Ah well - time to remove the sh300i wheels in preparation for fitment of the new metzeler feelfree tyres - then mibeez a wee bimble out sometime thereafter - and by that I mean after Easter

I've got feel free rear to go on the burger 400 .

Don`t you find the feel frees very hard at the back.

I found going back to a city grip was such an improvement comfort wise.

I really didn’t find a noticeable difference between the metzeler and the michilin

XP500FUN wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 6:59 am Don`t you find the feel frees very hard at the back.

I found going back to a city grip was such an improvement comfort wise.

...until it comes to a wet road and one's comfort is disturbed by the scary lack of feeling! I just can't get on with CityGrips....when I swapped one for a Metzeler the feeling of actual grip was amazing!! Yes, I know many other people get on fine with CityGrips!!!

Although there are difference between makes of tyres for our scoots, often those differences are quite small. That's leaving aside specialist tyres or tyres designed specifically to provide better winter or wet weather grip. In lab friction and conformity tests the tyres often perform identically or very near to being identical. On the road this can often translate to only small differences regarding frictional values due to small changes to tyre compounds used and their layout/distribution around the tyre. In reality, we won't feel much difference between the mainstream 'ordinary' tyres we all buy because all tyres have to provide a minimum standard of performance and be in compliance with road safety standards. What can influence the handling of your bike more, from tyre make to make is the profile of the tyre. These do vary a bit and it's often this which is as important as the compounds used to make the tyre. I don't mean just rim to outer radius size, I mean the way the actual tyre cross section looks. There can be quite a difference.

So the Citygrips have a slightly chunkier profile to some other makes. This makes them good for general riding and gives good grip wet or dry. The compounds used to make it are the same as most other tyres, yet it performs differently to some other makes with a sleeker profile. It's fascinating how we all pick up on these subtleties.

Data wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:53 am

So the Citygrips have a slightly chunkier profile to some other makes. This makes them good for general riding and gives good grip wet or dry. The compounds used to make it are the same as most other tyres, yet it performs differently to some other makes with a sleeker profile. It's fascinating how we all pick up on these subtleties.

You may well be right to say that the differences are subtle, but yes, we pick up on these subtleties very differently! I know some people really get on well with CityGrips - but I couldn't! I can only assume that I need a particular level or type of feel in the wet that others don't, or maybe I'm just very insensitive, so I need much more feel than others do. I remember when I swapped a CityGrip for the Metzeler on the mk1 Tmax I'd hadn't even got out of the workshop yard when I was thinking what that strange feeling was, then realising that it was 'GRIP' !! Riding the Bev on CItyGrips in the wet was like playing Russian Roulette - I'd have no idea whether it would grip or not - there again, the Bev had a pretty rubbish chassis and wasn't much better on other tyres! I think chassis design is important as the Tmax, with its top class chassis, always feels pretty good in the wet, whatever tyres you have on (possible exception of CityGrips!).
I don't have such problems with other Michelin products - the Power Pures were utterly sensational in the wet - better than in the dry!!
The worst of all were Vee-Rubber - no grip at all.

best tyres ive ever had is a Michelin city grips and the michelin pilot sport best gripping tyres in wet and dry

Very interesting reply from Data. I found the pilot pure (I think they were called that), that I once fitted to my Silver wing were the worst tyres I ever had , the profile looked good ,but in practice the centre profile was like riding in tram tracks very scary, I got rid as soon as possible and went back to Bridge stones. I have just fitted a city grip to the rear of my Cruisym, the original tyre was a Maxi , I got 10000km out of the Maxi , hope for better mileage on the City grip.

With CityGrips it's always best to put a pair on at a time ie: don't mix a Citygrip with another make especially if the Citygrip is going on the rear. That can produce weird handling, but then it's pretty much the same for other makes too often with some degree of handling mismatch.

Most of us can even tell if our tyre pressures are under or over as we ride so changing tyres between makes is always going to produce some degree of change to feel. If you see what I mean....