Winter is coming.. New front tyre and 90 deg valve stem

[tmkaos]

Hi team,

Well, winter is well and truly coming here in NZ, I mean, just look at this pic I took last week when I was at a mate's wedding in Queenstown.. Horrible eh? And last night, would you believe it got below 10 degrees C? Honestly..


And my daughter is enjoying the cooler weather too.. She now points at every bike and announces "Daddy!" 




But anyway, after my last weekend ride away around the Coromandel Loop I had really noticed my extremely crap IRC front tyre showing some pretty interesting wear. The leading edge of the tread blocks had all worn completely away. The middle of the tyre was fine, but the sides had completely gone. This made the front really unstable at anything over 100kph, I could feel the vibration from the uneven tread wear coming through the bars and shaking ther whole bike as soon as you leant into a bend.
When I went in to get a new tyre, talking to the guy it turns out these IRC tyres are factory fitted to lower spec new 250cc bikes imported into the country. Most guys take them off straight away because they are shit and so there are heaps of them brand new at bike shops waiting to foisted onto unsuspecting owners.. Anyway, throw a tyre designed for a 250cc onto a 1200cc bike that weighs damn near 380kg with the rider onboard and there's no wonder it wore out weird..
So Mr Tyre supplied me with a new ContiMotion. Yes, I can hear you all cry, don't buy cheap but unfortunately if you don't have the money to spend, you can't spend it. Anyway, it's better than what I had on there previously. At the same time I got him to fit a right angle valve.




Looks a whole lot better and should make pressure checks a breeze. Thius tyre makes the bike feel a whole heap more stable, combined with the fork brace I'm looking to see a big front end confidence increase next time I get into the twistys..

Anyway, ride safe and enjoy yourselves.

James

[magge52]

Nothing wrong with ContiMotions. I had a 2 sets on my Duc that gave me over 7k trouble-free street miles per set. No track days as I had taken a break from them at the time but they were very good in the rain and dry. They will serve you well and there's nothing wrong with getting a bargain as a bonus.

[FJmonkey]

I really like my Conti Motions, on the second front and third rear. They are a great tire for the price.

[Joe Sull]

Your pictures are really great and that first one is scenic beauty. Nice place!