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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