September 30th, 2014, 12:02 PM | #1 |
cadd cadd cadd
Name: Cadd
Location: 41°21'13.1"N, 74°41'37.4"W
Join Date: Jan 2014 Motorcycle(s): 300 Posts: A lot.
MOTM - May '15
|
Pirelli DR2s are great, but...
DR2s are probably the most popular tire to upgrade to (according to this forum). However, I commute and would like to have something that will last a tad longer, even if it means I'll have to give up some grip.
From what I've read, I think the DR2s have dual compounds. It seems like they are: soft & even softer. I've read a lot of people seem to be averaging 5k miles on the rear before they are down to the chords in the center. Some are even experiencing replacing the rears as early as 3k miles! (That means I have to get a new tire every 3 months?!?!). Since I commute on relatively straight roads mostly, and only get to see twistier roads once a week, I think DR2s are overkill for my needs. Do you guys have any good experiences with another tire that is somewhat performance related (soft on the sides), but have a harder compound in the middle? Oh....and I want to keep the front 110 & rear 140. Looking forward to hear your suggestions! |
|
September 30th, 2014, 12:08 PM | #3 |
ninjette.org dude
Name: 1 guess :-)
Location: SF Bay Area
Join Date: Jun 2008 Motorcycle(s): '13 Ninja 300 (white, the fastest color!), '13 R1200RT, '14 CRF250L, '12 TT-R125LE Posts: Too much.
Blog Entries: 7
|
/moved to 300 tech
__________________________________________________
Montgomery Street Motorcycle Club / cal24.com / crf250l.org / ninjette.org ninjette.org Terms of Service Shopping for motorcycle parts or equipment? Come here first. The friendliest Ninja 250R/300/400 forum on the internet! (especially Unregistered) |
|
September 30th, 2014, 12:29 PM | #4 |
cadd cadd cadd
Name: Cadd
Location: 41°21'13.1"N, 74°41'37.4"W
Join Date: Jan 2014 Motorcycle(s): 300 Posts: A lot.
MOTM - May '15
|
Hey Alex, would it be possible to move this to the 250 section (or the general section) as this is for my new gen?
|
|
September 30th, 2014, 03:53 PM | #5 |
ninjette.org certified postwhore
Name: .
Location: .
Join Date: Feb 2011 Motorcycle(s): . Posts: Too much.
MOTM - Feb '13, Feb '14
|
Read about the Michelin pilot street radial from a few high mileage (and hard riding) members. Very very good mileage tire without sacrificing too much grip from what they say.
|
|
September 30th, 2014, 03:58 PM | #6 |
RIP Alex
Name: Cuong
Location: Houston, TX
Join Date: Apr 2011 Motorcycle(s): '10 250r, '09 265r Posts: A lot.
Blog Entries: 2
|
^^ What chone said. Pilot Street radials and after that the BT45. I currently have the BT45s and Looks like I'm getting roughly 8k out of the rear. I think the guys on the Pilot streets are getting like 10k. which is pretty damn good for a radial.
__________________________________________________
HalfFast Racing Team Serving Greater Houston Area Riders:WFO Riders MotoHouston HPC CMRA Ride Smart Fastline Lone Star Track Days |
|
September 30th, 2014, 04:20 PM | #7 |
wat
Name: wat
Location: tustin/long beach
Join Date: Sep 2009 Motorcycle(s): wat Posts: Too much.
Blog Entries: 5
MOTM - Oct '12, Feb '14
|
the local moto cops are sporting these. they talk about them as if they're some new form of rubber discovered from an alien ship or something. they look the same to me but i haven't tried them. they are claiming they get 20k miles out of a set. seems like BS to me though.
__________________________________________________
|
|
September 30th, 2014, 04:22 PM | #8 |
cadd cadd cadd
Name: Cadd
Location: 41°21'13.1"N, 74°41'37.4"W
Join Date: Jan 2014 Motorcycle(s): 300 Posts: A lot.
MOTM - May '15
|
Are the pilot Street radicals more performance oriented vs the BT45s?
I still want performance since I do like to hit some twistier roads on the wkends. |
|
September 30th, 2014, 04:29 PM | #9 |
ninjette.org certified postwhore
Name: .
Location: .
Join Date: Feb 2011 Motorcycle(s): . Posts: Too much.
MOTM - Feb '13, Feb '14
|
Paging @rojoracing53. He has a thread where he talked about it. And he rides a combo of long distance commuting/trips and hard sport riding
If you're looking for a sporty but high mileage tire combo, take a page out of Jason's book and go with a sticky tire up front and a pilot street radial in back. You'll get the performance and stick from the front end, but the 250 doesn't have the guts to spin up the rear unless you're being stupid with it in the wet, so the harder touring-minded pilot street makes sense. That might actually get you a combo that wears at the same rate. IE, none of the usual 2 rears for every front with a sticky set of tires. |
|
September 30th, 2014, 04:31 PM | #10 |
RIP Alex
Name: Cuong
Location: Houston, TX
Join Date: Apr 2011 Motorcycle(s): '10 250r, '09 265r Posts: A lot.
Blog Entries: 2
|
You will be fine with them.
__________________________________________________
HalfFast Racing Team Serving Greater Houston Area Riders:WFO Riders MotoHouston HPC CMRA Ride Smart Fastline Lone Star Track Days |
|
September 30th, 2014, 05:44 PM | #11 | |
Fast-Guy wannabe
Name: Jason
Location: Brentwood, Ca
Join Date: Oct 2011 Motorcycle(s): 2009 Ninja250, 2011 RM-Z250, 2004 NSR50, Posts: A lot.
