Hi Again!
I have now put around 1700 km´s on my 1000F, and have accepted that my front needed changing. It was very nervous at every seam in the asphalt, and I had a episode of locking the front brakes during early season driving training. I took your advice Rippn, I put on a Avon Viper Sport on front, and Wooaa what a differance!!! I now know what you all talk about when you say how much you love this bike and how stable it is!
I attended a track day yesterday, how this turned out will be published in another thread, I have some digital video footage if someone is interested, I just have to buy a Firewire cable in order to get the video into my PC and edit it (much trees and shaking), be patient!



"Original thread question"
Hi all!

I have just ordered a new rear rubber for my ´97 1KF, the one mentioned in Subject row, in standard dimension. Anyone that have some
experience in this tire, feel free to share your thoughts!
The reason I´m changing the tire is that the old one (Michelin Macadam) has been worn flat, there´s about 3" of flat space in the "middle" or what
it`s called in English, but the rest of the tire look´s damn good, so it´s kinda frustrating to have to buy a new one, there´s even moulding edges left on
the shoulders...
The front tire is as good as new, and that one is also Michelin Macadam, do you think that the Avon will disagree with the Michelin in front and cause
me trouble?
By the way, does anyone know of a similar forum like this, but for the VFR 750/800 model?

 

It all depends on your driving habits. If you just use the bike for gentle touring trips and not load it hard thrue corners, I wouldn't worry at all riding the combination you describe, as long as the front tyre is in good condition. Your feeling for the bike, and sense for dangerous situations, is far more important than having a matched pair of tyres or really sticky ones. If the rubber on the used front tyre is aged/hardened, you have to be careful not to wash out the front. Lastly, if you are going to push the bike hard in corners or at track, I would not run anything other than a front and rear that are designed for good grip and stability. Mixing brands is not really a big problem in this case eather, as long as they are designed for the same purpose and you don't try to brake track records or make bad line selections.

I presently have new Michelin Power on front and rear and they are really great for inspired driving (not recommended on public roads). This is not a good choice for long tyre life, but I prefer to have premium grip for this heavy beast, at least until I really know how it behaves. Later on, I might change to more touring oriented tyres to increase the mileage, but one grow some bad habits with good tyres and might be unpleasantly surpriced if changing to less grippy tyres and not backing of the throttle. The old CBR does not have the same low weight and fine feedback as a more track oriented bike, so it might be less forgiving and harder to handle when the grip is lost.

 

I just got a pair of Avons sport/touring tires two weeks ago. I had Metzeler Sportec's before that on my 1000F. The Metezlers are round in cross section and the Avons are triangular. When you lean the Avons, they want to keep on leaning. Took me a few days to learn, but I like them better than worn Metzelers.

First of all, you have to start taking more curves with your bike. Secondly, I would also replace the front Macadam. If it is a round profile like the Metezler, and you now have the Avon, the round and triangle can cause handling problems. Plus, I just attended a talk by Gary Eagan, world champion Iron Butt rider. He's won most long distance rallies. Anyway, he perfers the Avon sport/touring tires for handling and wear.

 

Thanks for the input! slowpoke: First of all, i´ve only ridden about 100km on my 1KF, it´s the previous owner who´has been giving the tire "Chicken Stripes", second, the front tire was changed by previous owner for 1,5 years ago, and both Macadam and Avon ST are designed for the same purpose, so I will be using the front Macadam at
least this year, as long as it not turns out to be a nightmare to run on the combination. R1000: Don´t worry, I won´t be braking any track records, although I´m planning on
attending a "Track day", just to get a "feel" for my new bike, in last weekend june/first weekend july on Sweden´s newest track Monzta, I have a 5 minutes drive to the track from home! Other than that, there will be pretty gentle riding...

 

MK, Ive got about 3k, since late dec on my azarro's sp frnt, 180st rear. I love 'em. I went w/ the sp frnt to sharpen the turning, could have gone sp in the rear too, in retro. as they are not squirley on turn in, but way better tha the 208's, I had. 1000f's are so stable anyway.... 115+ in corners and they stick well. they dont lok as tho the have much wear... still waiting for more warm weather to keep 'em hot !!!!!!!! I think they are a good tire... the tech people in wa. are awsome. the one thing that i had to re check was the high preasures recomended... 36 front 42 rear... sounder to high to me. Techs said, the tire has less cord in the edges and need high preasures to be stable... ok... works good for me. I would like to try diablos, powers or qualifiers too. As for mixing, ask the track techs. avons are made diff (variable density cord thing) and profiles, and may be apples and oranges, I'm w/ slowpoke on that one. Have fun !!!!!!! Clean and free, Ripp'n

 

Please report your findings from the track testing, I'm very interesed, I will probably not have this possibility with the CBR this year. You will gain a lot of worthful experience on track and know the bike much better after that. May be I'll do some test runs on a local co-cart track this summer. Is the track close to you the so called Midlanda track? One of the owners is a friend of mine and I may visit it this summer with the Suzuki.

 

R1000: I sure will! This sunday I will be attending the "Avrostningen" ("derusting", a basic handling and braking drill organized by Swedish Motocyclists Association), I´m looking forward to that!
Regarding Midlanda, I have just about 390 km to that track, so it´s further away than Stockholm for me. I have a cousin in Stockholm that´s probably is coming up to me for that track day on his VFR 800 -01. He is not sure if he will be able to drive tho due to a shoulder injury he sustanied after a crash in low speed (less than 30 km/h) into a
U-turning car last summer though... Why not join him? (coming north, not crashing)

 

Yes that would be nice but I have to conclude an intensive training course at Nurburg Ring in the beginning of June before making more plans.

I have a feeling that I can run about the same speed with the CBR 1000 F in high speed corners, as with my GSX R1000, due to the extreme stability of the old CBR. I might be wrong, but it certainly feels that way to me. I don't have the knee on ground at the higher speeds wich is a part of the explanation. In tight corners it is much more difficult to go really fast with the CBR since it need more curve radious, but the feedback is fine and I have not been negativly surpriced by the CBR.

 

I have an Avon tire on the rear and a wore out dunlop on the front that I plan on replacing very soon. My bike seems to handle okay, but it pushes some. A friend and I switched bikes one day and he said it was pushing but was a very comfortable bike. He drives a 00 GSXR 600. He is pretty good driver. He is the type that will break the backend loose in curves in stuff and not think anything about it. I hope changing the front tire will get rid of the pushing.

 

Went out tonight and did some driving on a curvy road, just to make sure the rear tire needed changing, and it SURE DID! The back end felt like it was standing on toe, and not knowing which way to fall in the curves. I´m thinking that whatever I do, it can´t get any worse than it is. Tomorrow I´m going to the tire dealer to get the new Avon.