Mixed tires opinions please

I mix tires. VFR has a Dunlop Sportmax GP-A on front and Michelin Pilot on back. I like the combo. Neutral and stable. No chicken strips at either end (track day, of course). The Magna has a Pirelli Supercorsa SC2 front and Metzeler ME88 Marathon rear. Totally transformed the old girl's cornering manners. Works for me, but the guys at the Honda dealer think I'm nuts.

 

When you fast guys run slicks, how do ya know if they're on right?

 

This could just be part of a sales pitch to sell you sets of tires for all your bikes.

 

I don't run slicks. These are street legal, DOT tires with treads and arrows showing which way is forward. Track days take rubber off the sides which you seldom use on the street. It evens out, and I'm getting "free" front tires for the Magna - used only two days by an old guy in his 70s...

 

I thought by separating the posts it was the fast guys I was asking aboot running slicks. I was also under the impression that racebike tires that are not slicks wear pretty much like track day or tires used in school days. If the old dude has any more free tires he is giving away, I bet he could find some cruiser dudes on a Magna BB to take them off his hands. This unless maybe you pissed him off somehow and something is wrong with the tires. Maybe check one of those tire recall sites just to make sure.

 

I thought I would add that most DOT tires don't work well on the street because they will not get hot enough, unless you are really running hard in the canyons. I had an off on my Triumph due to a DOT tire being cold. And, I knew it was cold and I thought I was compensating for it, but nope! Just e careful and read up on the manufacturer's site about temp range for the tire. Also, if the tire gets really hot on the track, there usually aren't many heat cycles left in the tire.

 

I am in the market for one of those tire temperature gauges in case I get another Triumph.

 

Hey Sadwilly,
Yeah, Dunlop GPA take off tires and a cool fall night don't mix well. If you find a Triumph branded tire thermometer, be sure to post it here.

 

I found a Triumph pyrometer for you. My last Triumph was a track bike. I ran mixed tires on the dirt. The pyrometer I found may be a little antiquated and in the wrong range for tires as well as from the look of the thing, a bitch to use.

Not being one of the fast guys my regular Dunlops work well for me. Using Dunlop race tires on the street seems more like pretension than horse sense. Slicks might get ya some ooohs and ahhs from the posers at a bike night but they are not highly recommended for us regular non- fast guys.

Each state has its own Department of Transportation with its own set of rules and regulations. Then ya got all those DOT acromyms including Dot motorcycles. Never had one but I did have a cousin called a Francis Barnett.

I had a vintage 1953 Triumph Tbird for a few years. The last of the rigid frames. This one I should have kept. All except 200 of them were blue. There were 200 in black and mine was black.

Always glad to provide things from an historical perspective to fast dudes who fall down a lot because of one reason or another and blame it on the gear..

 

I'm heading to an annual vintage bike show at the end of the month. It is a very impressive show for all kinds of bikes including Triumph Tbird's and such. I'll take photos, maybe your old black one might be there. Billy Joel has been to the last 2 or 3 of them. I was at the International Motorcycle show this weekend and talked to the some folks at the vintage club, they said Billy had called up and is going to come again, he plays a show that night. He has played with the local band at the vintage show, really surprised everyone there. They were like "is that really Billy fucking Joel?!" He like vintage bikes especially BSA and Triumphs.

 

I'm with you. When bias ply tires were all you could get, no one was concerned with whether you mixed tires brands. I wasn't. As long as it was a name brand I mixed them all. And i wasn't a sedate rider by any means. The best combination I had on a Honda CB900f was a bias Pirelli on the front, and a just introduced radial Dunlop on the rear.

What it really comes down to is doing what makes you mentally comfortable, and if that means putting matched tires, then matched tires it is.

 

Personally I wouldn't,my VFR was 5 years old when I bought it few months back but had only done 1000 miles,when I looked closely at the tread could see some cracking so changed them,tyres are probably the most important safety feature on a bike.

 

That old Tbird was bone stock including the pedestrian slicer the headlight nacelle and the tank package rack. This also included the infamous spring hub. The only non-stock item on the bike were the original owners mufflers. He was a machinist and they sure were pretty..

If ever the mountains of Washington call you either the weekend before or after Labor Day, check out the VME "Isle of Vashon." More old iron there than at Pebble Beach. Very few trailer queens.

 

Now that we all agree on that subject..

 

When I bought my VFR last July, it had a Metzeler M3 on the back and a well worn Michelin pr2 on the front. I thought "Whoa, this is bad, tires have to match if you want handling, right?" So I put a matching brand new Metzeler on the front, and the bike immediately handled worse. Now I have two matching tires that I trust as far as I can throw the bike. When it rains I feel like I might in fact be throwing it down the road with one false move. Moral of the story: depends on the tires you are matching.

First thing I'm doing come April: mounting (matching) PR4's.

 

I ride a 98 Gen5 and have tried a varied #of tires... If you are looking for a good value tire with SOLID handling characteristics, I recommend the Pirelli Diablo... confidence inspiring, whether you go into a corner hot, or on your line, this tire will never surprise you... Just saying that this is a great option at a great price, especially if you get it on sale at Cycle Gear...

"Keep it Rubber Side Down!"

 

Not sure about the first part of your post, I have found that DOT tires warm up very fast but I agree that at the track most heat cycle poorly but you can make them last a little longer if you put on tire warmers as soon as you get back to the pits.

 

These guys are real hard on tire warmers.

They are also close to insane..One might wonder why Honda doesn't kick in a few bucks to support the effort.

http://www.iceholes.com/

 

That is nuts racing there. Do they have to be street legal? Seems like most had lights.

 

The site is dated. I think the race still goes on in Canada. Take a look in the archives, there are two files on the course layout. The event is a riff on oval ice racing. The course is shown in to files in the archives section. Its a kind of icy road race and enduro They run at night too. At that latitude in February, night is most of the time.

I saw some of the prep being done to the tires but never attended the event. My guess is the rules are "run what ya brung". I know my nuts would suffer..