- This topic has 3 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 1 month ago by Jeff in Kentucky.
Freeway cracks
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March 29, 2010 at 10:44 pm #3820tomazwsParticipant
I downgraded from a 600 to a 2007 250 not long ago, and one particular thing really really different is how the bike handles cracks/trails/grooves on the freeway. It’s almost nerve wrecking dealing with’em with a 250 with them skinny tires. Specially if there’s a groove that runs diagonally about 5 to 10 degree along the lane i’m on… my bike would get caught in the groove and it would take a lot of effort to pop my bike out of it.
Do you have such experience? Is it normal?
March 30, 2010 at 4:01 am #25281Gary856ParticipantYes. Normal. But it doesn’t feel good.
My GS500 (110/70 front tire; 130/70 rear tire) would wiggle every time I crossed those longitudinal grooves on pavement. I’m used to the wiggle now, but crossing those grooves still makes me a little nervous about edge trap. The wiggle is less obvious on my SV650, and even less on my YZF-600R. After I changed the tires on the GS500 to Perilli Sports Demon, it seems to get better (less wiggle). I think tire construction (tread pattern, how stiff/soft the sidewall is, bias ply vs. radial) makes the biggest different whether it tends to track grooves on pavement, followed by how good the suspension is in soaking up (damping out) the wiggle. Tires with a continuous, unbroken center groove in the tread pattern tend to track grooves in pavement more than those with alternating tread pattern.
April 2, 2010 at 5:46 am #25282RabParticipantI currently own a 650, but have owned a 250 Nighthawk in the past so I know what you mean about the skinny tires.
There’s a couple of places on my freeway commute where there are long, straight, splits in the (concrete) road surface which run at a slight angle, diagonally, across the lane for a few hundred feet.
The way I handle those to avoid getting caught in the “edge trap” is to stay on the side of the groove with the most pavement (within my lane), and ride there until the diagonally running groove has now “crossed” over the middle of my lane and is now well into “my half” of the lane.
Then I lean the bike over a little (by countersteering) to immediately cross the diagonal groove at the largest angle possible. This isn’t much of an angle at all, but it’s enough to let me cross over the groove without it presenting me with an edge trap.
Waiting until the groove is well into my side of the lane, also means that I’ll still be in my lane when I cross the groove at that slight angle.
April 2, 2010 at 8:21 pm #25373Jeff in KentuckyParticipantTry a different brand of tires. The Dunlop front tire that came with my motorcycle was very bad at following grooves in the road, but the Bridgestone and Kenda tires I added later were much better on grooves, and also lasted a lot longer. I also tried a Shinko tire on the back- great road grip, but it wore out quicker since it was a sportier tire.
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