its the tires that I'm concerned about. They are the only connection the bike has to the road.

The tires are fairly new as far as I know. And definitely not too worn, passed inspection just a week ago.

As for how deep... I'm pretty timid, so I really don't think I'm doing anything crazy. The turn is uphill, constant radius, crested to the center, so the inside line is almost banked to a small extent. Seems ideal to me. Average asphalt, not really new, not cracked.

 

what is the make and model of your tires? if these tires are completely brand new, you have to take it very very easy on them for the first 200 miles +\- a few miles. the make of the tires is also important especially if he bought race sticky tires and slapped them on there LOL!

 

I've put 1000 very tame miles on them. I'll post up the model when I get off work.

 

Once it's cold you can ride, just back it down quite a bit. I have not seen any tires that grip well on the road once it's cold. It's very common to have the back tire slip out like you said. I just make sure I don't ride aggressively once the temps go down. If you are on a track you can bring your tires up to a decent temp when it's cold, nearly impossible with normal street riding once it's cold. You always see threads at this time of year from guys going down due to cold, slippery tires.

 

Sportier tyres take longer to heat up in colder temps than touring-based tyres. You can still ride them hard once you get them warmed up though.

 

Welcome to GDC mate. Lots of good stuff here and I am sure you will find the answers you seek.

 

I ride on mine pretty hard when its cold. I just drop my tires pressures down to 30 30 and be sure they are fairly heated up before I go deep into corners and progressively start to ride them harder. I do get more tearing when its cold though.

 

sounds like you are pretty cautious, although a good thing, overly cautious will send you sliding down the street pretty quickly.
you can certainly feel the tires slip, just take it easy, smooth throttle, easy braking, you'll feel the tires start to grip as they warm up.

 

here ya go!!

https://www.motomummy.com/store/product.php?productid=17684&cat=260&page=1

 

What you have to be careful of on the street is that as soon as you ride down a several mile long straight road, the heat is flying out of the sides of your tires once the warmers are off. He's in Phila, which means besides the cold temps he has salt & cinders on the road once it's winter. Nothing slicker than your cold tires on cinders & salt. :chucks

 

I have ridden while it was snowing, at a trackday.

They CAN be ridden when it is cold.

But you have to be SMOOTH. Give them ample time to warm up, and dont make any sudden movements.

8minutes down the road is NOT enough time to warm up at a street pace.

 

I need to start worrying about winter tires myself, the weather is getting colder here......it's like 82F during the day and 68F at night....:flipoff



Just kidding, but on the reals, riding in the cold sucks!!!!
did it last year when it got down to the mid 30's here in Orlando, never again!

 

Don't over look your pressures - are they correct ?
The very rough operating temp(which then provides the best grip) for something like a sports tyre is about 60-80 degree's celsius - quick conversion 150 - 190 f. So after you've been for a ride, put a hand on your rear tyre - you will know if they are getting up to temp.
Once you'v ebeen riding a while - you'll feel a tyre start to get to temperature, they feel very different and act very different.

I've got michelin pilot one's(proper track tyres) on my track bike and until they are really warm, they are very, very slippery. To the point that even going wide open in first gear in a straight line will cause the tyre to spin in a dead straight line - on a 600cc...

Si

 

Most newer tires start to work at lower temps and they will give enough traction for streets after 2-3 minutes of riding

Last time I rode it was about 3-5*C outside. Rear slipped under medium acceleration and front slipped during medium decel on a dead straight line. But after 1000m they warm a bit and I get enough grip. Power Pures, 34f/36r for streets

 

The type of tire on there will make an unbelieveable difference, and brand has essential nothing to do with it.

A race grade tire - Dunlop GP-A, for example - will be dangerous on the street, especially as temps drop. These tires need to be HOT and be ridden hard, constantly, to stay hot. They also don't take well to heat cycling.

A 'sport tire' - Dunlop Sportmax/Qualifier/Q2 kinda tire will owrk in the cold, you just have to take a lot of time to warm it up good - half hour plus. Decent street tire, but it'll be slippery when too cold, and it can take a while to warm up, just like any sport tire. You can also get them too hot, like during a track day at a good pace on a warm day, and make them greasy. I've used one of these before, and in cold whether and with less than 2 minutes of riding shot the rear a foot and a half to the side by getting rough on the throttle. My fault, on cold tires, glad I recovered.

A 'sport touring' tire - Dunlop Roadsmart - has sport compound towards the sides, harder street compound down the center. They'll warm up easier/quicker, but still need some time to warm up. They will also get greasy easier if pushed too hard to (legally) be on the street for a while. This is what I'm running right now, and with ~15 minutes calm highway riding at a chilly 45 degrees, they hold pretty damn good. And when starting out while the tires are still really chilly, they are ~1/2-2/3 as slick as 'sport' tires.

