Oh save us! A tyre thread!

[pete roper]

Well, just to return to this hoary old chestnut I stuck a Z6 Sportec on the back of the Griso last week. The local tyre wallah reckoned this was the second most sticky tyre after their TOTR 'Tracktec' or 'Racetec', some such silly name.

 

I went to the coast this wekend and managed to scrubb it in fairly well on Friday. The ride down was uneventful but fun but on the way back up on Sunday I managed to get involved in a bit of pretty serious silliness with a Fireblade, a CBR600 and a 749 Deadcat. Now I don't think any of 'em had their suspension set up particularly well but I was amazed by how well the big 'G' aquitted itself. Given that it has to be down a minimum of 25BHP on any of that lot as well as being a great porker, (never mind the fact that I, also a great porker, was piloting it!). The CBR 600 and the Deadcat were both being ridden by women considerably lighter than me, (I'd bloody hope so unless they had some sort of hideous hormonal complaint!) but I managed to stay ahead of both of them all the way up the mountain and even the bloke on the Fartblood couldn't get away until we got to more open country! The new rear tyre also aquitted itself with aplomb only breaking loose once under severe provocation. All in all, great fun and nice to see Guzzi still punching well above it's weight

 

Oh, Incidentally the on-board datalogger was re-set before departure from Bungendore yesterday and on my return it told me I'd ridden for 419Km, max speed was 182kph, average speed was 98kph and fuel consumption was 6.3 litres per 100Km. Not bad for an obsolete old air cooled sh!tbox with a shaft drive I didn't think!

 

My beach house is almost exactly 160Km/100 miles from my home in Bungendore, on the way there are seven townships tou have to slow down for, Braidwood, Nelligen, Batemans Bay, Mogo, Moruya, Bodalla and Narooma. All of these have at least a couple of Km of 50/60Kph zone and two of them, Batemans Bay and Moruya are big enough to be verminous with traffic lights and other trip-slowing road-munt. Apart from that 30Km dash up the mountain I never felt I was *pushing it* but the big 'G' just hoovers up the miles. Yes, it needs a fairing of some sort for longer trips but really at the sort of speeds it's safe to travel at retain any hope of keeping your licence it doesn't really need it apart from for comfort in a strong headwind.

 

While there have been a few reported problems wth Griso's I'd have to suggest that generally the level of customer saisfaction is much higher and the problems more minor, (The early CARC problem apart.) than anything that has come out of Mandello for a generation. I'm rapt, as you may of noticed, Apart from the most basic of servicing and one new tyre I haven't had to do ANYTHING to it apart from put petrol in it and turn the key. And that, lets face it, is how it should be

 

Pete

[Guest ratchethack]

Pete, y'er "tire wallah" might've been comparing the Z6 Roadtec to the Racetec, M-1 Sportec, or the new M3 Sportec.

 

As mentioned earlier in this thread, M-1's were my last set of tires previous to my current Z6's (front & rear). The M-1's were without much question the best all-around tires I'd ever had on the Guzzi for my purposes - mountain riding. Phenominal grip. The tradeoff -- only 3K miles on the rear. I got the same from the previous M-1 rear.

 

Metzeler gives the M3 a slight advantage over the Z6 in mileage and a slight DISadvantage against the Z6 in riding comfort.

 

Metz gives the edge to both the Z6 and M3 over the M-1 in both handling AND mileage.

 

You might be interested in the following in terms of expectations for the Z6 down the road.

 

As mentioned previously, I went to the Z6's chasing better mileage. Yesterday I picked up my second Z6 rear to have on hand in case the plug I put in from a nail puncture the other day wasn't satisfactory. The plugged Z6 has 5600 miles on it and is just starting to square-off. Because there's no sipes in the center 1" of the tire, now it looks like it'll go farther than it might otherwise.

 

The plug was successful and has withstood a couple days of riding just fine, so I figure I'll get at least another 1K miles out of the the current Z6 rear. At this rate, It'll easily more than double the 3K miles I got on the M-1 rear. Mission accomplished and then some!

 

Glad to know you seem to think the Z6 has acquitted itself so well in the mountains on the Griso. I can't agree more.

