back tire life, haha
 

so ive read on here that our bikes are hard on the back tire. i thought to myself really how bad can they be. i run it at 28 psi cold because it grips better so i knew id sacrifice tire life. im running bt016s im under 2000 km and almost at tread wear bars. i figure first gear power wheelies and 2nd and 3rd gear clutch up practice likely caused this. i was starting to feel like the bikes clutch was slipping in first and on he occasional clutch up when the front would barely lift but now im wondering if its infact the rear tire breaking traction. oh well i love this bitch :D

wow! you did a hell of a job on that tire. Your old lady finds out about that and you're in for it boy. haha You will be lucky to get another thousand on it before you do your celebratory goodbye burnout, huh. Between the torque and the engine braking, we need hard centers. I was running 28psi also(present Q2),which when warmed up becomes 32-33, but have since gone to 34 cold for that very reason. Still grips well albeit a little rougher riding, but got used to it. 28-30 front is fine for me: grips well and wears well, but will go with rear. Power Pures are waiting patiently in the garage.:D

Sp1, bt 016 800miles on the rear 1200 miles on the front

2005 zx10r 600 miles on the rear 780 miles on the front tyre

hence too say i have sold these and run a firestorm to calm me down and save on the tyres


also i only run stock temps IE. 36 front and 42 rear, on the road no one can tell the difference, only thing i found that on the road the zx10r would spin out of every corner when piping hot, but the bike never tried to spit me off

Ill post the pictures of my tyres if i can find them

I repectfully disagree. I can tell the difference and it ain't hard, and i think if you rode 32 in the rear, and then rode 42, you could too. the difference is marked.

uchi, I agree about the slippage. I would accelerate hard in 2nd sometimes, and feel like the clutch was slipping. Then I figured it was the rear tire. That was with a Qualifier. And I'm talking about straight ahead accelerating with 35 psi in the rear.

Iv found that the 016 doesnt like the twins, my sp1 slid all over the place, i wouls only use two tyres now

Michelin pilot power 2ct
Michelin road 2ct

and i would run 42 rear and 36 front for the road and track i would run 31 rear and 30 front on both of these tyres

+ if you are slipping in a straight like!! take 2 clicks of compression off and see what that does... it should only move coming out out of corners on the gas

Sorry i refresh it the

Tyre pressures on the road dont really make jack shit, i have been down to 29 rear and 31 front, i found the tyre could not keep it shape and had uneven wear...
some people will say that the wet grip changes.... really.. just back the compression and rebound off 2 clicks if its wet

and the zx10r would spin it on the rim!! im not the fastest but i aint slow, if you run street only run 36/42

but if you are running race tyres on the road.. say Michelin power one i would say run 32rear and 30 front cos of the make up of the tyres

Im obsessed with tyres and suspension and how they react

Like you can get two identical bikes from the factory and the setting on the forks and shock will be different for each bike for your weight


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I've got about 7400mi (no highway riding) on my metzeler z6 and I'm just starting to kiss the wear bars on the rear.

Nice tire. My rear looks similar to that just not as bad :-)

Are you refering to front or read suspension? I have the factory rear shock and as far as I know it has no adjustments.

I ran 42 rear in my old bt 021 st and the bikes rear would come out regularly in corners. I'm gonna bump my rear to 32 cold just to give it a bit more life :-)

Nath. Shes gonna be pissed lol this tire has been on the bike less than 2 months. Lol. Guess that's a little less money I save for our wedding. I'll be sure to get the Burnout video on tape. Is like to get this bitch down to belts and get some sparks :-)

The stock shock has pre-load and rebound adjustments...... ;)

But really it does sound like you guys might want to do a bit of suspension work.... I can run my tires at 36\42 (and even though I am a fat guy) with none of the issues you guys are talking about and I have done a few more engine mods than you guys.

The way mine is set up right now, I can spin up the rear tire on corner exits, if I want to but other than that I have no-issues at all. I'm not saying I get great rear tire life but I can get at least 3k miles out of a rear Qualifier.

Agreed, with the suspension and tire working together you get much better tire life and better grip... The stock shock is abysmal...

I can however spin up my tire just about anytime I like, not just corner exit... It might not be smart, but doing it mid corner is fun...;)

seanvtr... Uhm... nope, sorry... You are dead wrong... Tire pressure means a lot and makes a big difference... But I agree, running as low as uchi is doing isn't improving grip one darned bit, it's just increasing wear...

ok we'll have to agree to di-agree but....

I have never eva squared off a rear or front tyre


And yeah sound like a suspension problem... sadly the rear shock is garbage, just chuck it away and get another, im running a fox twin clicker, not a bad shock at all to be honest

here is a good page.. fill ya boots
http://www.gostar-racing.com/club/mo...ion_set-up.htm

The stock shock can be made to work pretty good but after you put something that really works in the back ( and I am spoiled in that regard...;)) then you find out how good the rear can be, adding a brace to the swingarm also really helps.

I haven't tried to spin up the rear mid-corner....yet...lol but I don't have quite as much motor as you and you do have a little longer wheel base.

