What brand of stock tires did your VFR1220 arrive with?

Mine, in Pa., are Bridgestone Battleaxes. Anyone else have these as OEM ? I would love your opinions if so, thanks in advance.

 

mine came with Bridgestones too...sucked in the rain ...replaced with michelin pr3.....great improvement in handling bike holds a line thru a corner MUCH better...feels 100 lbs lighter in the tight stuff...look to be wearing better too....haven't been caught in the rain yet.....wore out the front bridgestone in 5500 miles...rear still had some life !!!....(love those front brakes !!!).....my opinion...don't wait for the oems to wear out !!! enjoy the bike !!! go for the Z Bomb !!

 

i found myself constantly making small corrections while cornering w/ OEMs PR3's are locked in !!! much more confident feel

 

my ex wife came with a battle axe too !!

 

yours too?

 

BattleAxes here too.
The Rear is still on there, with 4500 miles; looks like it'll go maybe 6-7K
HOWEVER, the front was horrible from the very beginning; refused to drop into corners, regardless of tire pressure, and started cupping badly at about 1200 miles.

On my Aprilia Futura I have Michelin Pilot Road 2CT Rear and Pilot Power 2CT front; this softer front/harder rear combo works really well for a sports-tourer. Mileage is pretty good, and handling (especially turn-in) is snappy and controllable.

SO, I replaced the front BatlleAxe at about 1500 miles with a Michelin Pilot Power 2CT, which works GREAT. I was a little nervous about mixing brands, but no worries. With the rear Battleaxe worn-down a little bit, I actually get a little bit of over-steer in tight power-on corners, but it's extremely controllable. When the rear wears-out ina couple of months, I'll put a Pilot Road 2CT or 3CT on there (whatever's cheap and available in that fat size).

Your mleage may vary, but I find that I like Michelins and Pirellis best, and I am NOT fond of ANY Metzler or Bridgestone, and I haven't used a Dunlop in almost 40 years.

This prejudice was recently reinforced by the Pirellis Corsa IIIs on my Aprilia Dorsoduro. I'm an old guy (see grumpy comment about Dunlops above) but I have NEVER owned motorbike tires which gave me a case of perma-grin like the Corsa IIIs on that Dorso. Wooohoo! Them tires are so sticky that I swear that if you lay your hand on the tread of a warm Corsa III, you'd have to pry it off.

I'd be tempted to put the Corsa IIIs on the Honda, but they'd probably only last 2500 mile on a 150 dyno HP bike that weighs 600 lbs. It would be a fun 25 hours though.
[KIDDING! I was KIDDING Your Honor, REALLY! I only rarely to The Ton on the VFR, REALLY. *snort* I crack myself up.]

PS I don't ever PLAN to ride in the rain, but this being the semi-tropics, I generally get caught in a TORRENTIAL downpour about once a month. The Battleaxes were passable in the rain, but the Pilot Power front is excellent. The PP front and PR rear on the Futura is also excellent in the rain (although that bike isn't as stable in a stiff cross-wind as the Honda), so I'm expecting great things when the Battleax rear wears out.

 

the vfr's 600lbs and those six piston calipers are hell on front tires !!!

 

Thanks for the input, you guys got me thinking. Ok, I'm going to dump the battleaxe, but I'm going to keep the stock tires for a while. :wink: I'm thinking Pilot Power 2ct's for replacements. lshark, yep , I think a Z Bomb maybe in order, sounds like a simple and inexpensive fix for the HP-Torque dip. Thanks to Zen for lending his bike so long for the rest of us to enjoy this fast easy fix!

 

In Finland we have Dunlop Roadsmart as OEM. Seems to be wearing out very quickly. I didn't have the same experience on my other bike with the same tires. Now I have the feeling that these OEM RoadSmarts are not the same as after market RoadSmarts. They got the same experience in the VFR1200 magazin review when they replaced the tires so the feeling might be correct(?)

I have Dunlop SportSmarts waiting for replacement in garage. Can't wait.

 

So, how do the new RoadSmarts feel compared to the OEM RoadSmarts? I need to change mine (rear is completely gone after 6000km (not miles) and I'm wondering if I should just change both (front is still good) for something else.

 

I replaced them with SPORTSmarts not RoadSmarts. They feel very good, but to be honest I'm not pushing them very hard .

 

Dunlop Roadsmarts. I'm now on my 3rd combo: Pilot Power 2CT's. Loving those things to bits!

 

Swapped out my Bridgestone's for Pirelli Angel ST's. Great tire, much better in the wet but get kicked around pretty hard by crack sealer in the roads.

 

Mine came with Dunlop roadsmarts

 

4200 miles on the Michelin PR3's and they look great still !!! got 5600 out of Bridgestone OEM's