MOTM - Jan '13
|
Quote:
Those who are asking the questions about the pilot street radial Keep in mind I'm only using the rear and absolutely love it. In the front I only use 120mm wide race tires used on the 600's and 1000's, normally as race takeoffs but sometimes I'll by a new tire from online. Some members will point out I'm using a R-6 front wheel which is 3/4" wider then the stock 250 wheel but I also used the 120 front tires on my stock wheels as well and still loved them. At 12-13k miles on my current set of tires my front tire is almost totally bald, you can hardly make out about 30% of the groves and the rest is totally smoothed away. The rear as I mentioned earlier still has several thousand miles left in it but because its on the square side of things at this point I'll probably change both tires and save the rear in case of emergencies like a nail in your tire. I think my front would have lasted another 1-2k miles but it was originally a race takeoff so it already had some race miles on it. Tire companies lead you to believe tires come in sets and must be run that way. It's not true so just pick the rear that's gets you what you want then pick a front that gets you what you want and go with that. |
|
1 out of 1 members found this post helpful. |
September 30th, 2014, 06:13 PM | #12 | |
Private Joker
Name: Ben
Location: Towson, MD
Join Date: Nov 2012 Motorcycle(s): '99/'01 Ninja 250 "sketchy", '13 Ninja 300 "yoshi", '03 GSXR 600 "merlin" Posts: A lot.
MOTM - Mar '14
|
Quote:
__________________________________________________
I see you over there seeing me, do you see the me I think you see? |
|
|
September 30th, 2014, 11:03 PM | #13 |
Certifiable nontundrum
Name: Harper
Location: NC Milkshake stand
Join Date: Mar 2013 Motorcycle(s): 2013 SE NINJA 300 Posts: Too much.
MOTM - Sep '13, Sep '16
|
My bike wants Forrest's magic shoes!!!
|
|
September 30th, 2014, 11:39 PM | #14 |
cadd cadd cadd
Name: Cadd
Location: 41°21'13.1"N, 74°41'37.4"W
Join Date: Jan 2014 Motorcycle(s): 300 Posts: A lot.
MOTM - May '15
|
Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!
I think I'm going to go with Michelin Pilot Street Radial (140/70). If these are good enough for you guys, I'm sure they're more than good enough for me. I'm a pretty conservative rider. For the fronts, I'm still debating. Either the DR2s or the Pilot Road 3 (110/70). Any preferences there? Or would you guys recommend I look at something entirely different? I've considered having a mismatch front & rear in the past, but didn't know if it'll throw off the bike's handling characteristics....so I have always purchased full sets. But since some of you guys have good experiences with not running a full set, I'm comfortable doing it as well As for the BT45s that a lot of members here also like, are they considered more of a touring tire? How do they compare to the Pilot Street Radials in terms of performance (grip)? |
|
October 1st, 2014, 03:07 AM | #15 |
ninjette.org certified postwhore
Name: .
Location: .
Join Date: Feb 2011 Motorcycle(s): . Posts: Too much.
MOTM - Feb '13, Feb '14
|
I had a set on my pregen for a while. Not bad tires, the front wore funny though. They seemed to grip pretty well and got better mileage than my current sticky tires. I think I got 6-7k out of the rear, could have gotten a lot more if it weren't for the fact that I was going to track and wanted fresh rubber. In hindsight they would have been fine because they stick well and really were only worn down the middle, but hey.
Overall, I was happy with the performance and mileage from the BT-45. If I were in your shoes and could run more standard sized radials, I'd go with radials. Correct me if I'm wrong, but BT-45's are still bias ply right? Not that it's hugely important, but I feel like if you have the ability to run nicer and newer rubber, why not? The pilot street radials were literally designed for the ninjette and baby cbr. |
|
October 11th, 2014, 06:30 PM | #16 |
ninjette.org dude
Name: 1 guess :-)
Location: SF Bay Area
Join Date: Jun 2008 Motorcycle(s): '13 Ninja 300 (white, the fastest color!), '13 R1200RT, '14 CRF250L, '12 TT-R125LE Posts: Too much.
Blog Entries: 7
|
__________________________________________________
Montgomery Street Motorcycle Club / cal24.com / crf250l.org / ninjette.org ninjette.org Terms of Service Shopping for motorcycle parts or equipment? Come here first. The friendliest Ninja 250R/300/400 forum on the internet! (especially Unregistered) |
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
[motorcyclemonster] - Great Falls, MT - Great Falls Biker Breakfast Jul 12, 2014 | Ninjette Newsbot | Motorcycling News | 0 | April 20th, 2014 03:58 AM |
[kropotkin thinks...] - 2013 Valencia MotoGP Sunday Round Up - Great Racing, Great Ch | Ninjette Newsbot | Motorcycling News | 0 | November 10th, 2013 08:30 PM |
[roadracingworld.com] - Pirelli Launches Pirelli Moto Facebook Page | Ninjette Newsbot | Motorcycling News | 0 | February 1st, 2012 06:10 PM |
[roadracingworld.com] - Pirelli Appoints New CEO/President For Pirelli South America | Ninjette Newsbot | Motorcycling News | 0 | June 13th, 2011 08:50 AM |
[hell for leather] - EBR 1190RS: from great tragedy comes great triumph | Ninjette Newsbot | Motorcycling News | 0 | February 18th, 2011 10:00 AM |
|
|