950 Supermoto Chronicles

Yes. A 150 on a wheel meant for a 180 size tire is not only a bad idea, its kinda unsafe IMO.

Might as well fit a car tire back there. The handling would be similar.

I think better options would be-

-Fit a SE spoked rear wheel
-run something with a more open tread pattern like the OEM syncs (for me, they lasted as long as any other tire I've run) and get a tire groover and open up the grooves more until you get the off road traction you want. Someone else here cuts their own tread pattern with reasonable success.
-learn to handle a big ass bike in the dirt with just street tires

I was at the point where I was pondering the same thing as you, but after all the reading I did on the subject, i dont think its safe to go that different in a size.

I wouldnt have a problem going one size larger or smaller, but your talking about a few sizes.

Yep. The 17" Avon Distanza does come in a 160 width. Even that calls for a 5" maximum rim width. I have stretched rears before without any problem. But a 160 on a rim designed for a 180 may be more than I want to do. I would be much more concerned doing this on the front.

Anybody have feedback on the TKCs? I suspect they will be more dirt capable than I need for intermittent Alaska gravel/graded dirt. I would be more concerned about their performance on the road. I need to get at least 4k miles out of the tire to eliminate a change mid trip.

Thanks

I believe Karoo3 will be out soon with 170-17 size.

That looks like a decent tire, plus a 170 would be big enough!

Have you heard when? I need a new set of skins this year before I do any longer trips, and these might be worth waiting a little while for.

Edit: Guess they dont make a 17" front, but we have quite a few options there, but this looks like a pretty decent rear tire.

All this talk got me to check my tread depth. Time for some new rubber!:



I was looking for something 100% street (with, maybe a couple track days), a bit more aggressive than the PR2s or PR3s.

The metzler Karoo3 was apparently designed for the new BMW Wet head.

I ran a 150/ Distanza on my 5" spoke rear as a first hand cut experiment.
The profile was flat and wide. Not what I would call optimal. I have run 160/ tires on a 5" rim and had much better results, with the best results coming from 170/ on the 5" and 180/ on the stock 5.5". A 170/ on the stock rim was close enough to run and rely on, but still didn't push a full profile at the center strip like the 180/.

I have a 4.25" now and the 150 tires fit it much better.

18" wheels do NOT fit in our shorter swing arm. The SM/SMR swinger is 2" shorter from shock pivot to axle, than the ADV or SE.

edit to add:

I hope the Karoo3 will be a winner!

Around April they said.

I've run the Pirelli Diablo Rosso Corsa's, currently have the Bridgestone S20's.

For me they are both pretty equal on turn-in and stick, both slide progressively.

Prefered the DRC's over all, better on grooved pavement. The S20 are a bit better in the wet.

No comment on durability. Flatted the DRC rear and replaced after apx 1k miles. Only put 2k miles on the Bridgestones so far.

NM

+1 for DRC traction, profile, and feel. excellent for aggressive street riding and trackdays, but they definitely don't last very long.

here's a pic of my last set of DRC. i think this was about 2500 miles; cords were starting to show. even hit the wear bars on the sides. i decided to go with pilot road 3 with the next set.

Another +1 for the DRC. Got 4K out of the rear. Front should go 8k.

Hey all,

so I know this has been covered before, but I'm having issues tracking it down specifically and I'm basically just hoping that someone has run into the same issue.

[random back info]After finding a bunch of grey crap in my clutch reservoir of my used bike I decided it was time to bleed through the old shitty fluid in there. Along the way I guess I managed to suck in some air and have been fighting to get rid of it ever since. What's basically happening is that I cannot get full disengagement at the clutch even with the lever adjusted all the way out. When I put it in gear and pull in the clutch it just rocks back and forth when pushed. Though I can push through the clutch a bit... I pulled the clutch cover off and the pressure plate comes within 2-3mm coming even with the clutch basket fingers. [/random back info]


Anyways, I think that the issue I'm having is there is still air trapped in the clutch MASTER cylinder. And I'm having a hell of a time getting it out... Here's what I've done/what I've tried.

Bled it in the traditional fashion - I don't get any bubbles out of the slave.

Back bled the slave with a small(ish) syringe. Pushed enough fluid through to overflow the reservoir three times. No bubbles came out up top (though a fair bit did leak past the bleeder nipple threads). I think I may not be pushing fluid through fast enough for this method to work.

Shoved the piston into the bore hard enough to force fluid up the line into the reservoir many times... no bubbles come out.

However, if I wiggle the lever and then pull it tight then let it snap back into place I get a couple of tiny bubbles out of the master into the reservoir. I've been doing this off and on for two days and I'm at my wits end... no matter how much I work at this (two days worth) it's not getting any better. I'm thinking there's a pretty decent amount of air still in there, I'm at my wits end with this thing. I'm considering buying an Accossato master cylinder with a bleeder at the top just to get around this problem.

I've had the slave apart and can't find any issues with it, it's still sealing... I just can't seem to move this last bit of air in either direction without rapidly flicking the lever for the tiniest bubbles ever. Any suggestions at all? Please help!

Sometimes i zip tie the lever to the bar over night. Leave the resivior cover off. Any air will find its way out.

Ditto.

tie the lever back and leave the *full* master cylinder reservoir open for at least 24 hours.

Doing that now. Thanks. Will report back.

There is also the gravity bleed: slightly open the bleed nipple to where fluid just leaks out slowly and keep refilling the reservoir as it drains. Worth a shot if other bleeding approaches don't work.

I do this too.

I wanted to do a check on the idle mixture screw adjustments without removing the carbs, so I thought I could do something with Motion Pro’s pilot screw adjusting tool. As bought (for around $20), the driver is way too long to fit in the allotted space. I used a pipe cutter to shorten the outer tube, then hacksawed the blade section to ½” long. The tricky part is re-cutting the screwdriver blade. I milled mine, but it can be done with a file/Dremel wheel, as long as the blade is slightly less than 1mm thick. I was careful not to cut the outer tube too short, otherwise it won’t guide the blade properly. It takes a few tries to get the feel of the idle screw seating, and backing out the proper # of turns, but after a little trial and error, the settings repeated consistently.

Creative, but don't all these bikes have an idle adjust knob OEM?

My SMR does.