Mithrandir

Just replaced the tyres on my XX - std Avons, not the B model, and got 16K miles. Almost all of that was running up and down the I-5, 1000 miles at a time. A few sweeper-style roads, but mostly droning along.

Less than 5 seconds to dead flat. After that it was wobble,thumb,wobble,thumb,wobble,thumb... at about 2mph along the side of the highway until the next exit. Luckily that was only a few hundred feet up the road to get out of the way of the afternoon commuter traffic.

I'm rarely around the forums these days. However, I thought I'd drop in and show off some photos you guys might like. These are pics of the meeting between the rear tyre and a 3/8x6" bolt, while travelling at speed along WA Hwy 520. All I felt was a small bump and a loud bang, followed by the rear tyre wobble. They tyre was less than a week old, and Avon have agreed to replace it for free IAW their 12 month warranty. University Honda also happened to have a spare rim from a wreck, which I've purchased for pretty cheap. HRCA-supplied roadside assistance, meant no towing fees either. All in all, I should come out of this for less than $300.

Clutchless shifts work fine on the XX. Like the others here, I just use clutch going to 2nd and then mostly don't use it after that. It really depends on the conditions. If I'm cruising and constant low speed I'll tend to use the clutch, but on acceleration, I don't.

Or he's a pom and a gallon is a different size over there... Yes. Mileage is not so good on the XX until you get past the breakin stage. Basically once you start getting full synthetic oil in there, it will go from about 130 to 160miles on a tank around town. I only get upwards of 200miles out of a tank when I'm touring down the slab, spending all my time in 6th gear. Also, you should have been revving it up to redline some time during the breakin period. Time to start doing that now if you haven't. It won't have broken in too well if you didn't. That'll help loosen everything up and make it get some better mileage. The only breakin instructions the book gives is "don't go WTO during breakin". That is, you should be using the bike throughout it's whole rev range, not just the lower part.

Hmmm.. .mine have 11K miles on them and look like brand new! Oh, I suppose applying the brakes only every 200 miles to get into the next gas station, probably helps prolong pad life :roll:

Carlos, not sure where you're getting your data from, but in order to build up that amount of heat, you would have to be travelling really, really fast and for a long time. I've had two sets of crashes in their jeans, one of which i was sliding down the road kneeling at the time (diesel spill tossing me off). In that case, not a problem - just some mild friction burns to my knees, but the jeans themselves didn't disintegrate. Kevlar stayed in place, but the denim around it got trashed. The certainly hold up to whatever you're going to throw at them in normal circumstances. If doing 180mph with only the shirt on and no other protection, you've probably got other more serious things to consider first! Your whole "riding up your back" argument is not valid either - its the same issue as anyone not wearing a full one-piece suit is going to face - be it leather, cordura, kevlar etc. Just layers of protection.

You sure it wasn't a HD and that was the number of miles it did in the back of a truck?

What? People actually keep the reflectors on their bikes :!: :?: My bikes barely make it home from the dealer before they get thrown away!

The aprilia rarely gets over 110mph. It has a high screen on it anyway, making it far easier to tuck. I see no point going really fast on the straights. However, I push the bike really hard through the corners. My front tyre is down past the wear indicators on the side, the rear is through them on the middle - so you can see how I wear them out - pushing hard through a corner and then accelerating on the way out. On the XX, A lot of the mileage comes from doing boring I-5 travel. Crusing at 70-90mph doesn't take any rubber out of them at all. However, after taking them through the twisites over ranier this past weekend, the sides have shown quite noticable wear from spinning it up coming out of corners. If I rode the bike only as twisties, then I'd expect to get about 5K miles out of the 57s. Right now, I have 7K on the clock and still at least 5mm of tread over the wear indicators in the middle on the rear.

Or just ask here. A lot of us have the old stock screen they are no longer using and would gladly get rid of to free up closet space.

Plenty. It's in the way you ride. You don't go screaming along a straight, hit the brakes for a corner and yank on the throttle as you get past the apex. Instead, roll into the corner with slower speed and gently wind on the throttle before the apex and rgadually increase the throttle as you're in the corner and exiting. You should be WFO by the time you exit the corner (assuming the next one is not too close!). It's not it the amount of throttle in use, but in the way it is applied. Same thing overtaking cars - don't just drop 2 gears and whack the throttle open. That way is a sure way to completely shread a rear tyre. Stay back a couple of car lengths and stay in the same gear and smoothly accelerate, starting before the dotted lines/oncoming car gets to you so that you're at WFO as you go past the car in front. Doing this, I manage to get 5000 miles from a set of 208GPs on the aprilia. I'm expecting 10K miles from the BT57s on the XX. Yet, see if you can keep up on the road with me. Tyres are simple things. If you want to spend all your time with the throttle pinned, don't expect any set of tyres to last - not even Chen Siangs...

