KymcoForum.com
Scooters - 125 to 300 => Agility 125 => Topic started by: jstluise on September 01, 2011, 06:39:31 AM
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Sorry, another tire thread...
I have just over 3000km on my stock tires, and I am planning to replace them in the next month or so since I will start to see more days with rain/wet roads. I ride around 40 miles/day back and forth to work (~800 miles/month) with top speeds of around 50 mph. We see our fair share of wet days here in western Washington, so my focus for these new tires is wet traction. If I can get better traction at the expense of wear, I am okay with that. If I can get a set of tires that will get me through the wet and rainy months, it will be worth it for me.
I'm know any tire I get will be better than stock, but there are a lot to choose from with. Below is the list of tires that are available from motorcycle-superstore (they seem to have the best price w/ free shipping). Front/Rear load ratings and speed ratings are shown too:
Pirelli
SL26 51P/56P
SL36 51L/56L
GTS24/GTS23 51P/62P
Michelin
Bopper 51L/56L
City Grips 51P/56P
Pilot Sport SC 51P/56P
Continential
Zippy 1 58L/62L
Avon
AM63 Viper Stryke 58P/62P
Besides reading reviews, there is no way I can say "Oh, those tires will definitely be better in the rain". Of all the reviews I read, it seems with at least every tire someone says that the wet traction is great. So, where do I go from there? Just pick one?
When it came to Pirellis, people commented that the life was not great compared to other tires, which indicates a softer tire, and better grip. So, I am leaning toward the SL26 or SL36. Also, some of the tires have higher load ratings (58/62) which may result in a stiffer ride since I don't need the extra support.
Any comments or suggestions?
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As you said twice, just pick one. All you mentioned are good tires.
However, you can find some people with paranoias that really like to nitpick, go too much into non-existing details etc, so if you insist on some forums, you can spend hours and days evaluating tires for 9-hp scoot. :)
My last set was Dunlop Scootmax, very good tire, also in rain, but they wear easily - OEM tire lasted 16K kms and still looked OK at around 40 % of the thread, these are dead after 10K kms.
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I am currently using the Avon tires. They are good but not so great when it's wet. After about 10k km the front tire look like new and the rear one is at least half way done. My next set I thought would be the Michelin Boppers.
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As you said twice, just pick one. All you mentioned are good tires.
Yeah, I think you are right :)
I am currently using the Avon tires. They are good but not so great when it's wet.
Could you elaborate on their wet performance? What did you use to determine they are good, but not great? Just curious on how people evaluate the performance, since I have read many reviews on a particular tire that has everything from "okay in wet" to "excellent in wet!". There are a lot of variables that go into the wet weather performance (besides the tire itself), so I think axy is right...just pick one and ride with it.
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I put City Grips on mine since I've had great experiences with Gold Standards that these
are replacing on a few other, bigger scoots.
A bit pricey, but work for me.
Also needed good grip in the wet as I ride even on light snow.
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Compared to the stock tires the Avon's are ways better because they perform much smoother, don't wobble around too much on uneven surfaces and work well in tight curves. But still I slipped twice when the road was wet. Lucky I didn't fall. There are probably no perfect tires out there but I thought I'd definitely try something different the next time.
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My tire guy said get a tire that is as wide as the rim will allow. More rubber on the road will hold better. And just drive slower when it rains. You can't see with water all over your face shield anyway. The more I think about it, I just plain old hate riding in the rain. Water and a bike that has electrical parts all over it just doesn't seem like a good match. :P
I just bought Pirelli 26 and they are really nice (at least when it is dry). I hope you wear some protective clothing.
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My tire guy said get a tire that is as wide as the rim will allow. More rubber on the road will hold better.
Sorry, but this is so incorrect in many aspects.
I would like to avoid elaborating further, please do some research on the Internet on tire dynamics.
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''My tire guy said get a tire that is as wide as the rim will allow.''
I will add what the dealer added so that it makes his previous statement more complete: Motorcycle tires, being rounded, have basically two factors that control rain evacuation.
1. If the grooves are rounded they will have less water friction. This means that square cut grooves will not evacuate the water as quickly as rounded grooves. The price of this of course is that the rounded groove surface area will erode faster from wear.
2. If the grooves are progressively larger at the outside of the tire the water will be able to disperse more easily as the water volume builds.
I have read that straight-cut treads are best for straight down the road riding, pushing water straight behind you, but are not so good when cornering. When cornering, a diagonal tread that pushes water to the side works best, but contributes to water friction when riding straight down the road. What to buy? Who knows? How to ride is probably a better question. Which is why I hate riding in the rain.
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Best tire in my experience for wet/performance. The SL26
(http://images.motorcycle-superstore.com/ProductImages/300/633029812911117080SL26.jpg)
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I used to drive motorcycles up to 170-80 km/h in heavy rain.
I drove scoots/bikes literally through flood.
As you know, I ride 365 days/year.
I cannot remember EVER having problems with water evacuation.
The problem was always with slippery road due to oil spots, white horizontal signalization lines and hatch covers.
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I cannot remember EVER having problems with water evacuation.
The problem was always with slippery road due to oil spots, white horizontal signalization lines and hatch covers.
I second that. Only got into trouble in slippery conditions like the ones Axy described or when rain falls on a dirty road, creating some sort of slimy/slippery surface. My last two slips happened at about 15-20mph in tight curves. Looks to me like the stickyness of the rubber is more important than grooves. Of course that means softer rubber and shorter life...
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Pilot Sports are and Michelin Boppers are great tires - but not so great for wet weather because they don't have enough tread.
The Avon's are also great tires - and are better in the rain. But they don't have all that many rain grooves - so they aren't great for the rain.
