Unforgiving/predictable tires?

[shadow]

So, thus far I've managed to play a bit hard with the 250, and am quite satisified with traction (for the street). I'm running the stock IRC's and on the forum all I hear is "Ew" remarks. What makes these things so bad? Either I'm not pushing them hard enough, or they are actually not bad on grip. I havent had any real scary moments, get some good slide out of them, and by feel, they are a harder compound for road use. Thus, you should be able to get used to "slip" and "drift" whilst still being in control, ala all-season tires on a car (tarmac use). Is this true? or do these tires have a penchant for being "bipolar"?

[Nny]

Personally, I have touched a peg to the ground at 45-50mph with the recommended tire pressure and the amount of slip I get is only a 1.5 on the pucker factor.

I changed out the tire due to a screw and switched the back tire to a Battlaxe. Feels about the same to me. But this is just my experience, I am sure someone will chime in to give you a better answer.

[backinthesaddleagain]

I probably don't push it hard enough but i have 9,300 on my original IRC tires. Biggest handling issue right now is the flat spot across the back tire makes for a less smooth transition to/from a lean.

[CC Cowboy]

Originally Posted by backinthesaddleagain

I probably don't push it hard enough but i have 9,300 on my original IRC tires. Biggest handling issue right now is the flat spot across the back tire makes for a less smooth transition to/from a lean.

Greg, when you get a new back tire (probably next spring) you will think you have a new bike. All of a sudden it will ride like a dream.

[Cedilla]

I got a lot of slip out of the back tire. Also when mine started to get a nice flat spot in the middle, when I would lean it over, it would wobble pretty bad as I leaned it pass the flat spot, which was really unnerving. The front tire seems to take a lot of hard braking to warm up as well.

[karlosdajackal]

Originally Posted by backinthesaddleagain

I probably don't push it hard enough but i have 9,300 on my original IRC tires. Biggest handling issue right now is the flat spot across the back tire makes for a less smooth transition to/from a lean.

Originally Posted by Cedilla

I got a lot of slip out of the back tire. Also when mine started to get a nice flat spot in the middle, when I would lean it over, it would wobble pretty bad as I leaned it pass the flat spot, which was really unnerving. The front tire seems to take a lot of hard braking to warm up as well.

if your rear has squared off enough to feel, then you should have replaced it already. When you do your daily checks and see a flat spot on the tire your supposed to decided it would be a bad idea to ride on that. That flat spot will reduce your rear contact patch siginifcantly on each rotation of the wheel. You do the daily checks right

I've done 1100 miles on my IRC's. These tires are hugely sensitive to pressure. Mine came with the front and rear at 32 psi (front should be 28). with the front at 32 it felt like a wooden wheel, but at least I could feel that. At 30 it was better especially on turn in but still a bit disconnected when actually in the turn. At 28 it was perfect on corner entry and mid corner. You could really feel whats going on with the front end. Although it was a little less stable under heavy braking, it wanted to wander around the lane a bit more, you could really feel it getting squished into the tarmac.

The rear i've left at 32 psi, and with the preload on 4 its hard to tell. If you really gas it your not likely to slip it out. If you brake hard enough to lock it then theres no weight on it anyway. Short of trying to crash I don't know that I could comment on how the feel of the rear is. I'm not getting limit indications from it yet, but I think this bike is more limited for front grip than rear grip.

No squaring off yet, i'd say for cheap tires they are good, they have there limits but I'm confident I can feel the IRC limit before I get to it. They certainly give more feedback than your average cheap car tires, I know on the 5 brands of car tires i've been through some felt great and then out of nowhere just gave up. Dunlop and Pirelli seemed to give the smoothest drop off to me.

When my irc's wear down I'll probably go with Dunlop as tests i've seen show the qualifier 2 is pretty good at everything with no major weakness. That and I was really impressed with there car tires when i got a set of 4 before selling my last car.

[backinthesaddleagain]

always check lights, pressure, tire look, and chain. figuring the bike will be put away any day but have commuted on it 4 of 4 days this week. then again i rode most of last winter so i better order that bt45.