After running 2 sets of Conti-Attacks and 2 sets of Metzler Z6's, I've been looking for a new set of tires. Both had good wet traction characteristics, but the Conti's felt much better and more confident in the twisties.
I averaged around 4500 miles on each of the rear's from either set, and 8000-9000 per front. Maybe a little less on the Conti's..... hard to remember exactly.
I found the Z6's to be quite a bit more expensive than other tires without having much more, if any better performance than the Conti's or Pilot Road's I've run in the past. The were a improvement over the Z4's though...
Since I have found myself riding on gravel logging roads, through deserts, rivers, and various other places I shouldn't be riding with street tires, I have been looking for a more Dual Sport type of tire. The problem is the most popular DS tire ( Tourance) doesn't come in the correct size for the R1200R.
Good thing I was lurking around hear and saw a post by Skippy talking about the Pirelli Scorpion Sync tires. It turns out they do make compatible tires for the 1200R.
I found a set from http://www.americanmototire.com/index.h ... =d117.html
I bought them for about $255 shipped.
A dealer quoted me $354 plus $110 to mount them.
Since I already started doing all my own maintenance this summer, I was also ready to start doing my own tire changes also. I can't stand the thought of paying someone else $100 an hour to do work I am capable of doing.
So after a little more research I bought a Marc Parnes Balancer, adhesive weights, and a Front Axle Removal Tool.
http://www.marcparnes.com/
I opted to buy the balancer that was a little more $, but the BG12 kit has an extra cone and will double as a Universal balancer. Now I can balance any wheel.
It came in the mail 2 days later, very fast shipping.
I tried it out on my old rear tire first, finding out it was 21 grams out of balance. Un-even wearing, or sloppy dealer work?
My new tires came yesterday so I changed and balanced them. Just like I read about the MP balancer, it's very sensitive, and simple to use. I had to close the garage door because the wind was effecting it. I also learned you have to be sure the thumb screws on the cones are opposite each other. Quality stuff, easy to use, and the satisfaction of doing it yourself.
After finishing mounting the new Scorpions I was ready to head out and try them out. I figured I would head out towards DeKalb, IL.
The Pirelli's feel real good. After riding with worn out Z6's for the last month, anything new would feel better. Absolutly great on gravel, much better than any street tire I've had. I did some braking tests on gravel, starting out low and ending up at around 55 mph to full-on brake testing. Solid. I also managed to find a road with 2 ( count-em, 2 ) curves that I rode through a few times, increasing speed with each run. I didn't drag any pegs, taking it kind of easy on tires with only 70 miles on them, but I liked what I felt and can't wait to get into some real twisties.
They feel good on pavement, and are much better on loose stuff than the other tires I had.
How about wet traction? Well, lucky for my testing purposes ( I guess ) it started raining when I was about 50 miles from home, as forecasted. Not a downpour, but a nice steady rain. Enough that I put on my rain gear.
I generally don't test wet traction with pushing the envelope in the corners, but I did test them by doing some heavy braking, and accelerating tests. It took almost full throttle in 1st gear to break the rear, and I couldn't break loose the rear in second at all.
Braking was also great with the ABS not kicking it until I was really grabbing a handful.
So far so good. I like how they feel, I like how they look, I really like how much they cost.
Could have found the right tire for me and my R1200R.
While wandering Northern Ill. I ran across a apple orchard and picked up a nice pumpkin, and some apples. Fruits of my labor?
This is a preliminary report, I'll know more after a short trip I'm planning next week, and according to the weather Gods I should be testing them out in plenty of rain....
After I get more miles on these I'll follow up here.
