Looking for some tire advice

A friend of mine took his K1600GTL on a 7000 mile cross country tour over spring break and the OEM rear Z8 wore down to the cords in less than 5000 almost entirely hwy cruising miles. Needless to say, he is not happy. Even 2up (both rider and pillion are less than avg weight) loaded with gear, that kind of hwy mileage on an ST tire is disappointing. I have been very happy with PR3 on the C14 and was thinking about giving the Z8 a try. Not any more.

 

the Michelin PR3s outlasted the stock Bridgestones by 2x

 

Halellujah! My long lost back ordered PR3s showed up today (along with a free t-shirt) I guess I'll call Spiegler tomorrow and have them order the Ohlins springs for me. Once those show up, I'll pull the wheels and forks, drop them the forks for spring install, paint my wheels satin black, mount up the PR3s, and have a go. I'll post up pics once it's all done.

 

Satin black is tits on bike wheels, with some nice clearcoat baked on over the paint! Looking forward to the pics!

 

Clearcoat unless a flatting agent is introduced is glossy. A glossy coating over even a matte will be glossy. A quickie empirical test can be done by holding a piece of glass over something that is flat or matte or in this case "satin". Even a drinking glass will work.

The curing and hardening of multi-component paints and coatings is a chemical reaction requiring a catalyst. Baking automotive type paints went out when GM stopped using lacquers and Ford stopped using enamels. c mid 1960s. Multi-component auto paints and components generate a quantifiable amount of heat whilst curing (exothermism) Consequently, baking these type paints and coatings serves little or no purpose. What may be the confuser here is that in the process of powdercoating, the coated item is "baked" . The "powder" is fused by heat.

There is possibility that if a multi-component clear is applied over a multi-component opaque and the undercoat is not yet cured, it could debond from the substrate and even bubble.

Like Oliver said to Stan, Well, this is another fine mess you've gotten us into!"

 

You beat me to it BB. I know LOTS of automotive painters, but frankly, I'm pretty talented with a rattle can. I'll lightly scuff them and do just that. It's quick, cheap, and easy and should turn out just fine. Might be an opportune time to order some 90* valve stems.

Now the bad news...there are apparently NO Ohlins fork springs for a VFR12 in the country. Spiegler tells me to expect 3 - 4 weeks for arrival. I'd just as soon not pull the front wheel twice, so I think I'll wait til the springs arrive. Fortunately I don't *need* new tires right now, but I am anxious to chuck those Damn stock 'stones. I reckon I'll wait. That'll give me time to order those valve stems. And before you even ask Billy...that's 90* Fahrenheit! The shipping is too high to get the 32.2* Celsius valve stems from the UK. And the 305.4* Kelvin stems are on worldwide backorder, dammit! I really wanted those damn Kelvin stems. They are the coolest.

 

Having the IE calculator handy for degrees Kelvin might be handy if you have a dewar on LN2 for those forthcoming new skins. Is your bike over 700lbs yet? You can answer in troy, avoirdupois or even metric tonnage considering all that stuff you have or are going to have strapped to a perfectly good bike. Ain't even gonna go into tare. Personal weight is a Jenny Craig issue IMO.

Even rattlecan experts have problems that can be solved by auto painters who aren't drooling in their oatmeal by merely reading the component list on the cans. Who said all fedregs are bad anyway? This of course entails some sketchy knowledge of chemistry or at least a search engine or Wiki lookup of the many components in a rattle can. Chief of which may or can be a wonderful anti-caking solvent that isn't flammable, can enter the bloodstream through the skin and is also the main component of the baddest ass paint remover you will ever see. So as you can see there was no beating me to it on this one. I was ahead on this game to begin with.

BTW, I am not an auto painter.

 

Hmmm, the shipping weight on my Givi cases with brackets was 8 lbs (avoirdupois). I could lose that pretty quick with a slip-on and a Shorai battery (which are on my list...just not at the top). I doubt the Ohlins springs, PR3s, or Stebel horn weigh much more than their stock counterparts. With me at my winter weight of 160 (again, avoirdupois) and grass cutting season upon us, I won't be ringing up Jenny anytime soon. I will admit that the Heli bars *felt* a good pound heavier then the stockers, but I didn't actually weight them, and I'm pretty sure the Honda touring screen and centerstand contributed less than 2 lbs combined. So I guess the short answer is, no, it's not 700 lbs yet. But I'll keep you posted on how much paint the wheels take. Do two thin coats weigh less than one thick one? I want to make sure I get this right.

 

I was hoping you'd weigh in with some of the stuff that's going into those bags. Empty is like the weights quoted by "those who count the soy beans" who weigh new bikes sans oil, fuel, air in the tires and electrolyte in the battery. My calculus is rusty so figuring out the weight of two thin vs. one thick coat of paint is iffy. What ya could do buy another set of wheels and go from there. Maybe all those auto painters you know, know.. ya know.

Serious paint tip. If a given finish type coat even looks like it's not going to cover, be ready with a second coat. Lots of RTFM is required on these highly technical paints and coatings. Waay too many "painters" are of the old school "Measure once, cut twice or even three times" school.

Beer weighs roughly as much as water at +/- 8.5 lbs/gallon. That plus the weight of the bottles or cans. With careful stacking, I think you could start coming close to that 700lb mark and be very popular all at the same time. Don't forget the ice!