Suzuki V-Strom (VStrom) Owners Club DL250, DL650, DL1000 & DL1050
Oily Rag - Dedicated to Pat, Greywolf. 26/06/45 - 04/06/18 => Tyres => Topic started by: old git on October 13, 2019, 22:11:49
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Having been fairly sceptical about the differences between GT and non GT tyres events yesterday may have changed my mind. At the last tyre change for the V-Strom I was looking for Pirelli Angels and the GT versions listed were substantially cheaper than the standards so I bought them. Fast forward to early Saturday morning, my mate Graeme on his Laverda and myself on the Suzuki were heading out for a long day over to the West coast and looking to put in close to 500 miles. Around 40 miles from home in pitch darkness and wet roads I felt the front wheel hit something big. The bars slapped around a bit and sorted themselves out. Luckily it was on a straight, if I'd been cranked over in a turn I'd certainly have been off. Everything felt fine, though it did cross my mind that the tyre/wheel might have been damaged. I'm soon into a long, fast bend that I've done hundreds of times before and the bike seems reluctant to turn. A bit more effort and all's good. A fast straight after the turn and everything seems fine. We were heading in the direction of Tomintoul via the Lecht Ski centre with the front end incident happening around 8 or 9 miles before the ski centre. As we climbed from Cock Bridge I was starting to feel that something wasn't quite right. As I braked for the left hander at the bottom of the descent from the Lecht the front end felt really vague. I stopped and the tyre was completely flat. By now there was some daylight so I attached the slime compressor in and let it do it's stuff. The tyre was losing air as quick as we could get it in. The culprit was a large spilt in the tyre and way beyond plugging. Faced with an indeterminate wait for recovery I thought I'd try and ride it home at least some of the way. It seemed pointless Graeme losing out on the run so he carried on and I about turned and headed for home. Given that the tyre was showing no pressure on the gauge the bike rode very well and I maintained 30 - 40 mph on the straights. Tight corners and uneven surfaces were a bit more worrying and all the while the thought of the tyre coming off the rim was on my mind. Little over an hour later I was home safe. The performance of modern tyres never ceases to impress me. They are massively better than what many of us grew up with and the last front end puncture I remember on a road bike was on my GS1000 in the early 1980's. I remember trying to ride it with a flat tyre and within 100 metres the tyre was off the rim and it was completely unrideable. The claims of stiffer sidewalls on the GT tyres may be true after all. In total I rode over 50 miles on a completely flat front tyre albeit fairly slowly for most of it. At no time did I feel that I was losing control though I was lucky that there was little traffic on the road and no reason for hard braking. The split in the tyre had rendered it useless anyway but there was no sign of any further damage with riding it flat for so long.
Luckily the BMW was sitting there, fuelled up so I did the planned route in reverse and eventually met up with Graeme at a wet Glenelg. I still managed to get very close to 500 miles done in total and had a brilliant days riding :smiley:
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Wow.
Just wow. :bow-blue:
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Yes , well done. It's takes balls to ride on a flat front tyre :clap:.
Not many tyres out there that can get you home with zero PSI / Bar .
As you have just experienced the Angel GT is a great tyre for such a job, also some of the older Bridgestone Battlax series would do the same depending on how heavy your bike is.
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:shock: :shock: :text-goodpost:
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:clap: :clap: :bow-blue:
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You've got some stones. Fair play to you :thumb:
I know I wouldn't have even thought about riding on a flat. Just goes to show what can be done with the right mindset. :bow-blue:
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Blimey, that turned out an epic day!
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Rather you than me :bow-blue:
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I'm really surprised how easily I got home. At around 30 - 40 on a straight road I honestly couldn't feel any difference from normal running. Like I said, very little traffic. The few cars that did catch me up were just waved past. I had a couple of T junctions to negotiate and they were a bit ropey but nothing too scary. Maybe I just got lucky?
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Thanks for the post something to remember when buying tyres. :thumb:
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I replaced the tyre today. Easiest tyre removal ever. Here's a photo of the damage.
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GT tyres are designed for heavy torquey bikes like Pan Euros, GTR1400, FJR ect.
Putting them on a strom it a bit overkill and can negatively affect the handling if not used on a bike heavy enough to justify the stiffer sidewalls.
The tyre supplier I used to deal with for work said on a bike less that 260kg it's like putting 50psi in the front tyre.
You'll get no deformation of the round prifile of the tyre where the tyre contacts the road.
Decreases the contact patch and makes the bike twitchy.
I asked for SWMBO's GSX1400, he said:
"Well yes that's a bike with a lot of torque, and the GT will last longer, but unless you only ever ride it 2up I wouldn't advise it."
Old Git : your RT will be fine with them but I wouldn't advise them for the Strom.
If a tyre dealer is offering them in Strom fitment, he's not advising, he trying to get rid of something he ordered for someone and they backed out of buying them.
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When I put a fresh set of pilot 4 Michelin's on my little CB500f I mistakingly put a GT version on the front (they are identical apart from a small GT on the side), I noticed after around 50miles and thought oopps .. :roll:.
I left it be and to be honest the handling wasn't any different from the previous normal road 4. :shrug:
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Mr Muffdiver, thanks for your concern but after 40 plus years of riding I think I know when tyres are working. I ride hard and the GT's work very well on the V-STROM, wet or dry, slow or fast, solo or fully loaded. Nobody advised me to put the GT's on the Strom and they feel no different to the standard Pirelli Angels.
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Hi,
I have the GT's fitting to my 2018 650XT. They have plenty of grip and the bike sits on the road and corners great.