Hey all, question about handling. I'm pretty new to motorcycling and I just hit the 1000 mile mark on my 250 (1st bike). Every time I ride now I ride a tiny bit faster and turn a tiny bit harder as my confidence and skills build up. Last night I pushed it a little harder than usual. I was riding around though the bike felt really "twitchy" or "nervous" in the turns. For example, I went straight through a roundabout at a decent speed so it was a quick right then a quick left. As I was leaning the bike over for the turns the front wheel mainly but the back wheel as well both felt like they were twitching back and forth. I wasn't even pushing it hard or going all that fast. Normally you talk about bikes inspiring confidence in you, but this had the opposite effect. Is this normal?

My tires are in pretty good shape. I'm not a small guy or a huge guy somewhere in the middle 6' 180lbs. When I brake hard, the front fork bottoms out. I know we don't have high end suspension components in these bikes. Maybe is it time to change the suspension?

 

How is the tire pressure and were the tires warmed up? Meaning were you riding for more then 5 - 10min before hitting the curves.

 

Tire pressure is good, I usually check before every ride, it's around 33. I also had been riding for about 10 or 15 minutes.

 

Sounds like you're getting into the chassis setup issues. Make sure your tire alignment is dead on, and (likekorax suggests) your tire pressure is good. Make sure your suspension is dialed inproperly (which, if you're bottoming-out on the forks, you likely need to tighten things up a bit) including preload, compression, and rebound. I suspect your settings are on the soft side on both ends, right now. If your rear end is soft your bike will wallowin the corners.It willnot keep constant weight on your front end and give you a vague feel. Also, you may want to drop your forks in the triple clamps a few more mm just to put a dash more "tilt" toward your front end. But, be careful doing this andtake a trial ride after each adjustment, because too much of a good thingcan put your butt in the ditch. I suspect there are "how to's" regarding suspension setup in the DIY section in this forum. Keep us posted.

 

And another issue is the stock Dunlops suck for handling. If you get better tires ou will have a lot more confidance in the corners.

 

1+ on the crappy factory tires. They are in no way confidence inspiring tires. Replacing them should help you out a lot. The suspension on the 250R is very soft, and does bottom out easily. (Try riding 2 up.) You can use the fork springs from an EX500 as well as the rear shock off the 500. That would also help out.

 

What tires would you reccomend to replace the factory tires ?

 

Pirelli Sport Demons to the rescue!!![sm=icon_rock.gif]

 

Setup your static and rider sags first and foremost! This will tell you where things are abit off for you. Then worry about the "crappy" stock tires and any suspension upgrades.

 

As the resident noob ***** I will take the embarassment and say,
"Huh?"