I got a PM from a friend that I met last summer at NAFO in Montrose Colorado asking me about my car tire, he's thinking about giving it a try before heading to YFO this June. I figure it's best to post my thoughts here:
NTXFJR wrote:
Hi Brodie,
I hope this finds you well.
... I wonder if I could throw a dark side question your way. I remember you had a c/t on your bike when we met last summer. 17K on my bike now and I'm on the 3rd set of tires. What tire are you using? Any preference for the front as well? I'm looking to throw a set of something on before yfo, which I'm hoping to still make.
Cheers,
Craig
Hi Craig
You asked about the car tire I'm using...
I've run 3 different brands through the years, the first one was the Bridgestone 019 Grid. That was the one that Eric first settled on when he started this crazy experiment. It was a bit stiff, and harsh, but proved that it was quite feasible to run one.
The second brand I ran was the Michelin Pilot EXALTO. My buddy Brian (FJRONAMISSON) came up with that one after trying out my bike shod with the 'Stone. The Exalto was legendary in it's bike like handling and had quite a following before it went out of production. I ran 2 of them and got around 35,000 miles on each of them.
The latest one I run is the General Tire G-Max. Several people run it and are quite happy with it. I'm on my second one and am getting comparable life with them. I typically run 31 PSI out back to allow it to flex it's side walls better with the road.
Any premium tire up front will do just fine, I like to run 44 PSI up front. Currently I'm on a Perelli Angel with good wear patterns. I've also run the Michelin PR2 and PR4 tires too. Note... the PR4 seems to be a noisy tire because of all of those sipes cut across the tread.
If you run a car tire expect to change out the front tire a little earlier because it tends to get scrubbed a bit due to the rear tire's flat-ish cross section. If you normally get 12,000 miles up front, it may be closer to 11,000 miles when mated with the car tire - small price to pay.
The bigger issue you may have is what I call 'The Dance' back there. The tire will tend to right itself square with the road surface. For some people it is unsettling, others like me don't think much of it once we've gotten used to it. It's kind of weird at first, running slowly down a road that has a rough, irregular or patched surface, you will feel every imperfection as it throws you around a bit because of it's squareness catching the edge on a rut. Let it happen, hey it's part of the charm. Run a bit faster and it smooths out quite a bit, although it's still there. High speed sweepers like freeway turns at speed have you constantly pushing on the handlebar to keep it from standing up in the turn - unless you employ a bit of body english. Do this... Move your butt around in anticipation for the turn. The change in ballast helps flex that inner sidewall to pull the bike into the turn. I run no hands quite a bit and it's kinda fun to play like this.
One thing I would strongly suggest... DO NOT mount a your first car tire a week or even a month before a long trip thinking you will grow into liking it the more you ride it. You may, but then again you may regret it not having the absolute crisp handling that this bike is capable of in the twisties. Experiment with the dark side when you have a lot of time on roads quite familiar to you. The nice thing is if you find that it isn't what you want to run, just mount another motorcycle tire and be done with it, don't think you have to live with it until it wears out. You can get a G-Max for for around $130 these days. You may like it, it will wear like iron - yet stick like glue.
Most importantly, enjoy the bike, after all these are supposed to be fun!
Brodie
Click on these links to learn more about my G-Max choice:
https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/141913-going-to-the-dark-side/?p=1155441
https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/141913-going-to-the-dark-side/?p=1159635
