V7Goose

14,000 on my last Avon Venom rear. Still rolling the Venom on the front, so cannot give you mileage on that one yet. Goose

Man, if you are draggin that bag, you one tough mutha! My hat's off to ya.

Here is an easy way to test that. Mount the bag and then tie a string between the forks at the bottom of the bag, then remove the bag. Now coat the string with snap-line chalk, toothpaste, grease, or some other substance that will come off if contacted, then go for a test ride with 0 air in your forks and slam into a couple of pot holes (or speed bumps). If there is some of the gunk on your fender, it ain't safe! Goose

OK Royal Venturer, you are gonna have to explain this one! I did not recognize one of your possible causes, so I had to go look it up: Definition A varicocele is when the veins along the spermatic cord dilate (widen). The spermatic cord suspends the testicles in the scrotum. Seems to me that you might be going way out on a limb here! If it was THAT big, enought to cause his bike to pull to the left, don't you think he might have a hard time just WALKING?? Goose

Jim just mentioned absolutely the most likely cause! Don't know why I didn't remember this myself. All roads are crowned to allow water runoff (some much more than others). This means the surface will be angling up from right to left when you are riding in your normal lane, and this contact with the tire is exactly the same as leaning your bike over into a slight left turn. In other words, the coning effect of the tires will cause your bike to turn slightly left. To see if this is what you re feeling, go find an open straight stretch of road with no traffic and move into the left lane to test it out. On that side of the road, the crown will tend to make your bike pull right. Alternatively, find a split highway with a grassy medium and try it in the fast lane - this should give you some of the same effect as the left side of a crowned two-lane road. Good luck, Goose

Hey Eric, Yes, I have the motorcycle adapter - I don't see any way to use it without this. Point to remember: When you get it, it seems they all come with the rim clamps installed backward! You will have to pull them off and turn them around. Our rear wheel just barely fits in this thing, with the brake disk sitting right down on the support arm (or within a hair's width of it). This is not a problem, since the clamps hold everything in place and prevent any twisting or pressure on the disk. I only mention it because I initially thought it would not fit! Goose

Absolutely not normal on these things. If your bike is new, make it your dealer's problem. Things to check first: --Make absolutely certain that the forks are at the same pressure. For this purpose, I'd suggest 0. --Make certain you are not carrying anything in one saddle bag and not the other to unbalance the bike. --Carefully inspect the tires where they seat on the rim and be sure that they are seated evenly all the way around on both sides. It's rare, but possible to have a tire seat with part of the bead a little further down inside the rim in some places, causing the tire profile to be incorrect. --Make sure you are sitting in the middle of the seat and sitting straight up (strange, but I have a problem with this - I always seem to be leaning slightly to the left when I line myself up with the windshield). --Eyeball the fairing as it is mounted to the forks to see if it is even slightly angled or off center. Not sure what to tell you to look at for this, but I'd start with the distance between the fairing and handlebars on each side, then maybe the gap under the front in front of each fork? --Check wheel alignment. Easiest way is to use the string method or two long straight edges (such as 8' aluminum or steel bar stock laid flat with the edge touching both sides of the rear tire as high up as you can get them). --Last thing I can think of is to make sure your steering head bearings are tight. Good luck, Goose

I use the Harbor Freight manual tire changer. Self-stick weights from JC Whitney. Put the axle in the wheel and set the ends on two jack stands. I'll probably use the same valve stem until I die. Goose

Tartan, I agree that logically, what you describe makes sense, but I have found the reality to be quite different. First, even tho the MT90 is technically a narrower tire than the 150/80, it isn't that MUCH narrower. An MT90 is still a big fat tire compared to what most bikes are running up front. Secondly, I have NEVER owned a bike that tracked grooves and ridges as bad as my RSV did with the stock Brickstones! Holding that thing steady on the roads I ride every day was a nightmare. It seemed to have a mind of its own, and that vacant mind wanted to explore every single imperfection of the road surface, no matter how small! When I mounted the new Avon Venoms, this tracking TOTALLY vanished. I even found myself steering to every groove or rut I could find just to keep proving to myself that it wouldn't track them any more. Now, here is some new information that I haven't really posted yet, as I am in the middle of an unplanned experiment. As the Avons wore down, some of this tendency to track grooves began to come back, but never to the horrible level it had been with the Brickstones. At 14,000 miles on the Avon rear tire, it had a spot that wore dangerously thin due to running with incorrect balance, so I had to remove it before I had ordered replacement tires. Well, I ride every day, and I wasn't about to let it sit alone in the garage while I caged it waiting for the new skins, so I decided to slap on the old Brickstone I still had sitting around for just such an emergency. What a rude awakening!! My front Avon has 15,000 miles on it now, but still has lots of tread and a nice round profile (no center flattening). As I stated above, the bike had been exhibiting more groove tracking as the Avons wore down, and it just seemed natural for me to assume that this tendency to track the imperfections of the road was directly caused by the front tire; after all, the front tire is connected to the handlebars, right? And the handle bars is where you most feel this tracking. Now I don't think so. As soon as I put that old Brickstone back on the rear (Avon Venom still on the front), the danged bike went loco tracking road imperfections again!!! Surprised the snot out of me! That rear Brickstone (which is quite flat, by the way), is directly causing this bike to act like is is having an epileptic seizure any time it encounters significant ridges or grooves. They are doing a lot of road work on the freeway I ride to work every day where they grind off the top surface and then lay a new layer of asphalt, and this leaves many short sections where the grinding wheels cut a little deeper than the pass they made next to it, This bike is downright SCARY on those spots now, where it was only a minor irritant before, even with the worn-out Avon on the rear. I'm going to mount the new Avon on the rear this Sunday and ride the bike for a while with the existing Avon front tire (15,000 miles on it) and the new Avon rear. I'll let y'all know how that affects the tracking. After a few weeks, I'm gonna make a sacrifice for the sake of science and all my buddies here and pull off the Avon front tire and re-mount the old Brickstone 150/80! God how I hate the thought of doing this, but I just have to know much that front tire alone will change the handling of the bike with a new Avon Venom on the rear. Watch this site for new info as it develops! Goose

Avon Venom tyres have a remarkable following here. Most of us who run them (especially with the MT90 front) feel the handling is the best we have experienced. I got 14,000 miles out of the first rear tyre (after only getting 8,000 from the stock Brickstone), so they seem to wear very well. Best prices and service to buy them from SW Moto Tires in Tucson, Arizona. They have a number of web sites and names, but easy to find with a Google search. They ship free if you buy at least two tires.