Wow

The DynaBeads showed up today and I got them put in the new rear tire and checked the pressure on the front and the bike was all ready to go, all I had to do is find a time to ride. It stopped the light rain and the sun broke out, so I decided to take my maiden voyage on the way to pool league. Not far, only about 5 miles of in town roads, no twisties, just normal intersection turns and it felt a little different, but not bad. The clouds decided to open up while I was shooting and I had the pleasure of riding home in what felt like a shower. The new ct stuck to the road like glue. I gave the bike some gas on a straight stretch that would have broke the stock dunny loose on dry pavement, and the bike just went. Stopped quick for a yellow and instead of the rear sliding along the wet pavement, the bike just stopped - no slip sliding at all. I am sold on the tremendous improvent for wet weather riding, now I just can't wait to get some miles on the tire and get back into the twisties with it. The other challenge is going to be learning how to get my bike through the "box" while I teach and demo for the MSF class. Thanks to all that helped. Erik

glad you like it! Just takes a little practice for the slow speed maneuvers, they can all be done!

Welcome Aboard Work on those DS wings, you need more handlebar input tis all, once you gain confidence in the tire's handling ability you'll really enjoy it.

Welcome to the darkside.....dont forget the mold release

Jerry

Waiting for a drier day to get back out and work on the mold release. I wanted to try to get some more mile in on the way home, but the weather wasn't the best for that last night. My wife gets back in town next Friday, so I should be able to get out for an hour or two next weekend to get a few more miles on it. I teach an ERC class on the 10th of April, so I need to get out and work on the tight turns some so I don't look like an idoit when it comes to class time. Erik

erik..b wrote:Waiting for a drier day to get back out and work on the mold release. I wanted to try to get some more mile in on the way home, but the weather wasn't the best for that last night. My wife gets back in town next Friday, so I should be able to get out for an hour or two next weekend to get a few more miles on it. I teach an ERC class on the 10th of April, so I need to get out and work on the tight turns some so I don't look like an idoit when it comes to class time. Erik

Gstanfield is a MSF instructor also and they let him!


................................bobby


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Sounds like you're already seeing the advantages! All the slow maneuvers can be done, it just takes a little time getting used to the way it handles now. Like has been said, you give a bit more input into the handlebars, but I don't think it is something you will spend long mastering.

Congrats on the sweet ride, and welcome to the club!

jedishon wrote:dont forget the mold release

Originally Posted by Metzeler Tires
There are common mis-conceptions about tires that never seem to go away. Let us explain the details in the following method.
Tires are manufactured with very modern methods and without mold release. It is critical to understand that the appearance of the tire and mold surface have a important relationship. Customers love to look and touch tires and the tires must be visually appealing. To make this happen the mold surface is polished and is very smooth so the tire's surface is the same. So clearly this type of mold surface (and a shot of steam) helps the tire release from the mold at the end of it's curing cycle and mold release is not needed.

Tires are made from 20 or so petroleum based chemicals along with steel for the beads (and tread belts in some products) and various fabrics like rayon, nylon, Kevlar, and polyester to make a tire. Compounds are formulated to do the various jobs needed. For instance the tubeless tire's inner liner compound is there to prevent the tire from leaking air thru the carcass. The tread compound is very different from this liner compound and the sidewall compound as it must grip the road, give chemical wet grip, provide less rolling resistance to give mileage. To get these exactly as the R&D engineer wants them to be the tire is baked in a oven to change the molecular structure to the required product. These curing ovens use a heat between 300 to 500 degrees F for around 10 to 30 minutes (trade secret, sorry) to vulcanize the tire as it was designed. This means that once the tire leaves the mold it is finished and no curing is done by the rider.

The idea of the breaking in a new tire is as follows. First is that after the install the tire will move ever so slightly on the rim to seat itself in the first few miles. The break in procedure we suggest is somewhere between 3 corners of the first lap for a race tire on a race track to about 300 miles for a touring tire. Why? Well the extreme forces generated to the soft race compound tire by a expert rider will break in the tire in the first few corners of the race track. Then on the other end you we have a guy on a BMW K1200 LT riding on public roads at legal speeds gently scrubbing in the tires over the 300 or so miles of use. Now let's talk about scrubbing. When the tire is new the very sharp edges of the tread grooves combined with the tire's smooth surface GIVE the impression of a slippery tire, but that is not the case. This new tire is sensitive to the various bumps, grooves, holes of the pavement and this sensitivity is what your customers are saying is the slippery feeling. So as you can see the point of the break in is to help the customer get used to a new (non worn out) quicker and better handling tire at a easy pace and to knock off the sharp edges and scuff the tread blocks.

When you speak of warm up then you must remember that any street tire needs about 2 to 5 miles to get up to proper temperature to work properly and give maximum handling to the rider. For instance if your mechanic test rode your bike with new tires and after 1 mile he came back and said the front has a vibration then he probably did not get the tire up to the proper temp and probably there is nothing wrong with the tire. To understand this better park your car for about a week and then drive it. For sure you will feel a slight vibration for the first 2 or so miles until the tires warm up and then smooth sailing right? Well that is tire warm up. I hope this helps answer your questions and ride safe.

US Metzeler Moto

Dan wrote:

jedishon wrote:dont forget the mold release

Originally Posted by Metzeler Tires
There are common mis-conceptions about tires that never seem to go away. Let us explain the details in the following method.
Tires are manufactured with very modern methods and without mold release. It is critical to understand that the appearance of the tire and mold surface have a important relationship. Customers love to look and touch tires and the tires must be visually appealing. To make this happen the mold surface is polished and is very smooth so the tire's surface is the same. So clearly this type of mold surface (and a shot of steam) helps the tire release from the mold at the end of it's curing cycle and mold release is not needed.

