KevinQ
Member
I'm kinda torn. I'm in the hills of Western PA and I ride a bit agressively. I'm not looking for the quietest or most compliant ride. I need something that can withstand a bit of abuse from heavy bike piloted by a giant manchild.
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Like I said ... just my 2¢ ... I think I add most of my miles by going back and forth to workI'm kinda torn. I'm in the hills of Western PA and I ride a bit agressively. I'm not looking for the quietest or most compliant ride. I need something that can withstand a bit of abuse from heavy bike piloted by a giant manchild.
I flog mine when want to. Its a fine made machine. Its a HOOT to ride, no matter where.I'm kinda torn. I'm in the hills of Western PA and I ride a bit agressively. I'm not looking for the quietest or most compliant ride. I need something that can withstand a bit of abuse from heavy bike piloted by a giant manchild.
Any pictures of the tire's condition?Took the bike into the shop for inspection. 4100mi and both tires are smoked. I'd blame myself if it was just the rear but the front is shot too.
I'm off on a tire search.
The front does a bunch of work on these with the weight and long wheelbase especially with spirited riding on our Appalachian's tight and twisty roads.Took the bike into the shop for inspection. 4100mi and both tires are smoked. I'd blame myself if it was just the rear but the front is shot too.
I'm off on a tire search.
Thr R18 is a great "roadster" and a much better handling bike than many give it due credit for and it looks like you're getting nice even wear front and rear. Sooner or later you are limited by running out of tire and/or ground clearance and it appears safe to say you are "at the limit" of this bike's design platform. I seriously doubt you will see that much more mileage/tire life from any other options in this category and if so it will be a great find, but likely at the cost of handling so I'd recommend caution when testing at maximum inputs. Wear rates for tires among riders are almost useless as everything from heat cycles, load, temperatures, pavement drag factors, types of riding and maybe most important how smooth v. heavy the rider inputs are as to acceleration, braking, etc. I'd say it looks like you're having a blast on your 18 and while most wear factors will be consistent for much of your riding your inputs will likely be the real factors in +/- mileage rather tire manufacturer.The center line on the front is 1mm, maybe 2mm deep. The rear is pretty well smoked up the middle. It's not like I don't lean...the chicken strip are as thin as I can possibly make them. I've rubbed the engine guard in turns and my peg feelers are so far gone that I'm close to scraping away peg rubber.
My roads and tires are much the same.... front wears almost to the edge.... the rear not so much.The front does a bunch of work on these with the weight and long wheelbase especially with spirited riding on our Appalachian's tight and twisty roads.
Always have washed my GS... when it rains! Other than that I wash/polish/wax 2x/year or if it went into storage. Did that twice, once for a deployment & once when moving across country..Having had a pair of R18’s … something I’ve never done! I washed it! Yep, I’m a GSA guy.![]()
Splendid. Salt of the earth. What is that you are riding in your avatar (profile picture)?... today ... nothing really just out ridin' and seeing some of my rowdy friends
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'66 Shovelhead ('The ol' Girl) built her myself from a box of parts ... many Moons agoSplendid. Salt of the earth. What is that you are riding in your avatar (profile picture)?
Good on you! I started riding on Zündapp, Herkules and DKW 2 strokers .... always had to do my own wrenching cause we I didn't have the cash to pay a stealership ... I came to this country a long time ago because I saw this movie when I was youngYou are a big guy - you look comfy there. I would have thought you need more leg space than the R18 affords us. I am just under 6 foot and my legs protest just under an hour on the seat.
I built a '69 Kawasaki H1 Mach III out of a box of parts while I was a student. I would service bikes, synchronize carbs, set timing and points with a strobe light and dwell meter (almost unheard of back in '76 in South Africa) to earn money for a new crank, pistons & rings, a secondhand set of expansion chambers and various other odds and ends. That took almost three years and I had to sell my tired old RD350 at the end to pay for clutch plates, tires, K&N's, chain & sprockets, painting, clip-ons, chrome-plating the expansion chambers and a rev counter, I think. It went like the clappers between the lights and up to around 120mph. I embarrassed many a CB750 and Z900 with it, as long as we did not venture out onto open roads. It sounded like a symphony at full tilt with those open expansion chambers. Truth be told, though, it was a PITA most of the time, given the narrow power band, and often hard to start. The Mikuni cards would easily flood if you forgot the fuel petcock open by chance. I owned both a CB750 and Zee 900 afterwards (-:
The H1 was a 500cc two-stroke triple, kid brother of the H2 750cc triple. The early ones, like mine, had a distributor on the righthand end of the crank (not often you see that on a bike) and drum brakes front and back - double leading shoe up front. Mine looked a lot like this one, except it had clip-ons and a green-on-white paint scheme. The expansion chambers seem identical to those I had, probably the same brand too but I cannot recall what that was. Two-stroke oil tank under the RH side cover.
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(photo courtesy Revzilla)