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@davelondon avatar
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Hooked
GTS250ie - Avidity
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Location: London
 
Hooked
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GTS250ie - Avidity
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Any tips for this?

Ive heard about needing to ride for a good 100miles but going into bends on a new tyre scares the hell out of me.

Should i be cornering at 30mph for 50miles then build it up or im i being paranoid and i should just ride! ?
@voneschenbach avatar
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Ossessionato
A fracking cage sadly
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@voneschenbach avatar
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When my tires were brand new (both Vespa and MC), it seemed like the traction loss was comparable to riding on wet roads, which about a 10-20% traction loss. So unless you plan to ride curves on a steel plate or take your brand new tires out on freshly rained on roads you should be fine with a little less aggressiveness.
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'05 LX 150 "Rosso Dragon"
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@mstevens avatar
'05 LX 150 "Rosso Dragon"
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New tires have plenty of grip.

"Mold release" is no longer used on street tires, so there's no need to scrub it off.

While brand-new tires may look shiny and therefore slick, that's deceptive: they're still made of rubber. Getting them all scratched up doesn't really make them grip any better.

What can drop you is cold tires. If the tires or road surface are cold, take it easy until the rubber has had a chance to warm up. There's no need to swerve in order to speed this up, and doing so won't work.
@bagel avatar
UTC

Ossessionato
VESPA: 2010 GTS (2), 2007 GTS, 2007 GTV, 1980 100 Sport, 1979 P200E, 1974 Sprint, 1965 Allstate, 1956 VL1; HEINKEL: 1965 Tourist, 1958 Tourist, 1957 Perle; STELLA: 2010 4T; BAJAJ: 2002 Legend, 2002 Chetak, 2000 Chetak, 1980 Chetak; YAMAHA: 2006 Morphous
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@bagel avatar
VESPA: 2010 GTS (2), 2007 GTS, 2007 GTV, 1980 100 Sport, 1979 P200E, 1974 Sprint, 1965 Allstate, 1956 VL1; HEINKEL: 1965 Tourist, 1958 Tourist, 1957 Perle; STELLA: 2010 4T; BAJAJ: 2002 Legend, 2002 Chetak, 2000 Chetak, 1980 Chetak; YAMAHA: 2006 Morphous
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Yeah, there's no particular speed you need to ride below, like you'd have when breaking in a top end. You'll want to ride in the twisties, just do it somewhat conservatively at first... go for a long ride or two, letting the tire warm up, and slowly work your way toward each side of the tire, gradually reducing your chicken strips. Once you've hit 100 miles, feel free to open it up some more and take it for a good long twisty ride, just to make sure that it's scrubbed in properly and gripping well.
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2012 BMW G650GS, 2006 GTS,
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2012 BMW G650GS, 2006 GTS,
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with lemon juice
@voneschenbach avatar
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A fracking cage sadly
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Location: Seattle
 
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@voneschenbach avatar
A fracking cage sadly
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UTC quote
mstevens wrote:
New tires have plenty of grip.

"Mold release" is no longer used on street tires, so there's no need to scrub it off.

While brand-new tires may look shiny and therefore slick, that's deceptive: they're still made of rubber. Getting them all scratched up doesn't really make them grip any better.

What can drop you is cold tires. If the tires or road surface are cold, take it easy until the rubber has had a chance to warm up. There's no need to swerve in order to speed this up, and doing so won't work.
Not sure what you found with your Ducati, but my VStrom when new had some kind of greasy gunk all over the tires. There was something on the GTS tires too, but it was mostly cleaned up by the dealer.
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'05 LX 150 "Rosso Dragon"
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'05 LX 150 "Rosso Dragon"
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voneschenbach wrote:
Not sure what you found with your Ducati, but my VStrom when new had some kind of greasy gunk all over the tires. There was something on the GTS tires too, but it was mostly cleaned up by the dealer.
The greasy gunk must have been added by the shop. Modern sport motorcycle tires are not made using mold release and don't come (from the tire factory, at least) with any sort of surface chemicals or coatings. I don't know about scooter tires. It's possible they may be coated, but I can't really imagine processes are really that different.

My dealer is having a tire special at the moment, so there are big stacks of tires around the shop. I was able to look at and feel a lot of tires (all Pirelli and Michelin) in a short amount of time. There was nothing greasy on any of them.

Watch racers: they'll leave the pits with totally new tires (occasionally with the paper stickers still on the tread!) and hit the track hard right from the start. They can do that because they use electric tire warmers.

In the absence of tire warmers, it is important to heat the tire thoroughly. It may help to "heat cycle" it to get all the various layers playing nicely with each other.

There's no point (except in racing) to ride like an idiot on new tires, but there's no Teflon on them that has to be removed by some arcane "scrubbing in" process.

The biggest issue with new tires is that... they're new. They're either on a new bike, with different characteristics from what one is used to, or they're replacements for worn tires that no longer have the same profile even if the replacements are the same model. My wife rides the same model Ducati as I do, with the same model tire. My tires have a few thousand more miles than hers. The two ostensibly identical bikes feel very noticeably different in turns just because the profiles on the once-identical tires are no longer the same.

Ask any mechanic - most say they get more comments about "it feels like a new bike" after a tire change than after hours of engine or suspension tuning.
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Molto Verboso
Vespa GTS 300 Super
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Location: Puerto Rico / Texas / Barcelona
 
Molto Verboso
Vespa GTS 300 Super
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Location: Puerto Rico / Texas / Barcelona
UTC quote
I have had no issues with my tires, i had Pirellis and work great, know i have shinko whitewall and they also have good grip !!

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