Thought I'd try a "stickier" tire

[giantkiller]

 I've been using the pilot road 3s and now pr4s and luv em in every situation. Great in wet, dry. Excellent cornering, very predictable.

But I've often wondered about the"stickier" "track day" tires. Especially for the Fj1350r. So I decided to try a pilot power on the back.
My favorite thing to do on any bike. Is to wack the throttle when you are still laid over  to the left in the round abouts going to and from work. It will loft the front wheel and rotate You over to the right and point you out the straightaway. Tons of fun. And I'm convinced it's the whole reason they installed the roundy rounds.
Anyway the 1350 would also spin the back tire at the same time. You can feel the back walk over as the front rotates over to the right.  Firkin awesome!
Put pilot power on and the 1350 just smokes it off right away. Kicks the rear sideways. No fun at all. The 1350 over powers the traction of the pps so easily the I have to be careful. About throttle control all the time. I don't get it!?
Guess I'll just burn em off and go back to the pr4.

[aviationfred]

I watched a Sport-Touring tire comparison video awhile ago. It was said that most pure sport bikes, I.e. R1, R6, CBR, ZRX and others can use the Sport-Touring tires. My opinion is, you get better grip than the stickier sport oriented tires. Plus the obvious longer mileage. As most of us know, the stickier tires require higher heat to generate traction. Typically, that can not be generated on the street.

Here is the video. https://youtu.be/EzcgeHLZMvw

Fred

[giantkiller]

I know that some heat is needed to make any tire work. But you would think. A softer  compound would have more traction than a harder compound. At any temperature. And thinking along that line I spent time building some heat in the tire, and went back in the heat of the day (4:00). Same thing tire just spins and kicks it out.  Or is there some strange formula that s softer compound tire isn't softer until you hit higher track only temps.

[FJmonkey]

Race tires can reach 100C (212F), so "Sticky" is relative to the application. Sticky when HOT (racing) or sticky when warm (street), different compounds. That 1350 goes through rear tires fast enough that you can try many different brands and compounds. I am interested in what you find works best.

[giantkiller]

So still not sticky. Pilot power s are supposed to be street/track day tire. So thought would be better for dry corners on the street.  But not wet. But don't seem to be as good as the pr4 for dry street corners. I really like the pilot road tires. They give me confidence in any road conditions.(I haven't been on gravel or dirt). I have been past their limits at times. But it been predictable and recoverable. Not abrupt and complete release like with the pps. Maybe a little to do with the profile. They are all  180/55/17 . But from the pr3- pr4 they narrowed the tire alittle. And gave it a rounder profile. And the pr4s seem to slide around alittle more when on the gas coming out of corners. And the pilot power has an even taller profile. And they loose traction easily on power out of the corners. I don't know. I don't like the long high speed 100mph sweepers. That it seems the rest of the Fj riders like. I like the tighter stuff, slower speeds.( Probably because I'm not that good a rider) Where you can feel the tires,the bike moving around under you. And have some time and ability to correct. If the pp  had given out on me the way it has. In a faster corner the bike would have went away from me. And I would be in the hospital again. And probably have reached the 40 broken bones goal already.

[FJmonkey]

"40 broken bones goal"? 

[giantkiller]

Yah I've had 37 broken bones. So far. Thought I'd set the goal at 40. As I never seem to obtain my goals.

[FJmonkey]

Yah I've had 37 broken bones. So far. Thought I'd set the goal at 40. As I never seem to obtain my goals.

Do your cracked ribs count as broken?

[giantkiller]

I count them. One was broken on both ends. It was moving around as I was riding the 34 miles back to the truck. One handed on my bent Raptor. It was why I told God it was OK if  he took me. But I asked him to watch over my daughter McKayla. I thought I might have torn something internally. kept looking down to see if I was bleeding out internally. To see if my belly was getting distended.Actually out of all the broken bones I've had the ribs are probably the most painful. You can't immobilize your ribs. One has to breathe.

