Wednesday, February 20, 2008, I change my scooter tire with a pair of Pirelli SL26 100/80-10 53J TL and 110/80-10 58J TL
According to the official website, it say that this tire give a good wet performance. But when I look at it, it has only a small amount of grooves. How can it give a good wet performance? Don't know for sure. I should test it to prove it.
As you can see on the left picture it turn backward for the front tire. You are wonder right, why it turn on the opposite?
The answer is, it help on the handling and helping you out from the mud if you cross on it. Its not digging the mud, instead floating onto the mud. Weirdo isn't it? But thats the fact! If you go to the farmer that has a tractor, you will see that the front tire is opposite from the rear. Tractor use that combination to help them get out from the mud.
Let see this tire rotation direction:
Pirelli recommend for the front tire is opposite from the rear. Obviously Pirelli support tire installation this way.
After I put the tire into the rim, I inflated it with a Nitrogen (sign with the green nipple cap) 25psi on the front and 33psi on the rear. After that, I plug it into my scooter.
This is some picture of it after I install it.
This is the ground clearance on the rear when swith the stand. Almost same as the old one. The old stock use 100/90-10 on both of the tires, about 1.5cm to the ground.
Lets test this tire performance.
I turn on my scooter run it. Who ho, the handling is so light. Far more light than the old stock, seems like it flying. Almost forgot, the old stock id heavier than this one, I don't know for sure how much gram the differences. But I sense something weird about the handling, sometime I can not control it. What happen? I park my scooter and check it.
Can you see this, it has a rubber on the middle of the tire. I should do a break in period for the new tires about first 50-100km. That will increase the lean angle until the mold release compound is worn off the tread. And I should avoid sudden brake or panic stops. After the break in period, the tire should be free from any shine.
At 5.00pm, I try my scooter again to break in the tire. I want to try it about >50km, so I pick the path that accomodate my will. I choose a light traffic to break in this tires. The handling is still the same, very crappy. After a long ride, I check the tire. Some of the mold compound is still there but not much as before. I it run again and again. Hey wait, I sense something different about it, I can sense that this tires is gripping on the street. Horai, The tire is getting better and better. Now its light and very stable, there isn't any wrong movement from the tire. Even when I'm doing fast cornering without braking, this tire is gripping!
Cornering with this tire is great, very improved from the stock. No slippery on a very low cornering.
Thursday, February 21, 2008, I run my scooter again. This time the weather is differ than yesterday. It rainy.
Time to test wet performance of this tire. I prepare my jacket and my boots and turn the engine on. I used the yesterday path, because its the best place to test tire performance. I run it on the street and figure out that this tire is great even on a wet track. No Slippery fault!
Let us test the braking system with this tire. I'm waiting for a heavy traffic ahead. When I see it, I hit the brake, not hard, because I don't want to hurt this new tires. Hey, my scooter is stop pretty fast without any leftover movement on the front or rear. It steady!!!
