Mike & 3069 Reunited

[mike3069]

I'm out of ski country and reunited with :spyder2:#3069 for the summer.

Went for a 175 mile test ride yesterday with new Falken ZE912 185/60/14 tires mounted up, set with 25 PSI.

Headed into WV and took 65 south to Delbarton, then did the GPS ramble (touch the screen in the middle of nowhere 10 - 50 miles away and hit "GO HERE") thru some great little mountain hollows that lead to great Mtn. passes with lots of turns. When my arms gave out at 110 miles, I hit "GO Home" and 40 miles of 4 lane later, I was at a Mexican restaurant 15 miles from home. A wonderful day for a reunion :D

The Report: These tires JUST fit under the fenders. Some will not like that the tire is now a bit off center under the fender. That said, they seem to do a great job. The handling was rock solid at all speeds, but I want to experiment with PSI a bit to see if I can make it a bit less "twitchy". I think less air may make it even better. It seems that the body roll is less with these tires than the stock one's. They rate a :2thumbs: so far.

I'll be back in Saratoga, NY on Sunday for the 66th Summer Season of Murphy's Golf Driving Range & Mini Golf!

Hope to see ya'll during Americaide
(or MagicMans gig?)

Mike Murphy

[NancysToy]

Welcome home! GPS Roulettte...sounds like a blast, I'll have to try it. Enjoy the Ryde...I know you will!

[dltang]

Glad you had such a great reunion with your spyder. Hope to see you at some of or at least one of the events going on this year.

[SpyderWolf]

Glad to hear you had a great reunion ryde.

The GPS roulette deal sounds really cool to me as well. I may have to take a weekend and do something like that. Thanks for sharing. :thumbup:

[RTGENE]

MR.MIKE
We met in Tennessee and you have an earned reputation of riding.
So could you send me 7 good reasons why your not coming to Missouri Rendezvous.
smile

[Roaddog2]

:2thumbs::doorag:

[Lamonster]

Good to see you posting again Bro. Hope we can get in a ride or two. :thumbup:
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=15&pictureid=6827

[j45p3r]

Would you be able to post a head-on picture of the Spyder with those tires. I'm really close to ordering the 185's but would like to see how they look first.

Please and Thanks!

[sabunim5]

Good to have you back :thumbup: I look forward to further posts on those new tires.:popcorn:

[mike3069]

MR.MIKE
We met in Tennessee and you have an earned reputation of riding.
So could you send me 7 good reasons why your not coming to Missouri Rendezvous.
smile

Reason #1 - Uhhhmmmmm, still thinking;)


Good to see you posting again Bro. Hope we can get in a ride or two. :thumbup:

Unfortunately, I'm headed north Sat AM. We'll catch up someplace thou!


Would you be able to post a head-on picture of the Spyder with those tires. I'm really close to ordering the 185's but would like to see how they look first.

Please and Thanks!

Sorry, but my camera is a casualty of Winter it seems. When I get settled a bit more I'll try to borrow one and post.

[vtrider]

Good to here from you mike! I hope we can get together for some riding sometimes between now and summer. I hope you had a nice time while you were in VT during the ski season. Man it's still cold around here! I've been back on the spyder, but this morning was just a bit cold and overcast when I went in to work and decided to keep the spyder home.

[mike3069]

Well, it took a while, but here is a photo of the Falken ZE912 185-60-14 on the front of the spyder.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2770/4517480849_df297d8dd3_m.jpg

[FANG]

tires look great Mike keep us posted on the performance. Probably won't be long before I will have to replace mine.

glad you had a good ryde - always enjoy your write ups.

have to get my GPS mounted for I can play the "Where to now?" game. :D

[SpyderWolf]

That tire looks good, and doesn't seem nearly as tight to the fender as I was expecting it to be. :thumbup:

[mike3069]

I got another almost 300 miles on the new tires today. I really like the new Falkens better than the stock tires. There were a couple of things I noticed that are different with the Spyders handling now.

On the beat up Vermont two lanes roads with all kinds of pavement vatiations, ruts, potholes, crumbling shoulders etc. the Falkens take it all in stride. They never seem to wander, always tracking straight ahead. With the stock tires you needed to kind of steer through the stuff as you hit it. Not with the Falkens. They don't change direction unless you move the bars.

The nanny seems to be tamed down a bit also. It feels like there is less body roll to set off the yaw sensor.

After thinking about these two things for a bit I have decided that the stock tires soft sidewalls allow the tire to "roll" sideways a considerable amount before taking a good grip on the road. It reminds me of the 1990's era Ski Doo snowmobiles that did the same thing. You have to wait a bit for the "roll" to happen before the turn really begins. This also lets the outside tire "drop" slightly, creating an additional amount of yaw moment at the very start of the turn. Also, on the rough roads the sidewall flex makes the Spyder sway sideways slightly on the dips and bumps, requiring slight steering adjustments to maintain your desired line.

The Falkens, with a much stiffer sidewall, don't "roll" or "drop". This results in a more responsive handle. They start the turn quickly with no delay. And end it quickly also. With no "drop" the bike stays flatter all the way through the turn (like a better anti sway bar) making the nanny seem to be less sensitive. On the rough roads they just don't seem to hunt at all. With very little sidewall flex, there is limited sideways movement of the bike to affect the desired path of travel.

With these ZE912's on the front and the Toyo on the rear I have a pretty happy rider on my :spyder2:.

[SpyderWolf]

Thanks for the update on the performance of your new tires. :2thumbs:

[Tom in NM]

I got another almost 300 miles on the new tires today. I really like the new Falkens better than the stock tires. There were a couple of things I noticed that are different with the Spyders handling now.

On the beat up Vermont two lanes roads with all kinds of pavement vatiations, ruts, potholes, crumbling shoulders etc. the Falkens take it all in stride. They never seem to wander, always tracking straight ahead. With the stock tires you needed to kind of steer through the stuff as you hit it. Not with the Falkens. They don't change direction unless you move the bars.

The nanny seems to be tamed down a bit also. It feels like there is less body roll to set off the yaw sensor.

After thinking about these two things for a bit I have decided that the stock tires soft sidewalls allow the tire to "roll" sideways a considerable amount before taking a good grip on the road. It reminds me of the 1990's era Ski Doo snowmobiles that did the same thing. You have to wait a bit for the "roll" to happen before the turn really begins. This also lets the outside tire "drop" slightly, creating an additional amount of yaw moment at the very start of the turn. Also, on the rough roads the sidewall flex makes the Spyder sway sideways slightly on the dips and bumps, requiring slight steering adjustments to maintain your desired line.

The Falkens, with a much stiffer sidewall, don't "roll" or "drop". This results in a more responsive handle. They start the turn quickly with no delay. And end it quickly also. With no "drop" the bike stays flatter all the way through the turn (like a better anti sway bar) making the nanny seem to be less sensitive. On the rough roads they just don't seem to hunt at all. With very little sidewall flex, there is limited sideways movement of the bike to affect the desired path of travel.

With these ZE912's on the front and the Toyo on the rear I have a pretty happy rider on my :spyder2:.

Mike, that sounds perfect - just what I have been looking for. Thanks for the great write-up, it gives me an excellent idea of what to expect. I almost can't wait for my current tires to wear out.

Tom