Front tire grip under hard braking

[Dan Ruddock]

Looking for the best front tire for hard braking. I don't like to push the limit in turns so that is not as important to me but in a panic situation I want all the grip I can get.

My research has pointed toward the Avon roadrider or the pirelli sport demon. The bike is my GS1K. Any ideas? Dan

[bradleymaynar]

You can't do bad with either. The Avon is a little cheaper and I'm trying out my first set this year. Before that it was sport demons. Great tires but they generally should be replaced as a pair yearly, depending on the miles you put on. I want to say that the Pirelli's tend to be done after 6K. I can't give any thoughts into the Avon's, but they came highly recommended by bwringer. A bunch of us IL guys opted for them over the Pirelli's. I haven't been disappointed in them at all.

And just to give you an idea of my riding style, I don't push my limits and rarely scrape a peg, but I know how to enjoy a twisty road at speed. Hope this helps.

Brad bk

[salty_monk]

Roadriders working well for me... I had about 5k on a set with little sign of wear. I reckon I'd have got about 10k out of the rear.

Dan

[Dan Ruddock]

Remember I am only talking about the front tire where 90% of the braking power is and as we know they last much longer than the rear. My guess is that front tire wear between the avon and the pirelli will be very close. Yes no maybe? Dan

[tkent02]

Remember I am only talking about the front tire where 90% of the braking power is and as we know they last much longer than the rear. My guess is that front tire wear between the avon and the pirelli will be very close. Yes no maybe? Dan

Pretty sure the Avons will last longer.

[salty_monk]

I think most with Sport Demons struggle to get 2 rear to 1 front whilst the Avons will seem to do 2 rears easy (higher mileage rears at that...)

I haven't got to that stage myself yet though. Brian is the tyre tester...

Dan

[bwringer]

The 100/90-19 RoadRider is actually a front/rear size -- it can be used on either end by switching the direction of rotation. There's an arrow marked front and another marked rear.

Anyway, I've been happily going 2/1 front/rear on the RoadRiders for a couple of years -- I just replaced them as a set a couple of months and 3,500 miles ago. I usually get 6,000 miles from a rear and 12,000 from each front, and -- this is the important part -- they behave themselves wonderfully down to the last shred of tread.

The Pirellis might be a bit more sticky when new, but when I tried a set they were both shagged in 4,000 miles, and felt a little oogly near the end. I ride a lot, and for about 1/3 more money than the Avons, that short tread life is unacceptable.

(YMWV. Most normal humans get more miles out of their tires than I do. I have... special needs.)

Slap on a set of RoadRiders. You'll love 'em.

Oh, and you DO have upgraded fork springs, stainless brake lines, new brake pads, a fork brace, and the other trappings of the well-dressed GS front end, don't you?

[Dan Ruddock]

Oh, and you DO have upgraded fork springs, stainless brake lines, new brake pads, a fork brace, and the other trappings of the well-dressed GS front end, don't you?

I have just put new pads on and the stainless lines are in transit.

Will the tire be so much better than my himax front that the front end dive will be a problem.

I can make the front tire howl now without the front getting too out of shape. Dan

[tkent02]

I have just put new pads on and the stainless lines are in transit.

Will the tire be so much better than my himax front that the front end dive will be a problem.

I can make the front tire howl now without the front getting too out of shape. Dan

Some tires have a huge margin between howling and locking up, just went out on the new 1100, with brand new Avons, pulling the front brake moderately it howled, pulled much harder and deceleration about doubled, the wheel never did lock. The fork springs were bottomed out, need to address that issue soon. My springs are wasted. The bike could stop quite a bit shorter if the suspension was working well.
This is why it is good to practice, things are not always as they seem.

[Dan Ruddock]

Some tires have a huge margin between howling and locking up, just went out on the new 1100, with brand new Avons, pulling the front brake moderately it howled, pulled much harder and deceleration about doubled, the wheel never did lock. The fork springs were bottomed out, need to address that issue soon. My springs are wasted. The bike could stop quite a bit shorter if the suspension was working well.
This is why it is good to practice, things are not always as they seem.

I like the ride I have now with the stock springs (if they are stock) can I get progressive springs that will give me close to the stock comfortable ride. This is all about safety but keeping my bike close to original at the same time. Dan

[tkent02]

I like the ride I have now with the stock springs (if they are stock) can I get progressive springs that will give me close to the stock comfortable ride. This is all about safety but keeping my bike close to original at the same time. Dan

Mine are the original springs, it sat on the sidestand for 23 years, they are sagged badly.
Putting spacers in it for now, going with Progressive springs soon.
With the good shocks on the back, it should ride and handle pretty darned good.

[salty_monk]

Cut a couple of inches of the progressive end off stock spring & replace with solid spacer....

Poor man's progressives. Works great. You may want to up the preload a little too & possibly heavier fork oil. All this helps with brake dive.

Dan

[Dan Ruddock]

Cut a couple of inches of the progressive end off stock spring & replace with solid spacer....

Poor man's progressives. Works great. You may want to up the preload a little too & possibly heavier fork oil. All this helps with brake dive.

Dan

Interesting idea, begs the question, will I lose suspension travel with this trick? Seems to me coil bind will happen sooner with this.

On the stock setup what limits the travel? Coil bind or are there stops designed in to the forks? If stops are designed in to avoid coil bind how much can you cut and still avoid coil bind.

When springs are allowed to coil bind, this will reduce their life. Dan

[salty_monk]

I have cut 4 inches off on a 550 & the coils didn't bind... Somewhere on T'interweb there is a speadsheet for calculating this stuff but if you measure the gap between the coils where it's constant & multiply by the number of coils you have I think you'll find that's more than the total travel available even if you were to cut all the progressive coils off....

Dan