[Steve G.]

slightly younger farts

 

OK, so 've got this 'ere Greaso. I've managed to shag the rear tyre in 3500Km and within the next 500 or so will be looking for a replacement. The Rennsports it came with are great in terms of grip and feel but, lets be honest, I'm a fat old git who doesn't need supersport compounds and anyway, Jude'll kill me if I have to fork out$280-ish for a new rear every 4,000km!

 

So, I went into the local tyre emporium today, (I don't do tyres as a rule, bugger all money in 'em and the shops in Canberra have lots of round black things on the shelf.)

 

Looking at slightly less *sporty* compounds I seem to have found;

 

Dunlop 'Sportsmax' *Qualifier*

 

Avon Viper AV60

 

Mitch. Pilot Road.

 

Metz. Sportec M1

 

 

Bridgestone BT 20R

 

Now, the Guzzi isn't very powerfull. It is though, heavy, especially with a great lard-bucket like me on it. I don't ride particularly hard but a lot of what I do is fairly mundane 2-lane work, (The Griso is a work hack, I use it to go into Canberra to do the 'Bearings and Bullsh!t' run for Graham and myself at least a couple of times a week.) but I do like to have a bit of fun when i think I can get away with it. This being the case I don't want something made of Bakelite but neither do I want something that I can hang out of the way just by pressing it on the ceiling and watching it stick! I'm quite willing to swap ultimate grip, (Which I'd hardly ever use because I ride like Gumby!) for a bit more life but I don't want a tyre that will skate around like a landed fish unless it's really hot.

 

The Greasio is my first fat tyred bike so I'm basically new to this. Given the similar power outputs and weights of the 'Pig' and a V11 it would seem sensible to ask you lot what to try and what to avoid. I know that tyres, (like oil ), are a very personal thing but perhaps I can be steered away from anything really awful that just doesn't work with a fat-arse air-cooled twin.

 

Pete

 

I get the feeling Pete that it is just as important to find a good tire as it is to get a good price, an important consideration. Everyone here should likely concede that there is no such thing these days as a bad tire choice. Even Maxxis [Cheng Chin] makes a tire that works ok. But, clearly some tires mentioned above may be eliminated from your potential list on price alone. Metzeler pricing in this country [Canada] has always been rather silly expensive, and are permantently off my list. Others with sport compound may not be considered by you simply because they're toast a 3500kms or less. I think 3500 kms is totally unacceptable on a street bike, unless your driveway directly enters onto the world greatest hairpin road in the world, where sticky compound tires can be used up properly, rather than flat topping the centre. Having a 175hp ZX14 in the garage may need a stickier compound as well to keep the thing hooked up. However, my buddi'es going through a rear tire every weekend with his 14, and he's ready to start using a sport touring tire. It can get a little silly.

As you know, tires are like oil. One mans amber gold is another mans camel drool. Same goes for tires. A bad experience, a good experience, good advertising, bad advertising, it's an inexact line. You will never get one difinitive word from this or any group on what is the best tire "for the money". You will get guys calling a tire best based on road manners/adhesion, but they will if pushed say they accept more tire use.

So here's the straight goods on my tires. Bridgestone 020's, with 1/8" chicken strips on the front, and it's good for 18,000kms, and the rear 020, dropped down to a 160/70, gets 12,000kms. Excluding Maxxis, they are about the least expensive tire out there.

Ciao, Steve G.

[Guest ratchethack]

Interesting read, Steve. Can't speak to the high cost of Metzeler in Canada, but I've done a lot of checking on the Web and they're not more than a few USD above the top tires here in the US. I've ordered them off the Web but am paying a small premium now to get them through a local supplier who mounts them to perfection without damaging the wheels. There was a significant delta in price (15% higher) between my last 2 Z6's from the same supplier. All his prices have gone up with the petro-extortion we're subjected to -- but that's another topic and leave us not go there. . . .

 

This may or may not be germane, but I figured out as a young and semi-peniless student that the highest quality shoes I could buy lasted so much longer than cheap ones, that it turned out that the most expensive shoes to buy not only looked better, they were cheaper by far to own and re-sole, re-heel, etc. in terms of cost-per-mile. O' course, "performance" of shoes can't translate to that of tires. . . . .

