new be

hi all just found youre web site.. wanted to introduce my self .. my name is russ , im 40 yo ,live in ct, and ride an 88 vt 1100.. reading through youre site i got stoked on the idea of a ct on my scoot ... i know some of the newer shadows are runing the 205 .. one would think i got the same Clarence's right ?? im thinkin goin 190 60 for a smaller side wall as i will be dropin it 1.5 inchs and 2 up a lot .. any and all feed back is wanted and welcomed ....couple of other things i was wondering about .. i like the looks of the dc 750 gas tank.. i like the speed o up their .. any one think it would bolt up .. with out major work ?? what concerns would i run into ?? sending unit ?? thanks all be safe and ride when ever possible

Welcome to the best forums on the net

Welcome to the site!

As far as the speedo goes ... I'm not familiar with the dc 750. Can you give more details ... exactly where is your speedo currently and where do you want to move it?

the dc i believe is a shadow spirit 750 or an ss ?? their speed o is tank mounted .. today i went to a tire out let called town fair tire .. i got a 205 60 15 .. its a pro meter .. it did have a hard time setting the beed .. we took it up to 125 130 psi before it would pop ..now i dont like it a bit .. it has best i can describe a flootie kinda hydroplane feel to it .. in corners ( this is on high way so their sweepy at best ) it doesnt want to turn its almost as if you have an inexperienced rider on the back leaning against the turn .. is the best i can describe .. out of the shop it was 35 ish psi and had kinda squishy feeling to it .. i bumped it to max psi of 45 and thats where its at now .. hope this helps someone out and feed back is also wanted and welcomed ... thanks russ

you should try a smaller tire,my 165 kumho is great on my bike.

twain you have none of what im experiencing ???

who's twain ??,i was born to operate a c/t on my bike bro,i dont have any problems what so ever with the handling on my bike, closing in on 3000 miles on the tire now and absolutely love it.the wider the tire,the harder its going to be to turn the bike.ever watch bike drag races on espn ? after they do a run and slow down,them boys cant hardly turn the bike.you should at least try a narrow one that handles like a m/t like my kumho.

ct.russ wrote: now i dont like it a bit .. it has best i can describe a flootie kinda hydroplane feel to it .. in corners ( this is on high way so their sweepy at best ) it doesnt want to turn its almost as if you have an inexperienced rider on the back leaning against the turn .. is the best i can describe .. out of the shop it was 35 ish psi and had kinda squishy feeling to it .. i bumped it to max psi of 45 and thats where its at now .. hope this helps someone out and feed back is also wanted and welcomed ... thanks russ

I have a buddy with the same bike I have. We swapped bikes riding the pig trail in Arkansas. He didn't like the ride. I couldn't tell the difference in his and mine. It was a bit more nimble in the lean, but that's all.

Question, do you counter steer? My buddy didn't know what counter steering was. I think he still rode it like it was a dirt bike, which I'm not sure how you do with big cruisers.

counter steer ? prob not .. i lean into the corners.. i knew a wider tire would give me SOME problems .. just didnt think i went THAT wide lol ... bike just feels unsafe to me at this point and i havent even put a passenger on it yet .. can only figure that will make things worse ..

You can't just lean,you have to exert pressure on the bars,it will have a tendency to stand back up on its own when you release pressure.Most don't even notice it after they get used to it. (Mental thing more often than not,you have been programed to think it won't work when actualy the car tire works better after you get used to it) That being said it is not for everyone,if you can't give it a chance without getting excited it is proubably not for you

You have to countersteer. In fact I would say you are and you don't even know it. When you lean to the left you are actually pushing on the left side of the handle bars, or pulling on the right side. Thats all countersteering is. You will have a loose feeling untill the tire gets broke in. usually 200 to 300 miles. Try going to 40 lbs. You just have to find the sweet spot in the tire pressure.
I remember buying new tires for the cage, for the first 200 miles I thought I was sliding around the curve instead of hugging it. Now I cant make it slide. Same principle.
Good luck
Jerry

I dunno, I've known some dirt bikers that still try to lean to turn.

Push left to go left. Push righ to go right. Get your bike out into a parking lot and practice that.

I don't ever start a turn with a lean, I really just sit there. I might have to lift a leg every now and then...

I think this is what my buddy did on his bike. He's an old dirt biker and never learned how to ride a big cruiser. still tries to lean to turn.

I'm hoping this is what the problem is, because it really should not feel unsafe.

All that has to do with centrifugal force and Gyroscopic action, (you can look them up ) , as the wheels spin faster then (about) 30 mph you can counter-steer like everyone is telling you ,,
Below 30 mph and you steer normally .

well i took it out some more today ..i bumped tire pressure to about 55 or so .. seems a little high to me but it stiffened up the walls a bit more ..(before i could press the side wall in with my finger) and it does feel a bit better .. i also took off my saddle bags and that too made improvements .. guess they grab more wind than i thought .. it could be the tire ,, tread does feel soft .. (compound wise) but when you lay into it in a curve it feels like it wants to roll underneath you ,, is the best i can describe .. it also likes to "grab" cracks in the road like an aggressive mud tire on a truck lol ..
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I have never heard of that particular tire so can't speak about it.My gytt 205 60 16 will grab bad cracks and bad road surfaces at pressures over 32psi.I can push sidewall slightly and it looks like a normal radial sitting on side stand.I have been running 32 psi for 2 years and can say it holds curves and wet roads better than anything I have ever experienced with no bad feelings.My friend Lham rides A 1300 with 205 60 16 Mitchelin ,he also runs 32 and has same problems with bad road surfaces at pressures above that.He is very aggressive in the curves with no bad side affects.Our tires beaded between 40 and 50 psi. so the sidewalls might be stiffer If this feeling doesn't get better I would suggest going with a tried and proven tire,RIDE SAFE Larry S.

