you’ll prob all tell me off for this but i trusted the tyre pressures set (or should that be left) by the previous owner as it was in such good conditionthis morning, a week after the purchase, i have quickly washed the bike for the first time and checked pressures:
Front 25 psi, Rear 28psi WTF!!! :w00t:
Obviously immediately sorted that out, trying 36 psi front and 38 psi rear, but that will teach me for trusting a garaged bike again! he hadnt used it much at all in the winter.
i am using a michelin 12v car cigarette socket powered inflator with digital gauge that has been correctly re-zeroed as per the manual
my questions are?..1. how dangerous were those low pressures? aside from resulting in higher tyre wear and slower turning (not that my feeble talents would notice that right now ;))2. michelin and honda manual recommendations are front 36 and rear 42 psi, but real world settings gleaned from web searches mention 38 psi as more realistic (42 being a safe level to take into account pillions etc) does this make sense or is 38 psi on the rear a bad idea?as always, thanks for your advice
now running 30psi front 34psi rear, im gonna set them to what B set them at when he done my suspension, i think it was 32-34 gotta have a look at my recipiet.
bike does feel much better! oh and im on pilot powers;)
B recommends a 34 front 36 back for michelins I recall, to be honest your lower pressures were not that much of a ‘danger’ as such, but would have been the first thing I would have checked when I picked the bike up… But good you have sorted them now.
I check my pressures and tyre condition before every bike ride, as well as the safety issue we don’t want to be losing any performance do we:cool:
I must add that the recommended pressures do vary from bike to bike and if you fit different makes of tyre from STD then they can vary again. So check what the tyre manufacturer recommends firstly and then go from there;)
CBR660F; manual says 36 front 42 rear
Michelin 2CTs; website recommends same as above
so at the moment i am trying 36 front and 38 rear (i’m a lightweight at only 12.5st and wont be carrying a pillion), see how i do
dont think i have the experience to feel the difference much yet anyway
you realise you still have to clean the chain right? :rolleyes: :Dscottoilers aren’t bad in theory, but if you’re jacking the rear up to clean the chain regularly and check the tension etc, its not really much of an extra effort to lube it at the same time TBH
yeah i know, but was hoping might be able to get out of doing that task so often ;)might give cleaning and relube of chain a go on first big wash at end of month and see how i go, have spent far too much money on the bike this month
I’m not overly keen on the built in gauges in pumps, have seen some of them read 6 to 10 psi out. I use a seperate gauge from Halfords, still digital but about £12 or so. Given that a couple of psi difference on the bike can make a big difference to how it feels, a proper gauge isn’t a bad idea.
always check my pressures once a week, and before any long journey/rideout, Ride mag did a test on gauges this month will dig it out see which was the best but from recollection it was one of the old Pen type ones
Low front pressure makes the front end feel like **** over white lines/hatchings IMHO.Now I know the chaps in SuperMoto etc run lower pressure in the wet for a bigger footprint but if I do it, it feels like crap and the front end goes all over the place,
I have BT021’s on my CBR600F at 36 front and 42 rear and get over 10k miles from each daily A30 commuting. Spoke to a suspension guru at Setup Engineering who advised no point in running them at lower temps on the road as they never get hot enough onthe shoulders to warrant it generally.
imho it doesn’t really matter what gauge you use, as long as you use the same one all the time, and are prepared to accept that a true 32psi might read +/- a little bit on your gauge, and you adapt accordingly.
:hehe:
yeah i checked all levels, just didnt oil the chain as need a trip to halfords but scottoiler looks tempting for a lazy sh¦te like me!