Monday 23 March 2009

GP800 - Tyre Replacement

The Pirelli Diablos have been on for a few hunded miles now and I'm very impressed. Much better handling in town and no issues with high speed stability either. As long as they wear reasonably evenly, and last at least 5,000 miles they'll do for me.

The OE Michelin Pilot Sport SCs managed 6,700 miles and the rear was still comfortably legal when when the tyres were changed. It was however comprehesively squared off. The front was just coming up to the wear bars and had lost profile dramatically - Google "cupping" or "scalloping" to see the effect. I'm sure the front started with less tread depth because the only other bike that I've owned that wore front tyres as fast as rears was the R1100RS and that's down to the Telelever front end.

Another contributory factor may be the fact that I'd increased the rear shock preload to stop the bike wallowing and that may have "loaded" the front too much. I don't think it's unreasonable that a bike of this calibre should have adjustable damping - jacking up the preload to stiffen up the bike is not really the answer - higher levels of damping would properly slow the rate of movement of the shock - rather than just reducing its travel.
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Monday 9 March 2009

GP800 - Chain Noise

This weekend the OE fit Michelin Pilot Sport SCs were replaced by a pair of Pirelli Diablos – more on that story later. While at Essential Rubber in Hackney, the guys there noticed that the rear sprocket was not tight against the carrier. This answers my question from an earlier post, here was the true cause of the noise that I had incorrectly diagnosed as a chain noise (at least I could tell it was final drive related).

The risk in these circumstances is that the holes in the sprocket will elongate as well as wearing the bolts themselves – to the point that they will eventually snap. Further investigation and comparison with a new sprocket revealed that the holes had not elongated and that the bolts were not damaged. A quick application of a spanner to the bolts has completely cured the noise.

I’ll be keeping an eye on that one !