NOrrTH

Right at the lips of the tread groves it kicks up on both sides of the tire to make cup shaped pattern.

Anyone know what causes this? Lots of tread left on it.

Also my rear is worn out in the middle. Guess its time. My other question is should I stay with the same Bridgestone Batlax BT010 thats currently on the front and back or can I got with another type?

Thumper

Air Pressure may be the culprit, what pressure do you run up front. Alot of riders put way too much air in their tires.

I personally run 34 Rear (cold) and 35 Front (cold) on street and drop both ends 2 or three pounds on track days.

I don't know much abot B-Stone tires. Dunlop is my brand, so i run the 208ZR on street and 208GPa (take offs) on track.

www.tireexpress.com is a good place to shop and compare. They have never did me wrong on multiple sets and sometime they run a good three tire deal (2 rear / 2 front) so your can hook up with a buddy that might be needing a rear only and save some money.

NOrrTH

I can barely squeeze it with my thumb /ducks

Thumper

Confused am i! What does squeezing it with your thumb have to do with anything related to tire pressure, surely that isn't how you actually check your tires.

biker2k

people talk about tire pressure,

I think it lies mostly in tire design..


I think it comes from braking hard into turns (but what do i know?)

I have hade 010's and they cup with correct tire pressure or not...

the only tire i know that dosen't cup are the michelins

the pilot sports
the pilot powers
and the pilot road all seem not to to suffer from cupping..

unless you ride your superhawk like you are on the track...
the pilot roads are an excellent choice

to be honest i ride the snots out of the pilot roads and they feel totally planted, they have a great feel and a harder compound in the center of the rear tire which will give you longer life, I am swearing by these tires
you won't be dissapointed with them.

superbling

He's screwing with ya' thumper.

Both Bridgestones and Dunlops are known for cupping the front long before they are used up. Get a set of Diablos and don't look back. Avon ST's and Metzeler Z6 get good reviews for wet weather.

Thumper

That was true on the older Dunlop 207 series that had a different profile. The 208 series have a taller profile like the michelens and i have had no problemw with them cupping.

NOrrTH

The only time I'm riding in the wet is if I get caught. I've yet to drag a peg but am planning on going to a couple of noobie track days soon so I need something reasonably worthy.

Can you mismatch tires?? Say a Pilot or Diablo with my Batlax?

Thumper

Never tried mismatch, but in the industry it is not reccomended at all. Dunlop even frowned against mix marching 207 and 208 tires.

I know i wouldn't do it.

Plan on eating a set of tires up on a track day and you need to have nearly a new set to start with.

biker2k

I don't recomend mixing tires.

if nothing else peace of mind, the manufacturers spend alot of time comming up with these combo's

redsuperhawk

I had serious cupping problems with the Dunlop 204s that came stock. I'm running 208s now, and haven't had that problem... yet. But I've been riding in the rain alot lately, and I noticed the 208s seem to slide and wiggle alot, which I don't like.

Try http://www.denniskirk.com for tires. DK beats competitors for price, everything is in stock, and you can't beat them for good service.

I'll admit that I'm a bit biased because I work there, but I shopped at DK long before I started working here.

Jeff
redsuperhawk

NOrrTH

Too bad I live in cda

redsuperhawk

And the problem with living in Canada is what? If you're talking about shopping at Dennis Kirk, it's not a problem.

jschmidt

Sometimes it just happens. After you've eliminated mechanical causes like a fork or fork setting problem, headbearings, and tire pressure, the next step is to change tire brands.

There is no reason why you can't use two different brand tires as long as they are from the same performance class. A touring tire should not be matched with a summer sport tire, for instance.

Its not like matched tires have matched traction, you know. Tires with broadly similar traction performance will match up fine. Of course, as with any experiment, you may find that whatever pairing you choose isn't to your liking. But I think that will be unlikely.

I'm not guessing on this.

superbling

A common practice, and one to which I subscribe to, is to mix different traction compounds of the same brand. You run a stickier front than the rear for two reasons:

1) traction. Better to lose traction at the rear first than the front or to lose both at the same time.

2) running a harder compound at the rear can equalize wear rates (although I still get 2 rears/1 front)

Mixing different brands can lead to running differnt profiles (triangular vs round) which gould give you funky handling or at least not optimum handling.
Bottom line: you won't crash and burn mixing brands but you're probably not doing yourself any favors either.

blokeontheend

I put Pirelli Diablos on at the beginning of last year and they work great. No track days but have used the whole tire on some "Amish" roads and find them to grip wonderfully even in the rain (I got caught 3 hrs from home in the Catskill mountains of NY). They're holding up great. As far as double duty as track tires, I've heard they're pretty good.

icebud

I'm sorry Biker2K but I have to contradict what you have said because I was just obligated to replace my front tire a Michelin Pilot Road because he was very cupping.

Last year when I've change both tires, I decided to change from Bridgestone ( what I have always use ) to Michelin whit precisely the hope that the Michelin front tire will not cup like the BT010.

But I was very frustrated this spring to have to change the front tire. Because, habitually with the BT010 I was able to pass an entire tire in the rear plus maybe around 1/4 of a new one before to have to change the front because of cupping. But the Pilot road was so cupping that I had to change the front before my first one in the rear and for more I had paid the Michelin more expensive than the Bridgestone

Thus, this time, I've decided to come back to Battlax and I have put a BT014 in front ( new replacement for BT010 ) and the new tread of the BT014 seem to be really less subject to cup than the previous BT010 IMO and this is also what said my dealer.

I'm still running my Michelin Pilot road in rear ( around maybe 1000KM left on it ) I know that it's very not recommended to run different brand of tire especially that Michelin are more oval in shape of tire than Battlax but like I knew that I will not run them together for long time, I decided to try this and to finally know if this myth is true...

I must say, that it's not false... But only under certain conditions. On "normal" use, it doesn't seem to make any difference ( some said that the oval shape tire will use more fast than the other but unfortunately I will not run this duo as long to know this). But when you are attacking corner with more agressivity, there the difference make some bad effect, the bike seem to not be aligned and I feel like if the bike was a huge hinge at angle!! Not very pleasant...

My dealer also told me that if I would like to avoid "a bit" this undesireble cup effect I should run my tire with more pression on it; 38 instead of 36psi.

So, now for me, It will be BT014 in the front with 38psi and BT020 in rear with 36 psi. I was a bit confuse when I saw that Thumper said the opposite
but I decide to stay like this for the test.

I will let you know the result in approx 10 000Km...

Cheers

biker2k

well I can say that i have aboyt 1500 miles on my pilot road and have absolutley no sign of cupping.

But admittedly i have not been through a set of these yet, I also put them on my f2 because i loved them so much on my hawk.

so it is possible that i will be proven wrong but it dosent look that way as the bridgestones seemed to show signs of cupping even that early on..

I run 33 up fron and 38 in the rear some people think that is high but i like it.

I must say i like the pilots much better tan the 010's

but i have not tried a set of 014's......

my goal was to increase mileage because i am sick of changing tires every 3500-4500 miles so if i can get 6000 or more out of these then the extra cost is moot then you factor in that i like the way they handle better

anyway i havent tried any pirellis so i can't comment on them.

hope this post made some sense and didn't confuse the issue further..