I just installed a set of Continental Road Attacks on the Bonneville. At 36psi front and 38psi rear, the bike would not turn. VERY high effort was required at the bar to turn. I began dropping the pressures and the bike started to turn again. I am at 28psi front and rear right now, but I am worried that this may accelerate wear. What should I go by, Triumph's recommended pressures or handling feel? Other than the bike's handling characteristics, how do you tell what pressures are correct? Keep in mind that the tires are wider than stock and may require less pressure than the stockers, but how much less?

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2006 Bonneville Black, TORs, Hepco and Becker Junior 30s, Corbin Smuggler

Wider tyres will need more pressure to turn but should be more stable in straight line?

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EFI Speedmaster

You should go by the pressures that Triumph spec out. Stick to the tyre sizes they recommend too.

If you keep riding at significantly low tyre pressure you will start to see abnormal wear, and will then likely experience some more handling issues.

Might be better to ditch those rotten contis and get some decent tyres - a pair of pirelli sport demons maybe, they seem quite highly rated, I am going to try those when I do a pair change. Until then, sticking with the stock metzelers which work very nicely.

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Buggrit

various seats,12V socket,seat cowl with girly on it,gaiters,tach,city bags,UJ tank cover,knee pads,genmar risers,AI gone,dynojet kit,K&N filter,TORs

Stock tires are Bridgestone BT 045s. The rears only last 4500 miles.

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2006 Bonneville Black, TORs, Hepco and Becker Junior 30s, Corbin Smuggler

The Road Attack is a SUPERB tire, I run them on the vstrom and they are super on wet roads, even better on dry, and will hold the pegs on the pavement at any speed the dl 650 can manage.
they must be run at high pressures like 38/42 forget the factory recommendations for these particular tires, if you run them low they will wear quickly, at the recommended pressure you will get good life from them.

they feel so much better than pilot roads it is'nt funny.

they are a little wide for the bonnie, now two things:

1. raise the tubes about 15mm you can go 25mm with no problems, longer shocks on the bonnie also help a lot about 1" longer

2. are you countersteering?

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"Peter, It seems like you have been missing a lot of work recently, well Bob I wouldn't say that I've been missing it"
ENOUGH, go out and ride!

Countersteering is the problem. I have to really manhandle the bars in order to countersteer with the tire pressures high. The bike will not transition from lean left to lean right (as in a chicane) because the bars resist me so much.

I am going to try another tire gauge to see if my current gauge is malfunctioning.

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2006 Bonneville Black, TORs, Hepco and Becker Junior 30s, Corbin Smuggler

Originally Posted by JTKMX

Stock tires are Bridgestone BT 045s. The rears only last 4500 miles.

Splitting hairs maybe. The bridgestones used to be stock, but they changed over to metzlers as stock in either 06 or 07,I forget which year for sure. I think it was 07 actually.

I personally do not like contis at all, but choice being the wonderful thing it is - if you like them, run them obviously. I won't criticize you for it. Although I kind of did. But didn't mean to. Sorry.

Checking your gauge is a good move.

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Buggrit

various seats,12V socket,seat cowl with girly on it,gaiters,tach,city bags,UJ tank cover,knee pads,genmar risers,AI gone,dynojet kit,K&N filter,TORs

I may have snookered myself yesterday when I lowered my air pressure and got a desireable result. I bumped up the preload on the rear at the same time (changed 2 factors at once, unable to determine which dominated). After going back up, 42psi front and 44psi rear, I notice that my steering hasn't gone away. The preload change must have help offset the attitude change that the bike experienced due to the difference in tire profile. When I get back home, I am going to raise the forks in the clamps and see if things lighten up even more.

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2006 Bonneville Black, TORs, Hepco and Becker Junior 30s, Corbin Smuggler

just for the size issue. This bike is pretty forgiving (ok read slow handling) It can be made to handle very very well, but it will not Feel light like a sportbike while it is actually running a really responsive setup.

When mine was hit it would do a u turn between the lines of a single lane no sweat. (running stock size demons, 1" up on the tubes and 1" up on the shocks)

yes you probably snookered yourself when you upped the preload, that raised the ride height a little and shortened the wheel base and that is good in this case.

a few things when the tire is on a rim that is too narrow:

They get larger in dia., which slows handling.

They get a hump in the middle cross section of the tire, which leads to rapid wear in the center and development of an edge transition between center and the further out leaned area quicker.

A lot of times the profile toward the edge, actually gets flatter which make the tire feel slower toward the edge (this can be good to a degree).

you lose hard cornering stability (profile is distorted), and you work the sidewall harder as it is trying to roll off the rim.

How the conti should feel (and this is from several bikes, bmwk100, vstrom650, and new bmw k1200 lt),

Road Attack mini review if any wants to know (this tire should be the bees knees for a road only for the tiger, and they are the bomb on the sprint)

The road attack is usually very light feeling at the first part of the push when you start a turn ( the inital push to lean the bike), they actually make the bike feel like it is falling into the turn, they then will give you more resistance the further you lean right to the edge of the tire.

On the straights on the interstates they can feel jut a bit weavy, they do not white line at all but they are so responsive that ANY imput by the rider gets results. The last thing about the road attack that you will either love or hate is that it is Telepathic, it will talk to you all the time about the road, and how much grip it has. if the road asphalt texture changes you will feel it, and it tells you how it is sticking. And that is great the road attack will not surprise you like a pilot road or avon venom by just letting go without notice (the bt45 is really bad about that as well), when you near the limit the conti will feel lighter and "dancy" after it had been getting firmer in the turn up to that point. These tires will not surprise you if you pay attention.

They also warm up really quick, and the rear should last 6-8k mi the front ought to do about 12k. there is a little trade off, and Conti warns you about this they say this tire has a little less grip below 40f degrees on wet roads than it does at above 40f on wet roads. Conti says it has a little trouble maintaining its heat under those conditions, I have ridden these in monsoon rains and 30-50mph winds at 52f degrees and they griped better than I expected, I hit a few spots where they should have hydorplaned by all rights and they did not.

In a nut shell, these are a great sport touring type of tire, with moderate-good life and sportbike rubber like grip, that give some of the best feed back to the rider you could ask for.


all that said the tire for the bonnie at the moment is the sport demon, or the tourance, or maybe the tc-80 if you want to get wild on the scram.

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"Peter, It seems like you have been missing a lot of work recently, well Bob I wouldn't say that I've been missing it"
ENOUGH, go out and ride!

This is going to sound strange, but the tires keep getting better and better with mileage. I noticed that they started feeling responsive and that the steering effort kept getting lower as I rode this morning. By the time I got back home, the bike was slaying the turns. I used to hate dragging my pegs, but now it seems as though the bike begs you to lean more and more. And yes, they are very communicative. I was getting excellent feedback on wet roads at 50F.

The question now at hand, do some tires require a break-in period?

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2006 Bonneville Black, TORs, Hepco and Becker Junior 30s, Corbin Smuggler