Outstanding Mileage From Supercorsa’s

I notice the back gets a bit squirrelly under hard acceleration when leaning at speed . New tyres feel like it's on rails. Cheers for suggestion I will look into that sport attack option .

 

My rear was toast after 3,200 miles, front followed at around 3,800. Funny part is I didn't even think about replacing the front while it was in there. Went for a ride a few weeks later and it felt like I was loosing the front around mild bends on a group ride. I was explaining the sensation to a buddy and he looked at my front tire and simply said 'well there's your problem'. I've never had a front tire go so south in such few miles.

 

Mine have done 5500km now and still working well but pretty worn. Going in for Bridgestone S22 on Friday and a track day on the 24th. Missus has S22 on her S1000R and loves the grip & feedback, should suit the trumpy I reckon.

 

[Metzeler M7RR update]

Hi Steve (and all).

I have almost 1,000km on the M7RRs now - and my opinion hasn’t changed much, they are definitely a great tyre (for me) and definitely a massive improvement on the Supercorsas (again, for me, and the way I use my bike).

I think the ride hasn’t improved quite as much as I had hoped. It is marginally better, and the improvement is most noticeable on sharper edges. But the bike is still very firm for the roads I ride the most (and this is with the suspension in the ‘comfort’ settings as per the owners manual). Obviously any improvement is a good thing, but it is maybe a little less than I originally thought.

Where I have seen a truly massive improvement is with grip in less than ideal conditions. In the heavy rain we have here, a (deliberately harsh) handful of throttle in first gear had my SCs struggling for traction. In comparison, the M7RRs just wheelies... The difference is huge.

My usual route is a 400km loop of Malaysia (starting and finishing in Singapore). There must be hundreds of corners, but I can remember a few of them a little too well (for all the wrong reasons!).

The one I will try to explain (as an example) is a sweeping left hander, well sighted, and would be pretty fast if it wasn’t for a side road almost perfectly on the apex. The view is still good (so you could see anyone trying to pull out) but there is a more significant problem - the rain washes dirt and gravel from the (unsealed) side road right across the road at the apex of the corner.

My technique is to keep my speed down (obviously) and then ‘double apex’ the corner so the bike is almost vertical whilst it goes across the dirt/sand/gravel trail in my path.

The Pirelli’s still complain at this. The handlebars go light, and you can feel both the front and the rear wander wide as they cross the sand. Not nice, but manageable.

The Metzelers just lap it up. By the time I got to this corner my confidence was high, and whilst I did slow (and slightly double apex the corner) I deliberately took more speed than ever before through this turn, and therefore at a higher lean angle. The M7RRs just grip. Yes, they wandered a little, but much less than the SCs, and this was it a higher speed. They felt more predictable, more stable, and I felt more in control. I also didn’t feel the light/vague steering I felt previously.

I have seen people mention that the Metzeler’s are less stable under full throttle corner exit. For me - maybe. I use all the throttle on corner exit frequently, and the M7RRs are more than up to the job. I think they do squirm a little more than the SCs, but I think this is in line with the slightly improved ride quality - both due to a softer side wall, I’m guessing. For me, this is simply not an issue as the difference feels marginal. I also like a little ‘movement’ on both the throttle and brakes as (for me) it adds to the sensation of riding hard.

Lastly, the Metzeler M7RR was standard fit for the original S1000RR - so I don’t think there are any significant deficiencies to speak of.

Hope that helps anyone thinking of switching tyres. I had assumed I would go for either the S22s or the Rosso Corsa IIs after these, but think this might be my tyre for the Speed Triple.

David.

PS. Tar snakes! Yes Steve, have been caught out with these before! But that was in the US or the UK. In Malaysia, the road maintenance is a little more ‘informal’. Although I have seen a real snake or two. And monkeys, lots and lots of monkeys....

 

Happy New Year to all
I’ve just got home from our usual First ride of the year.
Home to Harrietville (near Bright, Victoria) & then over Mount Hotham. Unfortunately due to fire risk and closed roads all over Vic & NSW in Oz we cut our trip short to avoid any problems.
Did about 1200km in 4 days and the S22 tyres where fantastic - great feel, feedback and grip.
Also did a track day on them last month and they were perfect there as well, looks like they will last a bit longer than the Supercorsas. My partner has them on her S1000R and reckons they give more confidence than the M7rr did for her.

 

Good to hear mate. We have a trip planned for early March up there so hopefully things have settled down substantially by then!

I also have he S22's fitted (live in Torquay & spend my time running up & down the Great Ocean Road).

I'll start by saying I used to hate Bridgeys with a passion back in the day, but have been using variants of them for the better part of 10 years now.

Now to be fair, I'm a fair weather rider, if it's wet & shitty, I'm not normally going out in it!

Having said that we got caught in the worst rain storm I've ever experienced between Mitta Mitta (down the Omeo Hwy) back up through Falls Creek & back to Bright, & the S22's were fantastic! It has hard to see my mates bike 20 feet in front of me it was raining that hard, & yes the pace was pretty slow, but never an issue from the tyres.

In the dry, at, well fast pace, the tyres perform extremely well. When pushed to the point of letting go the do so smoothly & with no sudden movement, so are very easy to control & bring back into line. They warm up quickly, unlike some that just don't like cold mornings, & provide great feedback, tip in nicely (without 'falling' into corners as some tyres feel like they do) & are showing little signs of poor wear characteristics.

Due to my dislike for wet weather riding I will probably replace these with the S21's next time, but as an all round tyre the S22 has been fantastic.

I'm a big fella, 6 ft & 18.5 stone, ride a Speed Triple RS at a pretty speedy pace, & these tyres have been excellent so far

Everyone is different of course & different tyres suit different people & their individual riding styles & preferences.

 

Yea I saw that SteveRS & hopefully it lives up to the stats, so far so good!
According to Bridgies maps & diagrams the 22 should be better on the edge then the 21, despite the extra grooving.
I usually prefer a tyre with less grooving on the edge as these are what heat up & feather the most, causing scalloping & edge grip to deteriorate quicker.

 

Good questions all of these.

The first thing I would suggest to you is to check the 'age' of the tyre.
This DOES make a difference. Rubber most definitely goes off!
If it is an 'old style' tyre but was only manufactured recently, then it's probably going to perform well, but if it's an 'old style' tyre that was also manufactured 3-4 + years ago, I wouldn't touch it!
You can check these numbers on the tyre usually near where it says DOT, the first 2 are the week, the second two are the year.

Now of course all this really does depend on how you ride.
Without sounding full of it, I'm pretty quick, (although the lack of power from the Trumpy has slowed me down considerably), but would still never consider putting (age) 'old' tyres on my bike.
I know guys who are happy riding around on 'age old' tyres (some that I've sold to them) without issue, but for me, when you only have a pretty small contact patch with mother earth, I like to err on the side of grip over longevity
Is new better? Not always, but in terms of a sport tyre, it's pretty rare they go backwards. Do you need the hypersport tyre (ie the grooved slick! - supercorsa etc) on the road? No, but then again it all depends on how you ride, where you ride, weather conditions etc etc etc

This rambling on thing is catching!

Cheers mate