[DesertBike]

cool, then I'll leave it be! I kinda like how it sounds, anyway.

 

[JoelTheMole]

After getting the tire swaps done yesterday, put wheels back on with fresh new Dunlop Roadsmart Sportmax III's, and rode 'em to work.

I get this popping somewhat often with my Yoshimura exhaust.

Is it something I need to fix? Harmful in any way?

Are those the same as the normal Roadsmart 3s? And what did you run before? I have heard the Roadsmart 3s and 4s are more pointy for an easier turn in response with the Road 5/6s being more neutral and the Angel GTs being the most resistant to leaning, but I have not been able to find much that was directly comparing the life between the 3. It is also hard to find direct rain handling comparisons between the big 3, but I think that might be because they are all so good at it that most are not pushing hard enough in the rain to find the minor differences. I would also really like to find out where Dunlop mutants fall in this spectrum for ease of tip in effort and expected life, but again hard to find direct comparisons.

 

[DesertBike]

Suspect you're right. The tires are so good now, and most of us not pushing them to their limits or even close, that the small differences are immaterial.

Rain performance hardly comes up for me. Desert climate and all. yes, we have monsoon rains, but they are most often brief showers. Sometimes longer periods in winter, but days at time, not so often.

Yes, I think we're discussing the same tire. The name is a bit of a clunky word salad. In full it's "Dunlop Sportmax Roadsmart 3". There are other tires in the Dunlop Sportmax family, such as the Sportmax Slick, Sportmax Q5S, etc.
,
This is my second set of Roadsmart 3's. Previous owner had a fresh set on the bike when I bought it, and I felt like sticking with the known-good. I might try something else, next time around.

I can't comment much on turn-in, as I've not tried any other tires on this bike. I can say that yes, turn-in it effortless, but I thought that was simply how the FJR is.

 

[JoelTheMole]

"I can say that yes, turn-in it effortless, but I thought that was simply how the FJR is."

I think the answer to that is "it depends".

As a 250lb guy without gear when I got my 2014 FJR1300 ES with a fresh set of stock sized Angel GT tires in December I completely blew the first low speed corner on the test ride and went way wide in the second because the bike took SO much more effort to get to tip in than I expected. Even when I got used to the bike and had the tires inflated to 42psi front and rear it felt like one of those bottom weighted blow up punching dolls; the further I pushed it down the more it resisted and wanted to spring back up. This felt completely bizarre to me, especially coming from a bigger bike with a longer wheelbase and a 205/50R17 car tire rear that required no more than the pressure from a single finger to get it to happily flop right over to the pegs.

At first I assumed this surprising amount of effort was mostly tires, these guys have done quite a bit of testing of the big 3 Sport Touring tires (Roadsmart, Road, and Angel GT) and basically came back with don't bother with Pirelli Angels, they take a lot more effort to tip in and don't last nearly as long as the other two:

Summer Tire Shootout- Dunlop Roadsmart IV vs. Michelin Road 6

Road Dirt’s summer tire shootout is back. Last spring, after Dave “White Girl” Wensveen and I grossly over caffeinated ourselves, our acute grasp of the obvious made us realize we had the exact same bike. I suggested that it would be a perfect test bed for tires. Two identical bikes, two...

roaddirt.tv

However stiffer front springs made a HUGE difference in reducing tip in effort, which I think is likely why heavier guys don't seem to like these bikes as much, I don't know for sure but there seems to be a sharp drop off in handling feel when you go much over average size and surpass what was planned for with the stock suspension. I still think the tires likely play a big part as going from the 180/55R17 rear Angel GT2 at 42psi with about 6k miles on it to a 205/55R17 Crossclimate2 car tire with 35psi made VERY little difference in steering effort, so I assume that rear Angel GT2 had to be putting up a pretty solid fight against tipping.

Since I haven't tried anything besides the 120/70R17 Angel GT up front I don't know for sure yet how that affects things, but I am going to laugh if putting on a 150/60ZR17 Mutant Rear on the front reduces the tip in effort.

