Have an unbelievable difference between makes. I recently put on a pair of Pirelli Super Corsa III's and the bike (Zed thou) was "Ok", but not "right" IYKWIM. It had a propensity to drop into bends with no provocation (nice) but it required a really steady pair of hands on the bars to maintain a smooth run through the rest of the bend coz it wanted to keep on dropping (not nice). It was impossible to trail brake when cornering and there was absolutely *no* chance of getting on the brakes half way through a corner. I had the thought that it was either me or the bike was "bent" in the crash and had a couple of folk HAGM to see if they felt the same as me but both the guys came back with a resounding "I can't feel own wrong". Anyroad, I decided to ditch the fucking things and slap on Bridgestone's again (014's like the bike originally had). I've got my bike back. Yay me. I intended being out for half an hour (get the tyres changed and get back home) but I was bimbling about for the whole afternoon. **** pissing about with cars on a day like this -- Beav VN 750 Zed 1000 OMF# 19
I had both tyres changed on Sat for BT016's. So far, so good, fairly decent riding. Surprised to see you had 014's. I've always liked Bridgestones and am sure that I won't be disappointed. Can't remember what I had before mind.
I was tempted with the 016's, but after the disaster that was the Sliperelli's, I decided to go for what I knew and what was on the bike when I bought it. When you've given yours a good doin', let me know how they are would you? -- Beav VN 750 Zed 1000 OMF# 19
The current VFR has a fairly recent set of Pirellis Diablo Stradas on it. It seems to grip and brake ok compared to the last two, one of which was on BT020s and the other which was on Conti Road Attacks. However, handling wise it doesn't feel right to me at all - the other two VFRs didn't feel like the front end was trying to turn in more than you're asking it to like this one does, and this in turn then feels like it needs more effort to get things upright again as you put the power on out of bends when you've laid it right over etc. The other two had a tendency to feel a lot more neutral in this respect and it suited my riding style better, so given everything appears to be in the right ballpark suspension wise on this one, I shall be looking to put a set of Contis or Bridgestones on it when the time comes to replace the tyres.
Yeah, but I also found the straight line stability wasn't as good as it could be. The Zed was more than happy to shake its head with very little provocation and that didn't make me smile. *Ding*. Exactly the feeling I was getting. Very disconcerting when you're used to pretty neutral handling. The Pirelli's just gave me no confidence at all. So much so that the bike's hardly been used this winter which isn't the usual case. I had a set of Conti Sport Attack's on a couple of years ago and they were really good *when* they were well warmed up. Absolutely shite when they were cold though and they took too long to get warm, so I won't be using Sport Attack's again. My brother favours the Road Attacks for his B12 and B6 but I don't get on with Bandits and I don't know if the Road Attack's warm up quicker than the Sport Attack's (probably), so I can't say how they feel or how quickly the get grippy. The Bridgestone's just work well for me, the bike and my style of riding. -- Beav VN 750 Zed 1000 OMF# 19
Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Beav That's not really going to tell you much about how they perform on a full-power bike though, is it?
Do you really think, that _if_ I had derestricted my bike, that I'd announce it on a public forum when people like Des lurk around?
Really? The common sense approach would have to have claimed you were riding slowly so Adie could keep up but obviously there was another reason.
Is Cab's a neutred bike? Mind you, it probably isn't a massive gap as the Zed only punts out about 120ish bhp. Not that I'm too bothered about maximum grip at maximum power or the extremes of the bikes "envelope", as it's the handling where my objection to the Pirelli's lie. -- Beav VN 750 Zed 1000 OMF# 19
Not found this to be honest... but then the VFRs tend to be quite placid in this respect at the best of times, so that probably has a bearing on it. Not found that at all tbh... but bloody glad I didn't have a set of these on my R6 if this is what they do to a bike, as that was twitchy enough as it is, at times. Surprising how much difference a set of tyres can make, eh...
I don't know if R6's are prone to shaking their heads, but Kwaker certainly are and although I've had one or two on the Bridgestones, I put that down to being a clumsy ****. With the Pirelli's though it was a different ball game altogether. It's shake its head for no good reason if I was accelerating much more than half heartedly. Well it took me by surprise I can tell you. I had to ask a couple of blokes to try my bike and usually it's *me* doing the trying of other folk's bikes. I've had Avon, Conti, Bridgestone and Pirelli on the Zed and not one of the others gave me the feeling that the front of then bike was going to slip out from under, but the Pirelli's did it at even VERY modest lean angles. I'm fucking glad it's off now. -- Beav VN 750 Zed 1000 OMF# 19
You need the bike to be just bordering on shaking in a straight line so that it'll tip into corners faster. It's just a matter of balancing faster turn in against straight line stability and obviously different tyre profiles alter this nearly as much as moving the forks in the yokes. If the Pirelli tyres were sticky but a bit twitchy then you might have got a better result by dropping the forks legs down through the yokes by about 5mm to slow the steering down again but keep the grip.
That was my problem though Andy. Tipping into corners. With the Pirelli's it was too eager and it always seemed like it wanted to lean further than was necessary, making it hard work to maintain a smooth line. The 'Stones roll smoothly into a turn and they neiher want to sit me back up or have me on my ear, they're just "neutral" I suppose you'd call it. Suits my less than heroic style much better. I believe it was just the profile, but oddly, the profile of the 'Stone's looks to be more "aggressive" than the Pirelli's. The Pirelli's have a more rounded profile where the 'Stone's are more "triangle" shaped, yet they both behave as if they have the opposite profile IYSWIM. Ahhh, I never considered that, but it makes sense. Mind you, they'd already robbed me of enough confidence and fucking about with the geometery may just have fucked me up completetly and I'm trying to make the bike "as was" so the missus will feel happy getting back on. And so I can ride it like I want to, of course. Things have improved out of all proportion to the cost too and now that the scrubbing in has been done, I managed half an hour on my own coming back from a "ride out" with a pal (who I ditched out of boredom) and thoroughly enjoyed myself. -- Beav VN 750 Zed 1000 OMF# 19
