Wow!! What a stable and Great Bike

[tazman]

Just picked up Bike on friday and have been looking for reasons to ride....i have had zx-11 and other "sport tourer" but this thing is amazin...anyway...it seemed to ride a little hard and was wondering if i could lower the tire pressure..Dealer said the Conti Sport Attacks on the bike have to be set at 36/42 for that tire..I do no track but like to have fun on the street and do commute once in a while. Any suggestions on this tire and pressure??

[RRrider]

Lots of tire pressure discussions (search is your friend) but I personally follow the following guideline:

Track: F 30 or 31; R 28 or 29
Spirited street (twisies): F 32 or 33; R 34 or 35
Highway: F 36. R 38

I'm 150lbs have the OEM metzler K3s and ride mainly spirited twisties. The 36/42 is for max load, optimizes tire life, and minimizes legal liability. I like to optimize for performance for my body weight. YMMV

Congratulations on the new bike....I'm 7000+ miles in and still loving it!

[LiterBoy]

This thread helped me tremendously:

tire pressure

I have the Continentals, too...love 'em, but the track-wise riders here have other preferences. I have no track experience and had always run my tires at the pressure on the swing arm sticker with every bike until lately. Still, for the rural mountain roads I ride, the Contis have been outstanding at the recommended pressures.

The S1000RR handling and brakes won me over on my test ride, but if you think you like it now, wait until you get the 9000 RPM rev limiter removed. Your great, stable bike will be able to turn into a tire shredding beast at your command. It's mind-warping.

[tazman]

I cant wait for the rev limiter to come off either...what pressure are you running. I did look at other threads on tire pressure and i did not see anything on the cont sport attack...if lowering it only burns through them more and makes them grip i am ok with it.

[Dshred]

I have the Conti's as well and I have mine at 33/34 rear and 31/32 front. I've been playing around with the temps and to be honest, I haven't seen a whole lot of difference. I did some spirited riding on the weekend and even in the cool weather the tire sticks with no issues.

[tazman]

great...i think i will lower mine. I just did not want them to get to hot and get slick. there was another thread that a rep from conti did say you could go 34/38 with no issues but he said not to drop those tires below that. I like the but max air seems a little hard and the rear feels "squirlly" once in a while.

[LiterBoy]

I dropped pressure from stock to 32/36 to start experimenting. I only have about a half hour on the bike at that pressure and I don't notice a huge difference except maybe the front feels a bit more "planted"--stickier maybe?

My intention is to ride a few hours at this pressure, take my notes, then try 32 or so in the rear tire to see what happens. Kevin Stevens' post offered excellent tips I will try to follow, but all the guys with more experience in this sort of thing have been helpful. Thanks 1000RR, Nigel, and you other speed mavens. Even the NYC's Fastest boys were wiling to share their advice.

I need to do this in big steps because I have no confidence that I can feel the small changes just yet. I hope at some point I'll be able to say "I think I need two more pounds in that front tire..." and actually know what I'm talking about!