 

[Oldjeep]

"I can say that yes, turn-in it effortless, but I thought that was simply how the FJR is."

I think the answer to that is "it depends".

As a 250lb guy without gear when I got my 2014 FJR1300 ES with a fresh set of stock sized Angel GT tires in December I completely blew the first low speed corner on the test ride and went way wide in the second because the bike took SO much more effort to get to tip in than I expected. Even when I got used to the bike and had the tires inflated to 42psi front and rear it felt like one of those bottom weighted blow up punching dolls; the further I pushed it down the more it resisted and wanted to spring back up. This felt completely bizarre to me, especially coming from a bigger bike with a longer wheelbase and a 205/50R17 car tire rear that required no more than the pressure from a single finger to get it to happily flop right over to the pegs.

At first I assumed this surprising amount of effort was mostly tires, these guys have done quite a bit of testing of the big 3 Sport Touring tires (Roadsmart, Road, and Angel GT) and basically came back with don't bother with Pirelli Angels, they take a lot more effort to tip in and don't last nearly as long as the other two:

Summer Tire Shootout- Dunlop Roadsmart IV vs. Michelin Road 6

Road Dirt’s summer tire shootout is back. Last spring, after Dave “White Girl” Wensveen and I grossly over caffeinated ourselves, our acute grasp of the obvious made us realize we had the exact same bike. I suggested that it would be a perfect test bed for tires. Two identical bikes, two...

roaddirt.tv

However stiffer front springs made a HUGE difference in reducing tip in effort, which I think is likely why heavier guys don't seem to like these bikes as much, I don't know for sure but there seems to be a sharp drop off in handling feel when you go much over average size and surpass what was planned for with the stock suspension. I still think the tires likely play a big part as going from the 180/55R17 rear Angel GT2 at 42psi with about 6k miles on it to a 205/55R17 Crossclimate2 car tire with 35psi made VERY little difference in steering effort, so I assume that rear Angel GT2 had to be putting up a pretty solid fight against tipping.

Since I haven't tried anything besides the 120/70R17 Angel GT up front I don't know for sure yet how that affects things, but I am going to laugh if putting on a 150/60ZR17 Mutant Rear on the front reduces the tip in effort.

Angel gt regulars sidewalls are too soft. You want the a-spec. And yeah, they don't last but they are sticky.

 

[JoelTheMole]

Ok, but do the Angel GTs outgrip the Michelin Road 5/6s or Dunlop Roadsmart 3/4s in the dry or the wet? Because I know the grip is excellent on the Road 5/6s and even testing it HARD it was hard to get my Road 6 front to engage ABS in the rain and even harder in the dry, and no matter how much I dig I can't find any consensus that states any of them have significantly more grip than the others.

Also there are constant updates in tires and the Angel GTs are much older than the other two. Pirelli released the GT2 tires that were supposed to have better water handling capability and as far as I know that is what the rest of the world got, but they pulled them from the US marked and set us back to the Angel GTs. I THINK this is because USA freeways are grooved and the grooves on the GT2 fronts caused unpleasant wandering, but I don't know for sure.

 

[Oldjeep]

Ok, but do the Angel GTs outgrip the Michelin Road 5/6s or Dunlop Roadsmart 3/4s in the dry or the wet? Because I know the grip is excellent on the Road 5/6s and even testing it HARD it was hard to get my Road 6 front to engage ABS in the rain and even harder in the dry, and no matter how much I dig I can't find any consensus that states any of them have significantly more grip than the others.

Also there are constant updates in tires and the Angel GTs are much older than the other two. Pirelli released the GT2 tires and as far as I know that is what the rest of the world got, but they pulled them from the US marked and set us back to the Angel GTs. I THINK this is because USA freeways are grooved and the center grooves on the GT2 fronts caused unpleasant wandering, but I don't know for sure.

