Sounds like the tires maybe were not warm enough in my opinion.

Also riding characteristics are going to be a little different between Pilot Road 4 tires and Diablo Rosso Corsas. PR4 are sport touring tires with a more of a U shape to them. In comparison the Diablo Rosso Corsas are sportier with more of V shape which allows easier turning and transitions. If the tire is not warm enough the feeling of falling/slipping will be exaggerated.

Just my two cents.

 

How many miles on the tires? When my Rosso Corsas reached 3500 (commuting) miles, the center squared off, and made the turn in more like a fall in. The bike would want to just suddenly fall into the turn. I changed the tires to M7RR and the turn it got back to predictive.

The STR also has a very light steering. After riding BMW S1000RR for about an year, I got back on the STR and was in for a big surprise of how quick and sensitive the steering is.

 

I’d suspect the tires are past their lifetime. Do you know the date stamp, how many miles are on them, etc?

 

Sounds to me that you are not game to lean the thing far enough over and the nervousness is upsetting the handling. You know that counter steering will make the bike drop faster into a turn. The stripple with good tyres will go further than most have the nads to find its limits

 

I have to say that I found my Street Triple quite unsettling on corners. Of all the bikes I've owned, I found the front-end feedback quite strange, which I put down to the short trail and overly-light feel. After 6 years and 50,000km I was still not keen on it.

At the speeds your talking about it will not be related to tyre stickiness unless your tyres are old and perished. The sudden "falling" is often due to the profile of the tyres, particularly when they are worn, but as each brand has a different profile you may simply not like the ones on there. You will get a band of hard surface on the part you're not using, and you can use a solvent to get the waxy surface off, but at normal city speeds the tyre should only be 20% of the way to losing traction, so it's more likely related to profile, geometry, and your nervousness.

Remember that the rear tyre is much wider than the front. When leaning over the rear line of contact is well to the left of the bikes centre-line, so with a short trail on the front it does feel as though the rear is taking a shorter line around the corner than the front (although they are actually very similar). This may be what you're noticing and is unsettling you.

Of course I could be completely wrong... it's just a theory


Sent from my SM-T825Y using Tapatalk

 

OP, I know the sensation you are talking about, as I had 1 of my 5 bikes gave me that feeling. No idea how to change it. Tires, tire pressure, head bearing, suspension. Mid-lean, it's like the rate of tip-in suddenly accelerates or gets squirrelly.

 

Confidence and feel are hard to get back when lost. Tracked my 2015 striple at ~4000 miles on those rosso corsas and had total confidence. After my last drop it's gone and it feels strange now somehow. Advice is free so take it for what it's worth but maybe fresh tires and a suspension adjust just to give yourself a fresh start with the bike? Think I'll be loosening and tightening my front end and get it to a suspension guy for a piston kit and adjustment.

 

Does your triple have less rake than the bikes you're used to? Less rake = faster turn in. Maybe play around with the suspension settings as well.

 

Change tires or tune your suspension. Have a feeling it might be the tires.

Sent from my MI MAX 2 using Tapatalk

 

If you liked the PR4's try the PR5's that's what I'll be doing with my Thruxton R .

 

I agree with stgatev. The tyres have squared off, creating a point on either side of the tyre that's kind of like a right angle. When you lean the bike over, it hits that point of the tyre and feels unstable.

The same thing happened to me. Fresh new tyres fixed it right up.

 

Guys, he bought it 3 months ago and has been riding for 8 years. I'm guessing he would know if his tyres were worn [emoji3]

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

It's a 2015 model with the original tyres on it. They may be a bit squared off by now. The previous owner may have done a lot of highway mileage.

He may not have squared off the tyres on his previous bikes and so may not have experienced how that type of wear would feel.

Motorcycle tyres can wear differently depending on how the bike is ridden.

 

That's kinda interesting. I rode the original Diablos on my '15 until they absolutely had to be replaced, around 6000 miles on the rear and 8000 on the front. Replaced with RoadSmart 3s. And after I replaced the front I had exactly this same sensation. When cornering it felt like I was losing the front very quickly. My wrench suggested that I'd been riding the old, worn tires for so long I'd just forgotten what good tires felt like. And after growing a pair and armoring up and dragging low in a few corners to test them more thoroughly I found he was right. I learned to trust the sides and once I did, I felt like Valentino Pedrosa. But it was weird for a few days.

I realize my tire situation was different from yours - I had that 'falling' feel after replacing my squared off Pirellis. But your description was so similar I thought I'd throw it out there.

 

I've been a Rosso Corsa guy since '08 changing to Pilot Roads during the winter and I can attest to the fact that the Pirelli's take longer to warm up but yeah, your tires must be squared off.

I've had multiple folks tell me the new Q3's are absolutely amazing so I may try those next, but I'm kinda superstitious!

 

Yo! The Q3s are great!

When I did a SoCal Supermoto school all of the bikes were running them. They are super grippy!

