After a heated debate with some friends including an ex-racer about what tyres to buy - s21 was the biggest opposition - I wondered how bad could bad tyres be? At Motorcycle live this year you could get Mitas Sportforce+ tyres for £99, I bought mine in march for £120 a set rather than going for what I actually wanted... Out of stubbornness that people don't know what they were talking about! After a summer and some quite spirited riding around the west coast of Scotland, The Answer... Honestly not that bad. The big downside is wet weather performance, in terms of feel in the dry I actually dare I say... liked them? they have a very stiff sidewall so give quite a bit of feedback and have a very very round profile which made my bike quite tippy but felt nice on the side of the tyre. Would I buy them again? Probably not, I mostly do fast road riding or trackdays so for me I'd rather have premium rubber under me but I was pleasantly surprised by them I have to say. Lesson learned, Explore!
Personally I hate the profile of touring and sports touring tyres for fast or track riding - they are way too flat in the centre and seem to take forever to get the bike to turn. I use 180/60 profile on 999s and like it a lot. It does raise the rear of the bike around 10mm (vs a 180/55 or 190/50) which also helps the bike turn in better but may/not be to your liking but it's easy to adjust using the ride height adjuster. You may also want to have a read of this: http://web.archive.org/web/20050311225127/section8superbike.com/749-999suspension.htm
I've seen that website a while back actually, does it work?? I think i'm the same as you, the s21 seemed almost square next to the Mitas! And next to Pirelli superbike slicks they are even worse!
Yes IME. Either way it's a good starting point and gets you experimenting with the geometry and weight bias. Be warned though - playing with geometry is a never-ending process - just look at the MotoGP guys, they spend the whole three days trying to find the best compromise in set up for the bike, track, rider, and conditions. There is no 'one size fits all' and there is no 'perfect setup' for anyone all the time. You should probably make yourself a ride height measuring tool. All this stuff might be better off in your build thread perhaps?
Yes, IMO it does help to squeeze the narrower, taller tyre on f you cant get a wider/taller one. KR 195/65 may be a shout too. Those touring tyres are too easy to get to the edge of when riding in track mode.
Yeah Luckily enough two of my lecturers used to be data analyst guys in WSBK and GP, So we use 2D systems stuff for all the race bikes for the data and motorcycle dynamics lectures. You can see on a nice little screen what works and what doesn't which is brilliant!
What do you mean by 'you can see on the screen what works and what doesn't'? You tried these mate? They sound nice and steep at /65.
Yes. Not a fan but thats not the profile, they had epic turn in, but the way dunlop grip. I preferred 200/60 pirelli, but you cant put that on a 5.5inch rim like the 195. Mike has run them for years and years
Alot of the modern telemetry stuff is completely wireless so you can see what is happening to the bike in real time, because they all have gps you can see what the suspension and rider are doing all the time turn by turn. It's f*cking fantastic!
Ah OK yes I know about all of that, I thought you were suggesting you could instantly see the results of proposed changes ie in some sort of simulation software.
I’m still using Maxxis Diamonds at £135 a pair. Love those tyres and they’ve a properly steep profile to them. Got a few mates that rate them too and have purchased numerous sets. I’m currently on my 4th set. I know at one point, Chris Walker was using these at his track school so they can’t be half bad can they.
I used to use Maxxis on my old R1 5-6 years ago. Fantastic tyres IMO and at that time were cheap in comparison to the big brands.
That software does exist for cars but I'm not sure about bikes, I can't actually remember what it's called though
Funnily enough if you do a bit of digging, continental tyres come from the same factory as mitas.... And mitas have been in business for a very long time!
I run a pair of Mitas - £70 a pair, wear well, plenty of grip and no problems handling my MZ 250's 21bhp! Mitas do a wide range of specialist off road tyres which are highly regarded. Company has a good pedigree.
Nice to here comments on Mitas guys, I am the Technical manager for Mitas in the UK and Ireland, not only do we make Continental under licence we also make tyres for other famous tyre companies, you are most probably using Mitas without knowing it.....
Short answer, Yes, the R&D guys are working on several new product lines, Enduro, MX and others also. The Sportforce+ is a good tyre, when I worked for Bridgestone we sponsored the Ron Haslam race school, all of the CBR600's were fitted with Bridgestone T30's...touring tyres, they gave more than enough grip and lasted longer than a super sport tyre, sports touring tyres are fine for road riders, to get a super sport tyre up to its working temperature on UK roads is almost impossible, and the limiting factor is our road surfaces not the tyre.