So what'cha got on there?:shifty

And remember to be light on the brakes when the front is cold - it'll slip on pavement easy as well, and you can lowside.

 

Agree with ^^^
PS - I used to go to the Bike Auctions - crashed bikes. My business partner can verify that 20% of the bikes that were written off had one or two very new tyres on the bike...it was absolutely amazing.
Si

 

yeah keep watch on your tire pressures when the temps drop down low at night. I checked mine the other day and I Was down to 25 from 32, that was over a 2 month span, Its pretty noticeable difference when u drop down 5-6 psi in the tires. Also like people said in this thread, let those tires warm up well before u hit it hard in the corners. Ive slipped out the back tire a little bit leaving home a few times. makes you jump a little but nothing to freak out about. I like to keep my tires at 31-33 when its cold.

 

You had not checked pressures in two months? :dissapointed


I am not surprised though. It is not uncommon.

Check your pressures every ride folks. It is pretty important :wacko

 

Ok. So apparently I'm totally crazy, I wasn't even close to remembering the tires on this bike.

Front: Bridgestone Battlax 014 @ 30-31 psi cold
Back: Shinko Advance 005 @ 32-34 psi cold

Goofy combo, but they've both got plenty of tread left.

 

They both suck.

 

For street use, both are MORE than adequate.

I took a set of Bt014s to a high advanced trackday pace with very little fuss. They barely even got greasy.
Grip for street use, was plenty when I took them to deals gap, and cherahola, and even did both while two up at knee dragging lean angles and speeds.

Sure, there are better tires made, but for commuting and general street riding that most people do, neither of those tires are bad.

 

Thanks. That is incredibly helpful.

A couple things:

1.) I didn't buy them
2.) Sucks doesn't mean anything, could you back up your claims with some qualitative information? IE: Poor wet cornering, Poor operating temperature range, Spontaneously explodes. Anything productive.

I'll step off my soap box now.

 

Thanks. That is incredibly helpful.

A couple things:

1.) I didn't buy them
2.) Sucks doesn't mean anything, could you back up your claims with some qualitative information? IE: Poor wet cornering, Poor operating temperature range, Spontaneously explodes. Anything productive.

I'll step off my soap box now.

1.) I didn't say you suck. I said they suck, so get the corncob out of your ass.

2.) Shinko, poor wet cornering, poor dry cornering, poor cornering. Get on Ebay and look at Shinko prices. With tires, you get what you pay for, but they are good for dragracing and popular with stunt riders. The battleax if I remember correctly also has a much steeper profile than the shinko, which means they won't work well together. The engineers designed their tire sets to work with eachother, so its typically best to run the same tire or at least namebrand tire front and back unless you have a ton of experience and know that a certain 2 tires will work well together. It won't really matter though if you don't really plan on running the bike hard trying to take corners hard and deep and whatnot though. As far as Battleaxs sucking, I ran some once and they took a while to warm up and even when warmed up, I have had the back spin out on me way more often than comfortable. That better?:dunno

 

^Yes. Thats exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks.

I should have a been more gracious about asking you for that.

 

Tyres are a lot about "feel" - and your starting to see why. If you had a set of matched powers or pirelli's on your bike - it would "feel" better and your personal confidence will get better. You usually run one front tyre to two rears, it's up to you(finances) on where you go from here but personally, i'd be doing a burno out on the shinko, replacing the set. But when you get new tyres - be very, very fucken careful for a few miles.
Si

 

I cant remember if my 1000 came with OEM bt014s or 015s, but they felt better than the commercial 016s that I got to replace them. And then my 3rd set was the q2s. Dunlop wins.

 

Yeah, I'll ride these out until they need replacement. From my car (Evo IX) in AutoX events I've learned tires are everything and expensive doesn't necessarily buy you performance. Came with $300/tire Yokohamas, great turn in, stiff sidewalls, heinous in the cold. Bad grip falloff and easy to roast in the summer and turn greasy. Replaced with Dunlop Starr Specs $130/tire and they don't quite have the turn in, but the grip is far more predictable and linear and handle heat cycling extremely well. So long story short, I'm not a tire snob.

But I've noticed that it seems like the previous owner put tire black or something on the edge, feels greasy, leaves a residue on my fingers. On the warmer day I was working heat into the tires and there is a rainbowish type discoloration near the grease edge, like you would from oil in water. Can I just scrub it with some grease-cutting dish soap?

 

But I've noticed that it seems like the previous owner put tire black or something on the edge, feels greasy, leaves a residue on my fingers. On the warmer day I was working heat into the tires and there is a rainbowish type discoloration near the grease edge, like you would from oil in water. Can I just scrub it with some grease-cutting dish soap?

:scratch:dunnoGive it a shot. I wouldn't know what else to do with that..lol.