what tires offer up the best handling and best DRY grip.....I dont care at all about wet grip cause I live in the desert! I was thinking about Avon super-venoms or Pirelli MT-77's I need good tires for track days at buttonwillow and streets of willow, thanks. also has anyone ever ran modified stock fork springs with heavier oil?

 

wow, not an easy question. I take it you are going to run the 250 in which class or classes? since you mentioned the heavier fork oil, what conditions are happening and what are your sag numbers? I have not played with the tire options for this ride yet.

 

Do you mean Pirelli MT 75?
They dont make the Avon Supervenoms anymore.

A good choice without having to mod the front fender is Pirelli Sport Demons.
You can go withDunlop GT501 a common track tire, but you will have to remove, drill and remount the front fender or it will rub at speed causing a dangerous condition.
The MT75 can and has been used at the track, but not the usual tire of choice,this is the correct size tire for the rims.

As far as changing fork oil it will do nothing to improve the dive or handling. If you go too high you can cause the front end to pogo and be unresponsive. youll also want to follow the service supplement for the correct height/amount of fork oil.

The correct way to correct the front end is stiffer springs and racetechs gold valve emulators and stay with close to stock oil. Depending on your weight you would either go with a racetech or ex500 spring but most people calculate out to abouta .75-.77 and I think the lowest they make now is .80. I think the ideal setup may be ex500 springs and GVEs and mixing 10 and 15 wt to get 12 wt for oil.

Installing GVEs can be fussy. I opted for NO GVEthe ex500 springs and 12w oil, Im not sure I like it so I cant really recommend it. It may be because I put too much preload in the springs but rebuilding the forks was such a PITA that by the time I got done I just wanted to ride. I may switch to racetch springs in the future or just change the spacer and see how that is.

 

they still have supervenom's in stock at chaperral...........sorry I meant MT75's
Im not going to be racing, just doing track-days in the beginner/novice/lowest possible class

I have not really played with sag #'s yet, but I know just my static weight on the bike takes up quite a bit of fork travel and I get EXCESSIVE dive on even modest braking.

I will be going with the SV650 rear shock probably, from what I read the EX500 shocks is not that much better than stock.....I have a line on re-worked stock fork springs/custom spacers I can get from a guy that was ridingtracks that was myweight, I was thinking 10wt fork oil with those. I am 175#'s, bike is stripped of anything it doesnt need (airbox, centerstand, helmet lock, bungee hooks....everything)

 

Too much fussing to run the sv650 and not much better than the ex500. Look for the fat black zx600 shocks I think from '94 and older, theyre more ideal for the 250 they fit without modding and have air and damper adjustments.

I think 10w is stock for the 250 but not sure.

If you want to do the front end for best performance add the GVEs to what the guy was running.

 

the GVE's are the race-tech emulators? those things are pretty expensive but well worth it from what I can tell

 

If you dont have to buy the spring set up then the investment isnt too bad, $150? for the GVEs from Racetech.

 

You could swap out the entire stem and legs, but that is not cheap either.

 

To what? I havent found too many alternatives for the front end of a 250.

 

the only alternative is the EX500 isnt it? there arent too many bikes with forks as small as the 250, might be able to swap out the complete triple clamp/steering stem and forks with something, but that would take alot of measuring and research. I was thinking the emulaters were more around $250 or so....150 isnt so bad