Gt2 sucks in the US. The tread pattern looks like it sucks . By grip I mean that the sidewalls are not gonna fold over when pushing hard. I installed a road 6 gt for a friend yesterday and didn't need to use anything but my hand to flex them into the drop when installing the second bead. Very soft sidewalls compared to the angel gt a-spec that I installed 15 minutes later.

Honestly favorite tire is the Continental road attack, but the price premium isn't enough to be worth the marginal performance increase over the angels. But everyone likes different things. I personally want the stiffest carcase with a med - soft tread.

I run the non a-spec angels on my Ducati. It came with the triangular Rossi's

 

[ReRose]

I am just a cruiser and do not do corners so the Shinko R009 tires grab just as good as expensive tires do for my riding style. I have used them on my ZRX, FJR and ZX14. I was a little iffy with them on the ZX14 at 1st but then still could not tell the difference in my cornering.
Slo ass fat guy is me and may be why I also have a Harley .....

 

[twforeman]

Fresh meat on the rear! Michelin Pilot Power 2CT

 

[SkooterG]

Fresh meat on the rear! Michelin Pilot Power 2CT
View attachment 100548

I bet those don't last very long.

 

[twforeman]

I bet those don't last very long.

These have the harder compound in the center strip, it will be interesting to see how long they last.

 

[Whooshka]

These have the harder compound in the center strip, it will be interesting to see how long they last.

The sidewalls are going to squirm under the weight of the FJR and where the hard compound meets the soft is gonna stress. I'd just keep a close eye on them.

 

[rbentnail]

I bet those don't last very long.

These have the harder compound in the center strip, it will be interesting to see how long they last.

The sidewalls are going to squirm under the weight of the FJR and where the hard compound meets the soft is gonna stress. I'd just keep a close eye on them.

I have been running Michelin Pilot Power 2CT tires both front and rear for many yrs now. If fact I currently have both on my '13. I usually average about 8K on a set. I'll wear the front sides off before the middle causing heavy steering and the rear middle off before the sides causing exposed cords. It is my go-to tire, I try others but keep coming back to them. Don't knock it 'til you try it! Granted I'm no Ricky Racer or Canyon Carver- I consider myself a fairly sedate rider- but they are rock steady to me and wonderfully grippy in the wet, comparable to any of the 3 car tires I've used. No "sidewall squirming" to me. IMHO they are a fantastic tire.

 

[njdevils1990]

Started my ride to Florida from New Jersey at 11:07pm on Thursday, ended at 7:07pm Friday. Total indicated 1,234.8 miles from Wawa fuel station to Wawa fuel station!

 

[rbentnail]

Started my ride to Florida from New Jersey at 11:07pm on Thursday, ended at 7:07pm Friday. Total indicated 1,234.8 miles from Wawa fuel station to Wawa fuel station! View attachment 100571

WTF? You couldn't stop .3 miles earlier for the pic?

Well done nonetheless!

 

[rbentnail]

Replaced my Gen3 fork legs with rebuilt Gen2's. Much better. I never have like the one -fork setup of the Gen3.

 

[njdevils1990]

WTF? You couldn't stop .3 miles earlier for the pic?

Well done nonetheless!

If I was paying attention hahaha, maybe on the way home tomorrow into Monday.

 

[twforeman]

Today I investigated the clutch. Did not like what I found. Deets in a different posting shortly.

-> https://www.fjrowners.com/threads/clutch-woes.159599/

 

[rbentnail]

Disassembled my OE mirrors for a good cleaning underneath. They sounded terrible when I folded them. Had 88 BBs left from yrs past, replaced the OE balls with new BBs b/c of course the OE balls hopped to their freedom out across the carport somewhere. Except 1. He put up a good fight but I finally got him dislodged from the hole in the mirror plastic. Much smoother now and less vibration. I also set the belleville washers up the way I prefer rather than how the previous owner had them.

 

[twforeman]

Installed the Garauld foot pegs and went for a ride. They look good and work well.