Easy - see that thing connected to the end of your right arm? Learn how to control it properly. :twak: If all you are doing is hard accelaration all the time, it doesn't matter what tyres you put on the bike, you'll trash them very quickly. There are other ways of riding faster than you are doing now that chew up tyres far less than just putting sticky rubber on them. It seems you haven't learnt the secret of it yet. Young grasshopper needs more instruction. (where's my Mr Miyagi smilie?)

Next he'll try it on his "forks" for less...errr.... stichion... :wink:

Hey, I just ride fast all the time - I never need to accelarate :twisted:

Cams or cans? If you're putting new cams in the engine, then you'll definitely need a PC or equivalent. Any bike will benefit in the power stakes from having aftermarket exhausts fitted - whether it be just the silencers or the whole system.

Have a look in the locked threads section. There's a link to my tutorial about how to replace r/rs there. Also note that the 02 model seems to have a very different r/r than the older birds. It's huge and very heavily heat-sinked. You may be able to pick up one of those and have it plug straight in. Don't quote me on that - I've only had the rear of my bike off twice and don't really remember the visual details very clearly.

Greg, I did warn you about that though. Doing your own forks is something you do because you are mechanically minded and enjoy doing the work - also that you want to really understand what is going on. As I originally said, I had no idea about the best setup to suit an XX, having never done one before, so there was going to be a fair bit of tinkering to find out what the best setup is. I'd appreciate it if you'd send me the details of the final stacks you used so that I can catalogue it all to hand out good advice to the next comer. Still have to address some of those things you said in the PM. I've been running around like mad with work recently (we've picked up a "save our arse" project that needs to be done by the 15th) and just no time to do anything. Not even reading these boards much recently. I still haven't finished off the online article yet for that stuf... :sad:

Greg, I did warn you about that though. Doing your own forks is something you do because you are mechanically minded and enjoy doing the work - also that you want to really understand what is going on. As I originally said, I had no idea about the best setup to suit an XX, having never done one before, so there was going to be a fair bit of tinkering to find out what the best setup is. I'd appreciate it if you'd send me the details of the final stacks you used so that I can catalogue it all to hand out good advice to the next comer. Still have to address some of those things you said in the PM. I've been running around like mad with work recently (we've picked up a "save our arse" project that needs to be done by the 15th) and just no time to do anything. Not even reading these boards much recently. I still haven't finished off the online article yet for that stuf... :sad:

Do you ride around in the city a lot? It is most likely just a buildup of brake dust in the rotor buttons. When that happens, the disk cannot move side to side and so has the feeling of being warped. Get in there with a scrubbing brush and some water and clean them out. You should be able to turn each button with a finger or two. If you can't, they're stuck and need cleaning.

I only notch it after overtaking a squid who's trying really hard to Go Fast. So far I have 27 kills marked.....

I'm like the other EFI owners. Usually start the bike, then do up jacket, helmet, gloves and then ride off. The bike is usually around the 100F mark at that point. I have a big carpark to get out of underr the apartment block, so the bike pretty much idles for a further couple of minutes as I leave so it gets up around the 150F mark. For the aprilia, the bike is close to impossible to ride if the temps are below 50C, preferably over 60C. The bike runs a fast idle (EFI, so no choke), which I set to have the engine ticking over at 2K RPM while it's warming up. At 49C the bike suddenly jumps a couple of thousand RPM, which is my clue that it will handle moving. Prior to that point, I usually just sit on the bike and wait for it to warm up. V-twins really do not like being cold!

HArd to tell with the fairings on. It looked like it was coming from the bottom side of his cover.

Hey Nik, GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE GARAGE AND BACK INTO THE KITCH^H^H^H^H^HPUB. You keep these regular appearances up in here, and we might expect you to actually answer questions! :shock: :poke: :twisted: So I err.. should post something on-topic then hey... I have the akra and very quiet. Only really screams up high in the RPM range.

I bet the different in tyre wear is riding style. The time where you do most wear to a tyre is on acceleration. If you're dropping a couple of cogs and nailing the throttle to pass cars, or you're accelerating really hard out of corners you'll chew the tyres to bits very, very quickly. OTOH, if you are really smooth and use higher corner speeds, more angle, but less throttle on exit, you'll get far greater mileage. My road riding is really smooth - very little big fistfulls of throttle, lots of interstate travel, and I always get big mileage from my tyres. The D208GPs on my mille I got almost 4500 miles out of them, riding really hard through the twisties. Most others on the same bike and tyre are lucky to get 2000mi.