I'm really baffled by your experience. I have a 1990 VT1100. Almost the same as yours right? I just put a 205/65/15 on this ride, and I didn't notice any of the stuff you are saying. When you are in a turn and it feels like it's walking on you ... does it actually walk on you? or does it just feel like it is going to? You are the first person I know of that has experienced this on an 1100. I have my pressure at 41, and I love it. I'll keep thinking about this and see if I can't come up with some idea for you.

I should note that like others, I use 100% countersteer. On this bike, I could hang sideways off one side and I swear it would run straight. Much different then the old suzuki 750 I used to ride. This bike handled the same with the old MT on it too. I learned right up front that this tank was turned by putting pressure on the handlebars, not by leaning my weight from side to side.

It's odd to me that it got better when you took the bags off. Is the tire balanced? Did you put the rear tire back on correctly, including the brake? Just trying to think of some ideas that could cause what you are experiencing.

I am aware of the "drift effect". I'm not sure if it's actual or imagined. I do know that any time you put a new tire on the back or front, you feel the difference.

For ME, I feel the drift effect more noticeably at slow speed turns. It feels as if the back tire does not follow straight behind the front tire....the rear seems to be going a bit wide as you turn.

NOW, that said, I'm not sure it's real or imagined. I do know that when I increased the psi, the effect was reduced. And when I went into a parking lot and practiced a bunch of turns, it went away. So, my feeling was that it was just a new tire effect and nothing to do with performance.

My 165 did not have this effect, so it seems to be with wide tires more than narrow and this may be that when you turn, the crown of the rear tire is not in line with the front tire. I dunno.

As to feeling every crack in the road, welcome to the club. But this is a good thing. You actually get a softer ride, but feel every pebble in the roadway.

its nice to know the drifting affect wasnt just in my head lol.. but yes at lower speeds say around 30 ish .. corners just dont feel right lol ..i wouldnt say its power drifting through the corner ..its more of a feeling like youre on the edge to do it ..and takes noticeably more effort to keep it where you want it to be in the corners ..id bet if i shot a video id look like i just got my permit lol..open roads the corners just take more force than it used to be ..i did find my self i guess counter steering more and didnt know it .. my arms tell me so ..some of this i did expect .60 series tires might just be to much of a step up at onetime .. 65,s might have a more natural feel as their a little more narrow ???idk..least this is what im feeling form the feed back ..other thing that i thought of was the nervous factor .. when i told people i was gonna do this they said i was nuts and unsafe .. youre gonna go down ..theirs no curve to the tire ..all statements that made sense so may be im to "in tune " to the bike and its feel .removing the bags did make a difference .. the bike seemed to dance around less ..but at the same time i bumped the tire pressure .. so witch was the fix im not sure ..i believe the bike went back together correctly and alignment isnt an issue ..its shaft drive so the Axel bolt is fixed into position..un like a chain when you could be off center ..brake drum is centered by that do hicky bar lol .. i just dont want any body to think im knocking this idea .. just givin my experience .. this forum seems a whole lot better than the other on i go to .. theirs no noob bashin goin on here .. just people sharing ideas the way i think it should be ..if some didnt do what others said couldnt be done .. wed still be in england on horse back and never found the moon.. right?? lol

try the kumho 165 next time bro,as ttexastim says,there are no issues with a narrow tire.you have to be careful with the c/t.what i mean is you'll find yourself trying to run harder in the curves and it will.if you ride the bike like a cruiser and go easy on the curves even though the tire sticks like glue.you might be better off. kenny

It has been said that using a car tire is 99% mental. If you forget that it is a ct behind you and just think of it as a new tire (new tires always feel different at first) it wont take long to get used to. I have a few miles on mine and I still feel it grab the high part of the road every so often and it doesn't bother me anymore. Keep and open mind, get the tire broke in, and play with the air pressure. After 500 to 1,000 miles if you can get over the feeling or your scared/worried about rining it, switch back to a mt fast. I dont care what you ride or what tires you have on it. I just like you riding......

Jerry

Sounds like you are figuring it out a bit CT.russ. I asked about the tire mostly just to make sure it was asked. Our bikes are close to the same, and it's almost hard to NOT put the tire back together properly.

On the drive home I'll pay attention in my slow turns and see if I feel the same thing and I'm just used to it.

Like 85 said ... I think I would be unsafe going back to a MT now. I lay on the throttle in turns cuz I've learned that the tire sticks like it's glued to the road. I know for sure that I drive in a way right now that would break the rear on a MT from the road.

I'd get a few more miles on her and see if some of those uneasy feelings go away. If it's a mental thing, you will trust the tire more and more and it will be gone soon. If it really is that you don't like the way it feels, then you might consider a 50 dollar Kumho 165. That tire was a great one for me!

This site is great. We're just a big group of friends. No pissing contests or derogatory statements. We're here to help.

yeah tim i think i am figuring it out .. a little common sense ,tial and error, and help support from yall its goin in the right direction .. besides questions of my own i wanted to "give back " in put to the forum ...if i was to do it over again .. i believe i would have liked to have found a test tire , started on a 65 and if i liked it go from their .. but of course that route would have some down sides too lol ... hopefully all this info will be addded to the org. thred .. for future users .. if theirs anything i can do data wise for this please let me know ..russ

Just answer questions openly and honestly..... All input is valuable.

Jerry