On mine it just wants to loft the front end. But the first time I did spin it up on a corner exit, it was so smooth and calm that it took me by surprise. Nothing like accelerating away and thinking, hummm the back tire was spinning, wasn't it. I even had to go back and see the darkie left in the corner to make sure it really happened.

Lol so how do I adjust the stock rear shock? I'm gonna bump it up to 32 cold. I'm seeing about 34 - 36 hot on a 28 cold setting. more so on the real hot days. so I figured if I had it mid way in the 30s it would get too hard and from the issues I had with my bt 021 I didn't want to chance the bike coming out mid corner especially since I'm riding much harder than I was then.

I'll check that link when I get home. sadly a shock isn't in the cards this year with my wedding and stuff I just can't justify dropping that kind of money. ab ohlins is however on my list for a wedding present :-)

The preload is the big ring adjusting the spring... Either use the tool in the stock toolbox or wear glove and use any hook/wrench combo...

Rebound is a small screw on the bottom of the fork...

Oh trust me... I know the difference between good and bad setup on the stock one... But adding a brace and an F4i shock is another world... In my case a new swingarm was anothe large step...;) But I still say the stock is about as good as a pine 4*4...

Well... Believe me, I was just as surprised as you the first time I did it... Not on purpose at all... Scared me a bit...;) Now my friends get a wee bit nervous when I pass them on the inside of turns drifting the rear... Wonder why...;)

Actually the longer wheelbase is only half of it... The fact that I have moved the weight bias a good bit forward helps as well...

To adjust the rear shock, there is an adjustment screw on the lower (I believe) right hand side. Turning it (clockwise) in increases rebound damping & turning it out decreases it. After you have set the front so the forks return to full extension with no bouncing, you want to set the rear so it returns at approx. the same rate. You can also turn the adjuster out until the rear 'bounces" when it returns after you push down on the rear and then slowly turn it in until the bouncing stops. This will get you close, then you need to ride it and make small adjustments from there to get it dialed in.

Now for tire pressure, I have always been taught that you want to look for a 10% increase in pressure from cold to hot. So if you start with 30 psi you want to end up with 33 psi hot, as an example. If you have more than a 10% increase in pressure, you are running too low of a cold pressure and are over heating the tires. If you get a less than 10% increase, the tires are over inflated and you loose traction and compliance as they never come all the way up to temp. But as always YMMV.

:iagree: I have also been told that rule of thumb and it seems to work out decently with tire life and grip...

I hear you on that and completely agree with what you are saying. Like I said I'm really spoiled with the Ohlins out back..... talk about a big difference..... ;) Now to finish playing with the geometry to get some more weight back on the front, that is after i get it back on the road....

That's some good info. My rear feels like its squatting a little too far when I bounce on the seat at a light and seems like it may be coming up q little slower than is like it too. I'll play with it tomorrow after work. I wonder what the local law says about riding with no blinkers or Headlight. Lol.

Well I had to go outside. the rear with no weight on it when I press down seems to go down and then comes up fast but doesn't bounce. so I'm gonna have to do some reading on rear suspension setting up. I've got my front setup pretty good now to make the bike handle real good :-)

Well after the proper sag is set, the rear should move at about the same speed as the front. ;)

I didn't see the video that they had posted but there are a lot of good articles in the "tuning guide" of this site. They also a section on reading tires which can also be a big help.

excellent i plan on finding it and reading it. my tires look similar to the ones above so im not sure if thats good for street riding or bad, lol. ive got twist of the wrist 2 on the computer and it has a suspension tuning section so ill get that looked into and maybe setup the rear a little while i wait for my reflector to come in for my light :D

im quite excited about this, i was always told the rear has no adjustments so i was a little upset because i knew it was stuck where it was. so the big question is, assuming its never been touched, what weight rider would it be setup for? im 246 right now. i read somewhere its setup for a 260 pound rider/pass combo and someone else had said its alot less.

The stock rear is sprung for around a 180lbs rider. So you, more than likely, will not be able to get the sag set correctly. As you don't wish to change out the shock at this time, crank the pre-load all the way up and set the rebound adjuster at around 3\4 of a turn from fully closed and play with it a bit from there.

thanks buddy, i played with it this morning, turnng it down 3 clicks and its still got a bit more to go and i found shes a lot more rigid now. so i may try this out first and then crank her all the way down from there. id imagining tightening up the rear will help the old girl pop up into wheelies aswell right? :)

That it will also turn in quite a bit better. ;)

well thats a bonus too i suppose. id just like it to power wheelie second and third effortlessly like it does when my tiny buddy rides it, lol.

btw love your sig :D

You're "246 right now". What! Is your goal 260 to match your optimal shock weight?haha

To feel the rebound, remove your seat, lift the side stand and push down on the frame above the shock hard and release quickly. See if you can feel a little resistance to the shock returning upwards. Turn the rebound adjuster to full on and do it again and see what full rebound setting feels like. The shock should rise slowly with resistance after you push down hard and relaese quickly. Keep adjusting rebound out until you can no longer feel any resistance to return a couple clicks at a time, Then go the other way a little bit until you can just barely detect a little return resistance and that's how i set mine. Same with the front forks. Shim rear shock, raise forks adds up to better turn in also. A twenty minute job and cost nothing.