[razorbike]

Well I finally found some riders here in LR that are on the same page as me where riding style is concerned. No squidly stuff, just good old high spirited riding thru the twisties. Got hooked up with them here on the WT forum. One guy goes by ilDuce here and is a new member. He rides an '02 VFR. The even more surprising coincidence was that his friend has an '02 919. Not too many of either one of those round these parts.

We went for a good long ride thru the beautiful Ouachita Mtns. here yesterday and had a blast. Stopped at a little greasy spoon place in Morrilton and had a burger and got to talking about the 919s. He said that he had been experiencing a handling problem. So we traded bikes for a few miles and I felt what the issue was. When cornering the bike wanted to turn in harder. It's like when going thru a turn the sharper it was, the harder it wanted to oversteer itself. I noticed that he has mismatched tires tires on it before we left and I remember some conversation back on Motorush about problems with this situation. The rear is a Dunlop 208 and the front is a Metzeler. The tire size is correct on both but there is something very unnerving going on when cornering this 919. He rode mine with the Pilot Powers and commented that it just glides thru the turns.
Am I on the right track here? Would the mismatched tires be the cause of what I described? He said he was going to buy a new Dunlop 208 for the front this week and see if it cures the problem.

And on the mileage question. Yesterday was the first time I really made a concentrated effort to check my gas mileage and I got about 170 miles out of a tank. I know there's been talk about this before, but what kind of range do you guys get from a full tank? Well, it would be more correct to say between the times the fuel light comes on assuming it is consistent.

 

[tvetree]

Mixing tires is bad.On project someone had bad handling due to 208's His problem went the way of pilot's(?)

In the summer I avg 145-155 before the light in winter only 130ish(weird gas)

I've seen as high as 190(light was on for a while)at least twice and only added 4 1/2 gallons each time.(then again I ran out of gas at only 132 miles once)

 

[Pegjumpflyer]

Was his steering head tight as well?

Gas wise I get 130-170 before the light comes on(spunky city stuff)
I have pushed it and [email protected] 220 riding well into the reserve.( Hiway and twistys)

 

[tvetree]

Clipped from the project:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yep.

1. Re-checked the balance. (shake still there)
2. Closer inspection found a slight notch in the head bearings. Replaced under warranty. (shake still there)
3. Tried another new 208 on the front, and re-balanced. (shake still there)
4. Pulled the front end apart to check the straightness of the forks, and everything else. (I threw in a few bucks towards labor, but they billed some to Honda as warranty work, shake still there)
5. Dealer was stumped, and I was left without any answers other than maybe the Dunlops weren't a good choice.
6. Spring arrives and I buy Pilot Powers. (everything is perfect!)

Don't know why the 208s didn't like my bike, but I'm happy now, so I'm not going to worry about it.

-Deuce

 

[razorbike]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Pegjump - I think the steering head was tight, I'll double check with him tho.

TV - that's very interesting about the Pilot Powers. Hmmm, I'm going to run it past him and see.

Whatever ends up fixing the problem I'll post results for research sake.

 

[BockHawk]

You guys seem to get better mileage than what I pull. Light comes on pretty consistently at 140. It doesn't seem to matter how I ride it, either. I don't usually try to stretch it since my bike seems to hate starting with a low tank of fuel, not sure why (and yes, there IS some fuel in the tank).

 

[awarble]

My light comes on around 180. I ride about 20 mile to work and then back. Straight highway stuff. Doing around 60 to 70mph. I'm wondering what will happen, if anything, with the Sato's. With the milage go down, up or stay the same.....

 

[ratdog]

120-145 for the refill...try never to run it too low
have flirted w/ 200, but given where i ride...it's no a good idea

head some headshake after swappin to pirellis...front was out of balance just a tad, re-balanced, added a weight...good to go

 

[Guest]

David,
You failed to mention how bad-ass my VFR is. Ha! Anyway, I never really liked the handling of the 919 until I rode Dave's. Allen's is all farked up, I hope it's the tires. Allen was all disapointed after riding Dave's, because he thought his sucked... but I say that it's good news! Allen's bike is totally fixable! Good news! ...but should we scrap the (practically new) Dunlop on the rear, and just get a whole new pair of shoes (Power Pilots)?

 

[ratdog]

new skins...everyone's hot on the pilot powers, i'm running power cups and like 'em

new shoes = $220
local mount/balance = $20-$80

riding your 919 w/ new skins and havin her drop into turns like you've never felt? = Priceless

get some new stinkin tires and then go out and enjoy some twisties...come back and tell me it wasn't worth it...you won't

 

[Pegjumpflyer]

So pilot powers all that and a bag of chips? Im still sold on the pirelli diablos or are they just yesterdays news?

As far as gas use Im only at 2400 feet.........

 

[tvetree]

Lots of people using the pilot powers,Me I'm a fan of AVON's just swicthed from ST 45/46 to the vipers so far I really like them.If I get 1/2 the miles out them I got from the ST's it will be my new tire of choice.

 

[Guest]

I'm jumping in a bit late but the handling will be so much better with matching tires. I had a puncture on the rear and the local shop installed the 208. It was the closest they had to the stock frt. the front tire constantly pushed on all hard exits. Super scary. Bought the matching front and all is good. the 208's work well. I think I will still go to the Pilots after I burn these up.

 

[Guest]

Mismatch

Allen got a matching dunlop for the front, and the problem is fixed. Thanks for the help. It was the ****ty Metzler on the front that was messing up the whole shebang.

 

[medicracer]

Oh man...new to the forum...just found some more riders in central AR. Awesome. :001_cool: PM me if you wanna ride sometime.

 

[Guest]

From my recent experiences with tires on my 919:

208 front/208 back: Decent handling.:yawn:
208 front/PP back: Handling sucked and 208 front cupped.:death:
PP front/PP back: Couldn't asked for better handling. :tt1:
PP front/208 back: Handles good but have to be easy on the back brake.:wheelchair:

To answer the question why I would have those tire combinations in the last 8 months: Had new 208s and put a nail in the rear. Replaced it with a PP because it was on sale and I wanted to go in that direction anyway. Front 208 cupped in less then 1500 miles and replaced it with a PP. Everything was good until I put a rock (?) through the rear PP and nobody local had a PP in 180 and I found the 208 on sale. Lots of fun!