Hi Mark, both front and rear are Bridgestone Battleax BT014's. Rear tyre has more wear than the front... back one only had about 1mm tread left, front has a couple mm's still, but both have that flattened pattern. New tyres next weekend for sure!

I'll get the mechanic to check swingarm bearings as well as the wheel and head bearings.

 

Yes that’s a good hint. Another thing to check is to have the bike on the center stand and ask a fellow to hold down the rear. Then check that the fork turns very easy left/right and that there is no lash either. My Hurricane wassomewhat unwilling to small steering movements like when you go very slowly before a stop and try tokeep the bikeupright by small and quick steering maneuvers. Perhaps theHurricane has some generic resistance to small steering movements, or I had a bad or to tightened steering bearing. I don't have the bike left so I can’t check, and it didn't affect normal driving under any conditions. The bike was also perfectly willing to flip-flop with confidenceon tracks.

 

The head bearings was one of the things I checked before buying it, I had my mate lean the bike back and the steering was nice and smooth and appeared to have no slop... Though now that I play with it it feels a littlt too free, i.e. it's smooth and solid but very easy to turn, not very stiff. The bike seems to handle slow speed manouvering well, though I havn't tried full lock turning at walking space, but u-turns and what not seems to be ok.

I think once I get a bit more confidence with being back on 2 wheels and learn to trust the bike and get used to it it will be ok. New tyres will help for sure too.

Thanks for all your feedback guys... some great information there!

 

Hey:

Its most likely the tires, check how much air is in them and if the rear is as worn as you say then that can be alot of what your feeling.
When you get new tires that will tell you, Also what size are you going to get on the rear and what width is it now? A wider 180 tire will
slow down the handling if you have on the stock 170 now.

Good luck

Dub

 

You may well have answered your own question right there. It might not hurt to have a mechanic give it a quick curbside look over but if you haven't been on a bike in a while it's very possible, even likely, that you'll have some issues until you get back in the groove. Make sure nothing's grossly wrong and then just ride it a bit.

BTW, have fun!

 

You sound like you are about my age nearly 50 anyway I thougth I would give you my thoguths on tyres I put Bridgestone Batlax BT 20 on my girl and I had to replace the rear in December BUT I got 12,400 Kls out of it, my frotn one has 13,000 Odd and I still expect to get anopther say 2 to 3,000 Kls from it. Iput on a Pilot Road and out of the two I prefered the Batlax. My riding conditions are say 80 straight roads anythign up to 500 Kls on a weekend and occasional bends when I can find them. I am 6 foot 3 and about 120 Kilos wife the wife being 70 odd kilos and we carry up to 40 Kilos of luggage on a trip. I too only got back on bikes last year after an absence of nearly 25 years but since May last year we have clocked up 20,000 Kls as it is my work vehicle as well. Hope this helps you out.

Wazza

 

Thanks Wazza... LOL, no not 50, although some days it feels like it... no I just clocked 30 on the old age clock but getting married young and having a 13 year old daughter makes me feel older!

I've priced new tyres for the thing and I can see why the guy wanted to get rid of it!! Last time I brought a tyre it cost me $150 fitted, mind you it was a skinny thing... prolly 90 or 100 wide and that was a battlax by memory. Local bike shop got back to me today and has quote aroud $275 ea tyre plus upto $30 each for fitting on the bike.. $15 a pot if I bring the wheels in. Quoted tyres are Michelin Pilot Roads, but she mentioned other brands would be around the same. I also asked for rough price to get a mechanic to do a roadside check and quote around an hour... So if I go to these guys I'll walk away around $700 poorer!!

I checked out some online tyre sellers and I can get Dunlop D220's for $360 all up (exc. freight) and there's even a mob on eBay selling the Mich Pilot Roads for around the $190 + $15 delivery mark.

I'm not sure I'm a confident enough mechanic to be pulling the wheels off of this thing... never played with a chain'ed bike before and all looks complex! Alternative is to get some pricing in Mildura (140km east) or Adelaide (240km west) and see if it works out cheaper.

On the plus, I've racked up 50km on the CBR and starting to feel more comfortable and trusting of the bike.

She has some rattles though, they do mostly seem to go away after she's warmed up, so the initial sounds are prolly the CC and/or CCT, but I've been reading about adjusting the backlash thingy as I've been reading on these forums and see if that helps with some of the rattles. She seems to run nice... slightly lumpy idle but no lack of power in the low revs. Could probably do with a carby sync and valvae clearance checkup.

Wow these things have the potential to be an endless syphon of the wallet!!

 

It sounds to me like worn tires also. In the turns you have to fight the " V " shape of thefront tire and on the straights you have to fight the
" |_| " shape of the reartire.These bikes are front end heavy and can ware front tires when ridden hard. They also have enough power to wear out rear tires when the throttle is twisted.

I think that new tires will renew you confidence.

 

I took the CBR out on the highway today... yeehaa! Starting to bring back some great memories! And getting me back into the groove! Gee these things are great on the highway! Handle much nicer at speed! Although I noticed a very slight vibration in the handle bars which after about an hour of riding around kinda made my right hand rather numb!! Vibration was slightly worse at highway speeds. Nothing major though.

As the days progress I'm starting to notice more and more noises and faults with this thing! I think the honeymoon period is already starting to end! I might create a seperate thread to discuss the noises as it appears to be nothing that's really been mentioned before, as far as I've been able to search.

Can't wait for new tyres now! LOL!

 

I think every one missed one point in his post. You are applying alot of force to the inside clip on to keep the bike from leaning over more.

Although it is counter intuitive, bikes counter steer. If you are pushing on the inside clip on , you are leaning the bike over further and tighting up your turn.

Push right to go right, push left to go left.