Your tire manufacturer will dictate the correct psi. It is on the tire sidewall.
My Avon Vipers require 42 front 42 back.

 

i run 40 front and 40 back.

 

40+ front????? jeeesus! most owners manuals state 36/42!

remember just cause a tire says it's rated for a certain psi doesn't necessarily mean you should run that all the time. let the conditions dictate! the psi on the sidewall is MAX PSI!!

ps I forgot to also mention weight (bike+rider=load) to dictate tire pressure. generally less weight = less psi necessary

now if you don't ride hard at all and just want your tire to last a longgg time...go for that max psi but 40 psi in the front just sounds insane to me. if ever in doubt, contact a sales rep for a tire or the tire co itself and ask them...they will usually give you baseline street/track psi to run with the tire based upon its stiffness. almost everyone will tell you that 34-36 front with 38-42 rear is what you wanna run to conserve the tire.

First time I ran a trackday I had 4 months riding experience. Ran 36 front/42 rear on a set of 120/160 road attacks on a kawi 750. The grip was there during smooth, controlled leaning but I was sliding everywhere on the brakes and on the gas out of the corner. Guys behind me said it was freakin them out. Sure enough about 4 sessions in the front tire just gave out under hard braking and I just went down. hard. Tire was probably cold.

One time I ran a dot race attack front with a pilot road 2 rear... started out in the mid 30s and I could absolutely feel the difference as i dropped down. the problem with going too low with street tires is that because of their quick warm-up, they can quickly overheat..so on a track, you need to monitor hot temps verrry closely with street tires and be conscious of the fact they can overheat. there have been many horror stories of certain street tires having no feeling or just letting go all of a sudden and usually it's due to overheating/low pressure. conversely the same thing will happen on a cold tire/running too much psi.

on the street you're never really gonna get some heat in there, so i say go ahead and run a lower psi so you can get as much heat as you can in that tire for when you need it. i have heard some people run lower pressures on the street than even on the track on street tires. these are usually very fast guys of course.

last note...i seriously cannot even begin to tell you how much tires and tire pressures matter!!! screw oil changes and cleaning your bike, if you wanna be **** about something let it be pressures!

 

here are avons general recommendations
Avon Motorcycle Tyres North America » Tire Pressure Guidelines
Front/Rear ----------solo ----- 2/light --- 2/heavy

110/70-120/90 ---- 34-36 --- 36-38 --- 36-38
140/70-200/50 ---- 38-40 --- 38-42 --- 40-42
How odd, that kinda sounds right about in line with what I've been saying??? Dear jesus even 2up heavy they don't recommend over 38 on the front, how could this beeeeeee?

here you can see someone says avon recommended 30/28 for the track on vipers
http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/Ne...0trackdayblog/

so, depending on conditions, here are some general guidelines for street tires;
30/30 hard riding
32/34 light weight/aggressive
34/38 general
35/40+ for added weight and long trips.

 

If you are checking your original tires that came on the bike, the manual would be a great place to go for information.

Im pretty sure the ORIGINAL question was for a daily rider.
He did not mention track conditions at all.

Its super easy to check the specs.
This is my rear Avon Viper Tire.



This is my FRONT tire.

 

Well, I use front: 26-36 psi and rear: 21-38 psi.

Why such a range? Because it depends on so many factors, it is impossible to tell someone what to run without garnering some information. Tire brand, tire model, tire style, usage (street or track), ambient conditions, load, and surface all come into play.

You can't use "general" recommendations for a street tire without knowing at least the tire. We used to always tell people 30/30 for a trackday, but with new tire technologies, that is actually too low for some tires - the sidewalls will collapse, but may actually be too HIGH for some brands. As a trackday instructor, students come to me frequently with the psi question. My first response is "What tire?". If it's certain Michelin's or a Bridgestone BT003, I can tell 'em because I use 'em. Otherwise, I send them to someone who can. Too many variables.

Some tire pressures should be checked cold and hot, others cold only, others hot only.

Use your manual and the tire manufacturer's recommendations (and remember, what it says on the sidewall is the psi for MAX load).

 

^ winner...

if you want to run 42/42 by all means... what you see there is the max psi and load
the tire is rated for, not what's recommended! both my dunlop 211 gp-a (front and rear) and my sport touring rubber say 42 on the sidewall.

I apologize for putting up the generic guidelines although I do believe they will work alright for most people on a sportbike with sporty tires. I have to say it's probably better than people running around thinking they should run 42/42 because the tire says so or just neglecting their air pressures all together and wondering why their bike handles like **** when the tire has 15 psi in it.
i also put that up because some people would rather not get into all that or just would rather keep it simple. People who really want to know are gonna learn at the track because that's the only way to really push the tire anyway and it's the only place where you're really starting to get into the supension/tire/brake mindset.... i think for street riders it's probably important that they just check their pressures and as long as they stay between 30 and 40, everything will probably be just fine.

the best idea is to ask the tire manufacturer what they recommend and go from there or ask experienced people such as yourself what would be a good place to start based upon whatever given factors. still i see no reason to run 40+ PSI especially on the front unless you're riding two up with gear on a heavy bike or maybe if you're really fat/it's like 130 degrees outside.

 

If I did the experimenting with different pressures constantly it would be like riding a different bike every day.
Nothing like wondering whats gonna happen in heavy traffic or ANY traffic for that matter.
If you keep it simple and use the same pressure each ride you KNOW what the bike it going to do. There will be no surprises.
Thats my

 

I hate your type of mentality. "Oh it's been fine up until now so why change it?" It's not fine, you just don't know any better. It's not going to feel like a totally different bike (sigh). 42 PSI if anything is just making your ride extra bumpy and stiff and your tire will never get up to temperature. PS, your 42 PSI will go up and down as the weather heats up and cools down. Did you notice the drastic changes in handling you're talking about?

The only time you're ever gonna really feel the difference between changes in pressure are when you're actually pushing the tire hard. Still, getting on the brakes hard in an emergency situation on an over inflated, cold tire doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me. 42 PSI in the rear is no big deal, most of the time on the street, unless you're coming hard out of corners, it's not gonna be a big deal. But the front tire is what gets loaded every time you have to brake hard and swerve or anything like that, it would behoove you to reconsider.

I dare you to give Avon a call or email and ask them what they recommend. Did you really think up until now that what the manufacturer puts on the side of the tire is what is recommended?? You see how it shows the max weight allowable next to that as well? Don't you think you should compensate with less pressure for less weight? How long you been riding man?

 

I weigh 205lbs. What do you want me to change the tire pressure to and I'll do it.
I would love this plush comfy ride you speak of.
Been riding 2 years and love this bike!!!!