 

IMHO, y'er right on the money WRT the fact that the top tires today from many mfgr's are ALL so good that you can hardly make a mistake among the leaders, long as you get a fairly decent match of tire to the way it's actually used. They've gotta be competitive on price or they're outta business. I reckon Metzeler in Canada -- for whatever reason (?) isn't interested in y'er business??

[RonV11]

I've been a Metzler fan from way back... That said, I just installed a set of Pirelli Stradas. I took advantage of the free front tire offer (yes, I can be bought with free tires... and beer ). Last weekend (4 days actually) I romped through western Oregon's costal mountain range. The tires worked great and at 1,400mi they look new. We'll see how they hold up over time.

[Guest redguzziv10]

thought i'd resurrect an old thread by adding my worth.

just put some new Pirelli Diablo's on the V11 Sport....oh, what a revelation!

for a while i thought i'd ridden someone else's bike out of the garage

so much better than the Bridgestones.

 

just a thought.. how about someone starting a tire choice poll. Then anyone can see the most popular choices before going through the process of deciding for themselves.

Laziness dictates it's not me though.

[g.forrest]

just today put a set of pilot powers on the muz660 a bit over the top maybe but it handles so much better than with the bridgestone bt45's. would have fitted pilot roads but couldn't get in 150/60-110/55. i've been running the pilots on the cagiva and am more than happy with the grip wet or dry and getting 11k km for rear 13k km front when replacing at the wear limit markers. now the muz came standard with pirelli dragons nice and sticky but the rear was totally shagged at 6k km the front shortly after. this from a bike of 170kg and 50bhp. ciao gazza. merry christmas to all.

[stormsedge]

Unlike our tires...a tire thread seems to go on and on! Pete, I see that you have already purchased a tire (the model I tried to get, but couldn't find when I put on my last set). That said, for anyone still reading this ((yawn...zzzzZZZZ)), my bike has been in the barn nine months and the tires will have to be replaced as a matter of course, but I got great mileage out of my Pilot Roads (twice what the Bridgestones had rolled in--sorry I don't have the actual number in front of me, but upwards of 7k)...likely I would have gotten more if not for the interruption of deployment and subsequent layup. A disclaimer here--I do not think I ride with the gusto of Pete and more than a few other Guzzist's posting here, so that may be why I reaped such high mileage. Keep smiling. k

[Dimitris]

I am thinking of trying the Metzeler M3 pair of tyres to my V11 Le Mans, but I hesitate a bit because when I tested the 1200 sport, a while ago (with the M3s) I noticed that it felt "difficult" to me to change the direction of the front tyre...while riding...(hope you understand what I am trying to expalin..)...like it was a bit..."heavy".....

 

My Breva is riding with the Z6s, from which I am very satisfied. But I want a more sporty tyre to the Le Mans...

 

any help?

 

 

Ciao!

 

Dimitris

[Alex-Corsa]

I am thinking of trying the Metzeler M3 pair of tyres to my V11 Le Mans, but I hesitate a bit because when I tested the 1200 sport, a while ago (with the M3s) I noticed that it felt "difficult" to me to change the direction of the front tyre...while riding...(hope you understand what I am trying to expalin..)...like it was a bit..."heavy".....

 

My Breva is riding with the Z6s, from which I am very satisfied. But I want a more sporty tyre to the Le Mans...

 

any help?

Ciao!

 

Dimitris

 

Dimitri I highly recomend the Metzelers M3 they give top stickynes on the asphalt you will use them (compared to others) and quite quicker geometry than their competitors in this class (Michelin pilot power),that your Le Mans will need it.

The hesitation you felt , I recon it could be a bike geometry-riding positioning than tire. M3's have some of the fastest geometry.

 

I have done a combination of M3 front and Z6 back and though the geometry of using other tire types is a bit "screwed up" the front was very sticky and stable at all conditions. But I never risk it on going to the extreme lean angles as it happened when I had the M1's. Wich was unbelievable tire concerning stickiness.

 

The M3's warm up faster than the M1's but keep more stable working temp. than the M1's that can "overwarm" in extreme heat conditions.

M3's give also an aprox. 20-30% more mileage than the M1's.

 

This tire is voted overall No1 from the Motorrad magazine , but then again magazines type hype sometimes.

My experience was 100% satisfactory.

 

I get my tires fresh-NEW from a source in "nice" price I can recomend you.