[oldktmdude]

   Dan, give the Metzeler Roadtec Z8's a try. Bloody great tyre! I've used the PR4's and reckon the Z8's are even better. I have about 500kms life left in my current set of Z8's and have a new set of Metzeler Roadtec 01's in my shed, waiting to be fitted. They're supposed to be even better. I love testing tyres. 
   Regards, Pete.

[giantkiller]

I was away from sport bikes for a long time after the accident in 1990. When the paramedics said I was dead. And back then metzelers were the best. So I put metzelers on when I first got the 86 back on the street. I believe they were the z4s. I thought they really sucked. Been hearing that the z8 were good. I love the pr4s .  If you think the z8 are even better maybe I'll give metzelers a try. Be sure and let us know if you think the 01s are.better.

Thanks Dan

[ribbert]

   Dan, give the Metzeler Roadtec Z8's a try. Bloody great tyre! I've used the PR4's and reckon the Z8's are even better. I have about 500kms life left in my current set of Z8's and have a new set of Metzeler Roadtec 01's in my shed, waiting to be fitted. They're supposed to be even better. I love testing tyres. 
   Regards, Pete.

Yep, I agree. My previous tyres were Z8's (after a few sets of RA2 GT's) I currently have PR4 GT's and will be going back to the Metzeler, this time the 01's.

The Michelins sure deliver the miles, but they don't ride or stick like the Metzelers. With a standard engine, half the time they won't even spin up in the wet in first gear / full throttle.

Noel

[Bill_Rockoff]

I'm not riding at that level, but I had a pair of Z8s on the FJ1200 a couple years ago. (160/70 or 170/60 on the 17x5 rear wheel, I forget which. 120/70-17 on the front 3x17 stock wheel.) Loved 'em, but the rear was toast in 4,500 miles, which I have never had on radials. (Disclaimer: the only radials I have ever had on the FJ have been Metzlers.) The front Z8 still seems to have a lot of life left, and maybe I should have replaced the rear Z8 with another Z8, because the bike handled well even with the rear tire bald. Usually long before that point, the tire profiles have changed so much that the bike doesn't want to lean, but in this case the bike cornered great and I only took it easy to make sure I'd make it home without wearing through the tire.

I am back to Z6s on the FJ. I have the front Z8 sitting in the garage, still looks pretty good. I may reinstall it and use a new Z8 rear next time. I feel like the Z8s were easier to ride harder, at the expense of longevity (I normally get 6,500+ miles out of a pair of Z6s.

The 998 has a pair of Q3s. I barely speak the language that the Ducati is trying to communicate in (I did a track day at Barber Motorsports Park in July and I sucked; it was like I had never ridden a motorcycle before.) But even in normal Sunday mountain riding, I can tell the difference between the way that bike feels in the first five or ten corners of open road and the way it feels after two or three good minutes of empty twisties. Those tires need a couple dozen good street corners, one after the other, or maybe five or ten racetrack corners, before they're warm enough to do what they're supposed to. Honestly, if Sunday sport rides were all I was going to use the bike for, I'd probably go with a pair of sport-touring tires for that bike too, (maybe RoadSmarts like Andrew has on his 916, or maybe that'd be the perfect fitment for Z8s) because I almost never get a chance to ride 20+ corners in a row decently hard on the street. And 20+ corners in a row decently hard is s the kind of riding you need to be doing to get a Q3 hot enough to stick harder than a RoadSmart will stick. 

Run a few minutes in a row at elevated cornering speeds on Pilot Powers, and I bet you'd get them warm enough to where they start giving you more grip than a Pilot Road will give you. If you're just riding along except you get a decent shot at a roundabout once in a while, that's the exact circumstance under which a pure sport tire is at a disadvantage to a sport-touring tire. The difference will get more pronounced as the temperatures get cooler, too.

I used to notice this a lot on car tires, when I tracked my daily-driver on street tires all the time. It would be brilliant on a track or a twisty road, but less brilliant on the first couple corners of a twisty road. And in winter commuting, it would slide a lot easier on aggressive tires than it would on normal sporty-car tires.