Tires are made from 20 or so petroleum based chemicals along with steel for the beads (and tread belts in some products) and various fabrics like rayon, nylon, Kevlar, and polyester to make a tire. Compounds are formulated to do the various jobs needed. For instance the tubeless tire's inner liner compound is there to prevent the tire from leaking air thru the carcass. The tread compound is very different from this liner compound and the sidewall compound as it must grip the road, give chemical wet grip, provide less rolling resistance to give mileage. To get these exactly as the R&D engineer wants them to be the tire is baked in a oven to change the molecular structure to the required product. These curing ovens use a heat between 300 to 500 degrees F for around 10 to 30 minutes (trade secret, sorry) to vulcanize the tire as it was designed. This means that once the tire leaves the mold it is finished and no curing is done by the rider.

The idea of the breaking in a new tire is as follows. First is that after the install the tire will move ever so slightly on the rim to seat itself in the first few miles. The break in procedure we suggest is somewhere between 3 corners of the first lap for a race tire on a race track to about 300 miles for a touring tire. Why? Well the extreme forces generated to the soft race compound tire by a expert rider will break in the tire in the first few corners of the race track. Then on the other end you we have a guy on a BMW K1200 LT riding on public roads at legal speeds gently scrubbing in the tires over the 300 or so miles of use. Now let's talk about scrubbing. When the tire is new the very sharp edges of the tread grooves combined with the tire's smooth surface GIVE the impression of a slippery tire, but that is not the case. This new tire is sensitive to the various bumps, grooves, holes of the pavement and this sensitivity is what your customers are saying is the slippery feeling. So as you can see the point of the break in is to help the customer get used to a new (non worn out) quicker and better handling tire at a easy pace and to knock off the sharp edges and scuff the tread blocks.

When you speak of warm up then you must remember that any street tire needs about 2 to 5 miles to get up to proper temperature to work properly and give maximum handling to the rider. For instance if your mechanic test rode your bike with new tires and after 1 mile he came back and said the front has a vibration then he probably did not get the tire up to the proper temp and probably there is nothing wrong with the tire. To understand this better park your car for about a week and then drive it. For sure you will feel a slight vibration for the first 2 or so miles until the tires warm up and then smooth sailing right? Well that is tire warm up. I hope this helps answer your questions and ride safe.

US Metzeler Moto

So they say be careful for the first 300 miles.....I liked it better as mold release and taking it careful the first 100-200 miles......
Thanks for the info.....

Jerry

I always believed the mold release theory myself, until last week when I saw the above info. Makes sense. They'd have a ton of lawsuits if they left something slippery on the tire. I believe the break in time is exaggerated for liability purposes also, my new tires feel fine after 20-30 swerving miles.

Or.............one smoking burn out!...............


...........................bobby

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Tried the burnout thing myself. Almost pulled a Muntz. My arms are longer now for sure. I did the shell road thing to scuff em up.

jedishon wrote:So they say be careful for the first 300 miles.....I liked it better as mold release and taking it careful the first 100-200 miles

I don't read be careful for 300 mi, simply that's what it may take to break-in, depending on the bike, rider, road surface, etc.. The example uses a BMW, their MT's last forever compared to the X.

Don't worry at all about Darksiding a safety course! I passed 2 advanced safety courses in Pennsylvania on my 1800 Darkside. The first one had me a little nervous because I had only been on a CT for a hundred miles or so with very few tight, slow turns under my belt. The course went fine, passed the test no prob. In fact they had to test me seperate from the rest of the class on the "panic stop" portion because my integrated brakes were doing thier job too well! ....lol. apperantly I can stop this monster in a shorter distance than they had marked off!

erik..b wrote:The DynaBeads showed up today and I got them put in the new rear tire and checked the pressure on the front and the bike was all ready to go, all I had to do is find a time to ride. It stopped the light rain and the sun broke out, so I decided to take my maiden voyage on the way to pool league. Not far, only about 5 miles of in town roads, no twisties, just normal intersection turns and it felt a little different, but not bad. The clouds decided to open up while I was shooting and I had the pleasure of riding home in what felt like a shower. The new ct stuck to the road like glue. I gave the bike some gas on a straight stretch that would have broke the stock dunny loose on dry pavement, and the bike just went. Stopped quick for a yellow and instead of the rear sliding along the wet pavement, the bike just stopped - no slip sliding at all. I am sold on the tremendous improvent for wet weather riding, now I just can't wait to get some miles on the tire and get back into the twisties with it. The other challenge is going to be learning how to get my bike through the "box" while I teach and demo for the MSF class. Thanks to all that helped. Erik

Eric... What have you learned on this new CT. Any advice for us nubes on CT's????? Especially low speed manuevers??? Thanks, Joe

So far I have enjoyed the new tire. Still practicing the tight, low speed maneuvers. Taught an ERC class last Friday and by the end of the day it was getting more and more comfortable at low speeds. I have a 4000 mile plus ride coming up in a week, and by the end of that I should not even be able to tell the difference - can barely tell it now. Erik

erik..b wrote:So far I have enjoyed the new tire. Still practicing the tight, low speed maneuvers. Taught an ERC class last Friday and by the end of the day it was getting more and more comfortable at low speeds. I have a 4000 mile plus ride coming up in a week, and by the end of that I should not even be able to tell the difference - can barely tell it now. Erik

It will keep getting better! I have been riding a car tire every day since Thanksgiving '06 and still get impressed by it.


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