Tire Pressures

[craigatcsi]

This is probably a dumb question, but here goes anyway...

Approx. 7k ago, I replaced my stock tires with Avons. Everything has gone okay until lately.

They started making noise on the lean. So I checked them and I think they are cupping. I have kept 41ish pounds in them, per the service manual. I almost always ride two-up. Now tonight I hopped on it and it feels weird up to about 30 to 40mph. Almost sluggish with the turns, I thought I had a low tire, so I checked it again, this time with 2 different tire guages. They both read 40ish psi.

What are the chances of these Avons needing a different tire pressure than the book says? I'd swear that the tire looks like it has been run quite a while with low pressure - which as I said above, I always keep at 40ish psi.

craigr

[Snaggletooth]

On my '84 I run 42 in the front and 48 in the rear. Over 11,000 miles on the Avons and wearing well. No noise, no handling problems.

 

Mike

[Squidley]

The Avons are 50 lb tires, so I try to keep the rear as close to that as I can. I know there will be guys argueing that you go by what the manual says, but I go by what the tire mfgr says and keep my tires at max pressure. That also keeps the tire at it's max load capacity.

[MiCarl]

According to the Avon rep. premium tires (Avon, Metzeler, Pirelli...) should be run at higher pressures than "stock" tires. According to him premium tires should be inflated per the tire manufacturers recommendation rather than the OEM spec. Avon recommends the Venom at 36 front 42 rear.

[dynodon]

The "Maximum" pressure notation on the side of tires is the absolute high limit for cold pressure when loading the tire to the limit also. It isn't meant as a pressure to run all the time. IF the size is correct for the bike, then run what the owners manual says, or if you can get a specific recommendation from the tire MFG, then go with that, but most of the time when you call the MFG, you get someone that is guessing, or maybe has no clue, or has the wrong info?

 

I run 32 front 40 rear for Dunlop Elite 3's on my '86 VR one up (I am a big guy, so I count for two skinny people!) and a fair amount of stuff in the bags all the time. No problems.

[gibvel]

The Avons are 50 lb tires, so I try to keep the rear as close to that as I can.

You can't say that Brad. The fronts I'm not sure about because I have the narrower front (mine has a 40 psi sidewall) but there are 2 different rear tires. There's the H and the V. The V is a higher speed (160mph) lower weight rated tire. It's max sidewall pressure is 42 psi. The H is lower speed (130mph) Higher load rated and it's sidewall pressure is 50. According to Goose, the H lasts longer than the V as well.

 

That being said, yeah, I agree, I keep the max sidewall pressure in mine as well.

[Owen]

I have 16k miles on my venoms. The rear one is being changed today. I run 40lbs in the rear and 36lbs in the front. The front has lots of miles left in it. I ride mildly aggressively and mostly solo.

 

 

Edit: Ok I was wrong about the mileage... Had the dealer pull up my past service records and found that I only got 14,226 miles out of the venom... sorry for the misinformation.

Edited October 9, 2009 by Owen

[V7Goose]

I have 75,000 on my 05 RSV, and I put almost 15,000 on an 07. I have done a LOT of very specific tire testing and comparisons on these bikes (see tons of information in my older posts). I have found that this bike is quite sensitive to both the specific tires used and having the correct air pressure. It is also critical to make sure the front forks are exactly equal (and 0 lbs is fine). I do not ride with less than 20 lbs in the rear shock, and usually keep it at least 30 lbs for solo riding and about 48 lbs for fully loaded.

 

As for tire pressure, in my opinion 40 lbs is way too low for the 80H Venom. Ideal is between 46 and 48. Anything over 48 is bad and causes noticeable impact on handling. I generally keep my front around 36-38. If the tires are 5 lbs or more below those numbers, the bike wallows in long sweepers and feels a lot like the frame is flexing. If you run the Venom at max 50 lbs, it tends to feel fine under most conditions, but if you really load it up, you will get that flexing feeling on rough road in those long sweepers again.

 

If you have a rear tire with max pressure of 40, like the E3 or Pirelli, put it at 40 and keep it there. 40 in those tires handles great, and anything above that is both unsafe AND makes the bike have the same handling problems as running the Venom at 50.

Goose

[a1bummer]

When I was going through rear tires to fast, I found that the rear wheel bearings were a tiny bit loose. I replaced them and now my ear Avon seems to be holding up pretty well.

 

Just a little FYI.

[Owen]

I have 16k miles on my venoms. The rear one is being changed today. I run 40lbs in the rear and 36lbs in the front. The front has lots of miles left in it. I ride mildly aggressively and mostly solo.

 

 

Edit: Ok I was wrong about the mileage... Had the dealer pull up my past service records today when he put on a new Venom and found that I only got 14,226 miles out of the venom... sorry for the misinformation.