The Michelin City Grips have a smooth solid center - but it isn't very wide and they have a lot of grooves so they still disperse the water well. They would be my choice for riding in the rain, and are replacing my stock tires because of that.
I don't know enough about the others to comment on them - except that a softer compound still won't grip well in wet weather unless it has good grooves to disperse the water. Tire temperature has a lot to do with grip also. I love Metzler MEZ3's and 4's - but they don't grip when they are cold (not for me at least).
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i put mich pilot sports sc on my bike when i bought it i like them very much they have a good ride and very good in wet conditions i have 6k on them now and they are not showing much where at all but just about any tire would be better than stock they suck, bryan
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Just bought a set of Metzeler ME7 tires as a replacement for Dunlop Scootmax:
(http://www.sporttour.com/upload/Metzeler_ME_7_Teen_Front_Tire.jpg)
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Just bought a set of Metzeler ME7 tires as a replacement for Dunlop Scootmax:
(http://www.sporttour.com/upload/Metzeler_ME_7_Teen_Front_Tire.jpg)
How much were they?
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64 EUR with shipping.
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Damn, I paid €100 for my Michelins.. (sa montazom).
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Assembly will be additional 15-20 EUR...
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I ended up going with the Michelin City Grips. I bought them from motorcycle-superstore at a good price, but before I did I emailed customer service to see what (load rating) version they carried. The guy said they had the 51 for the front and 56 for the back. Perfect! I didn't want to the 62 reinforced for the rear.
They showed up today and looks like the guy gave me some bad info. The rear is the 62 reinforced.
Haven't decided if I should just run it or call them to see if they can get me the 56, since that's what they told me they had. I'm a light rider and don't ride 2up very often, so I know I don't need the load capacity of the 62. Hmmm...what do you all think?
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I ended up going with the Michelin City Grips. I bought them from motorcycle-superstore at a good price, but before I did I emailed customer service to see what (load rating) version they carried. The guy said they had the 51 for the front and 56 for the back. Perfect! I didn't want to the 62 reinforced for the rear.
They showed up today and looks like the guy gave me some bad info. The rear is the 62 reinforced.
Haven't decided if I should just run it or call them to see if they can get me the 56, since that's what they told me they had. I'm a light rider and don't ride 2up very often, so I know I don't need the load capacity of the 62. Hmmm...what do you all think?
Don`t waste your and their time for nothing.
I also bought rear reinforced tire (62 L. REINF.). I think it makes no difference for such a light scoot like Agility anyway.
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Don`t waste your and their time for nothing.
I also bought rear reinforced tire (62 L. REINF.). I think it makes no difference for such a light scoot like Agility anyway.
You're probably right. I was concerned that the extra weight capacity (583# vs 494#) would make the tire stiffer than it needed to be, since I won't even be close to approaching that load.
I'm being picky. I'll run it. I don't want to wait around for another tire anyways (IF they could even get the 56, which I doubt).
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I was able to get the City Grips mounted up this weekend and I am glad I did since the wet weather is already here. I also added two ounces of airsoft BB's (0.12 g BB) in each tire after I read about Dynabeads. There were mixed opinions about them but most people were happy with the results. I figured what the heck...and it only cost me $4 for the airsoft BB's instead of the higher cost of Dynabeads.
Here is the stock (4400 km old) tire and the new tire. All I can say is that I know what tire I want to be riding on:
(http://i.imgur.com/909Sy.jpg)
(these are both front tires, but the old tire isn't mounted and inflated so it looks like a different size)
I took a long ride last night to test them out. My first impressions: Smoooooooth! The ride was noticeably smoother and they handled bumps and road imperfections much better. I was cruising at 50-55mph and they felt real good, so no weird problems with BB's I added. Cornering felt different, but in a good way. The roads were dry, but this week I should be able to test out their wet weather performance. Overall I am very happy with the new rubber. And just like anyone that upgrades from the stock tires, I highly suggest it!
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+1 on the city grips, I did the same, had the same crappy CST OEM tires.
Horrible in wet.
A huge difference in comfort was also what I noticed first, I never looked back.
They do, however, loose a bit of their initially unbelievable grip during the first
3000km or so, but still grip very well and are great in wet.
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I just had a 20 mile ride in the pouring down rain, so I was able to see the wet weather performance of the City Grips. They were AWESOME! They stuck like glue! Much much better than the OEM tires.
I did a couple of test: stopping and take-offs. With the OEM tires I had no problem locking up the front tire on wet pavement (at <10mph). I tried to lock up the City Grip when approaching a few stop signs and couldn't...it braked like it was dry out. Last week I had a couple of sketchy take-offs when my back tire lost traction. I tried the same thing today and was able to gradually increase my acceleration on each take-off until I was hammering it down. No spin out!
Of course, I'll be driving more conservatively in the rain, but I had to run some tests ;D I was taking the corners nice and easy today just because I haven't gotten comfortable yet, but I know they shouldn't have a problem.
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OK, City grips it is. Based on this thread. I have 7k on the OEM and could probably go at least one more year but I really want to ride into November, so I need a better rain tire. I am going to try to replace them myself.
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Good info in this thread. I rode into work today in the rain - nice back roads - about 12 miles or so. I'm new to the sport. I bought my 2007 Agility 125 last Thursday. It is totally stock, including the tires. I think the stock tires are decent, but I have nothing to compare them to. Since they feel safe, even in the rain, and since the bike has only 3,000k on it, I think I will keep them for a while. I will be curious to hear how the various tires handle at speeds over 40 mph. My bike feels stable at 50, but I must say I would be even happier if it would be the next level more stable at such speeds.