Greg goes wild
Active member
I keep the tire pressure front & rear a couple of lbs. over. there is no vibration that i know of yet from the front
tire.
tire.
Delraay i had my change the tire taking it off is a 5 minute job but when he put it on the tire machine"They are a bit more expensive, but I’ve found Michelins to hold up very well."
Google "160/60-15 Michelin" and you see motorcycle tires two or three times the cost of my Shinko SR568. With these tires lasting 8,000 to 10,000 miles, and me averaging about 1,000 miles a month, that's not a recurring expense I want, for my style of riding.
I've read reviews of Michelins and Pirelli Diablos and would LOVE to have them on my BMW. There was a GT for sale at a Kymco dealer near my house last week so I stopped to look. The bike had Michelin Pilot Road 4 tires that looked like they were hugging the showroom floor! They looked amazing.
Easy to imagine how they'd be excellent on twisty roads. Alas, no twisty roads in South Florida. Just lots of flat, straight ones; urban riding with daytime heat that wears out tires faster no matter what brand they are. Of course, much of the 55+ population is off the roads early, so there is little traffic late at night, and the stars are out and it's warm and breezy, and the ocean often has moonlight twinkling on the waves, so there is compensation for no twisty roads. Plus the riding season is 365 days long.
In terms of riding style, I'm a tortoise to the "hare"-brained sport riders who zoom up I-95 on Saturday nights out of Miami with speeds in the triple digits. The cops gave up chasing them long ago because it's too dangerous. In 42 years of riding, I've had 0 accidents on my 13 bikes and I've been down 0 times. There are plenty of roads here where I can wind my bike up to 50 to 70 mph real fast, and go like that for miles. I'm happy and don't need premium tires for this. Not kidding when I say my love of riding is still connected to a 10-year old boy zooming down a big hill on a bicycle, feeling like it's magic because he doesn't have to pedal. I think of that regularly when I ride.
Everybody's different, of course. That's just my story.
I have never heard of balance beads mind you i am not mechanically inclined so i don't know about that stuff.This seems to be an area where many disagree, but for balance all I've used on the last 4 bikes is the balance beads, CX650, VF700, VTX1800 and now the BMW C650. All of these are shaft drive, but my results with the chain drive bike is the same. I change my own tires, measure the balance beads and install and ride it like I stole it, always a smooth ride, the tires balance themselves every time I ride. The only time I've NOT liked the balance beads is when they are incorporated into a tire repair gel, they still balance the tires very well, but if you have a TPS sensor they can cause it to fail (ask me how I know), I have a new one in the parts bin along with the new tires ready for swap out in about another 1,000 miles. I'm sitting on about 8,500 miles on these Metzler Feel Free tires, another 1,000 miles and I'll be where I normally change them (due to acceptable tread life left) I can see the wear bars, not quite to tread yet and have purchased a tire changer to make the job easier.
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