 

I had the stock Super Corsas, Bridgestone T-30s and S-21s on mine so far. I haven't experienced the "falling" sensation on the street or the track. Must be doing something wrong. :dunno

 

Get a mate to lift the front of the bike balanced on sidestand and hand on frame. Grab the front forks and turn the wheel. It should be smooth with no notch in the centre.
Could be someone overtightened the bearings in the past or crap wheelies.
Mine had worn Angels on it. Changing to Bridgestone S21s really helped it steer.

 

I remember having the sensation of the bike "falling in to the corner" when I first rode a Street Triple. Its eagerness to corner was an eye opener compared to what I was used to riding. My main bike at the time was a 1050 Sprint and I was also riding a lot of enduro on a Husky. Maybe it's the steering geometry, light weight, CG? I haven't looked up any specs to compare with other bikes. I believe the OEM tires were Dunlop Sportmaxes in 2010.

BKK mentioned something above that I can relate to as far as comfort/confidence level on the bike with some coaching. I did an Advanced Street Skills (ASS) course at Pacific Raceways with it a few months after purchase. I never noticed that "tippy" feeling again! Assuming everything is mechanically sound and tire pressures are correct, these things will go right to the edge and giggle the whole time.

 

Thanks for all the input guys, wasn't really expecting this much of a response! I had to take a couple week long break from riding but now I'm back on the saddle. I went through all the advice and I think I know where to go next.

I think the safest bet at the moment is the squaring off. Like Aysee said, I never really had that problem before, even when in the city, the roads in Poland twist and turn, unlike the square grids of some places in the US, so I never really had a chance to square off my tyres. And on both of my previous bikes it so happened that the tyres needed replacing ASAP, so I never really rode on someone else's tyres. Here they have 11000 km on them (almost 7000 miles) and it's possible that the previous owner rode those miles mostly vertically (it was her first bike).

I don't know about the rake, I didn't check the numbers, but I'd assume that the CBR being a nimble 600 sports bike would also have a short rake. Anyway, the problem isn't in the initial tip in, I actually enjoy the fact that I can flip the bike from one side to the other with minimal input, it's what happens during the corner that's giving me problems.

Regarding suspension, unfortunately it's not the R version, so I can't do much about it I do think the front is a tiiiiiiiiny bit too soft, but maybe that's because I had the CBR set up a bit harder and I'm just used to that. I checked the preload in the shop and it seemed to be set correctly for me (the girl was pretty tall, I'm fairly short ), so not much I can do in regards to suspension.

As for mental block/psychologica, well that's entirely possible, I can't rule that out. On the track I didn't notice that feeling and I could interpret it both ways. Either whenever I leaned it was a pretty sudden lean that was supposed to go very low, so the change in rate wasn't really that noticeable, but it could be that riding on the street I am much more apprehensive and cautious.

For now I will go with the tyre change, now I just need to pick a model

Thanks for all the help!

 

Of the 20+ bikes I've been riding in 40+ years, this STR has the strangest front end feel of any bike I've ever had. Never having a problem with Michelins, I'm going to give Bridgestones a try on my next change. They have the most rounded profile of any tire out there. The rest of the bike is a peach, and I'm slowing down, so I'll eventually come to grips with it.

 

I agree. I'm not sure why mine felt so weird, but I got it loaned back while my new Thruxton was being serviced, and it still felt really odd in comparison.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

I loved Metzeller M7RR on the STR, and I love Bridgestone S21 on my S1000RR. Both are great street tires, good for a very spirited riding. Both M7RR and S21 are very predictable, and S21 dampen all little imperfections on the road and feel very comfortable, and they last forever. My advice is if you ride a lot in the rain, get M7RR. If not, S21.

 

Sorry I didnt read the whole thread but If you havent already, check your suspension settings. You'd be surprised what a click or two on adjusters can make.

 

I would if I could, but I have the base Street, not the R version, so the suspension is mostly non adjustable I've changed the tyres to the new Road 5's from Michelin and the difference is amazing. I had to kind of learn how to ride this bike again, the responsiveness was so different. I actually have "feel" of the bike now and don't need to take each corner based on faith that the rubber should be holding. The turn in is much, much lighter - I actually ran over a curb today while making a right hand turn from a stop because I just gave too much countersteer while still looking for oncoming traffic and made the turn too tight XD But the rate of lean is constant throughout and I can totally control the angle, even in slow speed turns. What's even stranger, since these are supposed to be much less "sporty" tyres, I feel a lot more confidence in their ability to grip in tight, low speed maneuvers than I ever did in the Pirellis. I love the bike even more now, thanks for all the input guys, happy riding!

 

Tire profile is the issue.

Rossa are steeper V profile and turn in much faster the the PR4 U shaped profile. The Rossas will turn in faster and deeper than most street riders want when riding at a moderate street pace. The PR4s will have a slower more progressive turn in feel to match a moderate street pace.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk