Ok so I am just fitting another M7RR after the rear did 4300 miles. I have just measured the outer circumference of my worn tyre against the new one. It is a difference of 28 mm!!!! I used a bit of string running on the tyre. Quite surprised really.
Heh.... I looked at mine an hour ago and thought... "must go and post that" i think I said I've never gotten more than 3k out of any tyre...well the rear has done about 2.5k and there's a mm left before it hits the marker... Always the way...
Been out on the 999 today on M7RRs, so much confidence in the damp. Love 'em to bits. Even the 750 feels like it is on rails.
As everyone knows ive not been impressed with mine atall....however the fitment of a new rear shock (Nitron r3) has made the situation much improved. The rear shock on pretty well all zed's is shite (how Kawasaki have managed consistently to get it wrong is beyond me but there we are...) I have also said in the past (im sure I have) that ive never gotten more than 3k out of any tyre ive ever had and this rear is no different - its coming up to the limiters at just over 2.5k. However theres loads left on the front. For this reason ive ordered a 200/55 section for the rear so that I can "use up the front" as it were. The old one was a 190/50. So, we'll see how it all goes once that's on and, ive been playing round with the rear settings but ill probably nip over to louigi's to get it correctly set up. You cant say im not trying/giving it another chance....
I have also found the M7 to be brilliant on my 848, especially here in Greece where the tarmac quality is not as good as in north europe.. They feel as they are the golden combo between dry grip and confidence in wet. I wouldn't swap with any other pair
Well, just to update this thread with a little bit of good news my end. The rear as you all know lasted just under 3k....I was just about to kiss the tyre limit marker so I had a free day a few Saturdays ago and swapped out the rear with a 200 section ( I think there was a 10 quid difference between the sizes). With the shock, definitely better, a marked improvement but ill need to change my front soon for another m7rr....ill report back when I have...
I read somewhere - might have been a trackday forum - that M7RR's don't need the lower pressures that most of us like to run. They said if they feel squirrelly bring them up a few psi. The person in question was running his rear at 38 psi I seem to recall. I run 35 and 33. I've got newish rubber front and back on mine so I might try that in the spring. It might make some sense. Most people who try M7's comment on how quickly they warm up. But are they warming faster or do they run at lower temperatures?
Hmmm - not sure about that....the warming up thing....on the way home Friday night after a pretty quick burst when I got home, the first thing I did was put my hand on the rear tyre....lukewarm...
I did Brands few weeks back on my 848 streetfighter, for road use I run 33 front and 36 on the rear, got the tyre guy at brands to look at my pressures and he left the front at 33 and dropped rear to 31. Seemed to work really well. Track temp didnt go over 4 degrees all day.
33f. 31r. Seems to work for mine tried different combo's had 4 sets now , Super Corsa only better on a really hot day , thus use the m7rr all year round
Revisiting this thread since fitting a set of M7s to my 1290 SDR. Loved them on the Ducati but I've been experiencing the same insecurity from the rear tyre that Comfysofa was getting with his Kwak. I've had several little step-outs and let-gos at the back. Nothing truly scary but enough to spoil my confidence. I wasn't getting any of that with the OE Dunlops even though I didn't like them much. They had no feel. I couldn't tell what was going on down there. I learned to trust them because they always gripped when pushed. They just didn't feel as though they would. Cranked over hard and on the gas they were biting the road. It was in the transition from upright to cranked over that they failed to communicate. The Metzelers are the opposite. They feel like they they'll grip fine and then they give a nasty little twitch which I wasn't expecting. I've been running them at 35/32 same as on the SF but I haven't been entirely happy and as they've worn that has got worse. Rereading this thread today I tried dropping the pressures gradually to 32/30 and they were much worse. Really squirrelly and jittery. So I went the other way and pushed back up to 38/35. Vast improvement. By the time I finished experimenting tonight it was getting chilly and I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't get the rear back up to 39/40 on a warm road. At one point I was debating binning them and trying something else. I was even doubting whether the suspension guy had got it wrong when he did my set-up. But I'm sure its the tyres. For road riding at least they really do seem to work better at higher pressures and they definitely aren't the same on all bikes. They do seem a hard compound. The OE Dunlops would get properly roughed up after a day of hard riding. They looked like they'd done a track day. But the M7s never get feathered. They always look smooth like a sports touring tyre. My only worry about trying something else is longevity. The Superduke absolutely devours back tyres. I've just gone past 3300 miles and already my second rear tyre is down to its wear bars. How long would a sticky Pirelli last. 800 miles? If I can't get my confidence back in the M7s with pressure adjustment I might try the Dunlops again or maybe some Bridgestones.
Funnily enough gimlet the OE Dunlop's felt good on the zed...I've got a brand new set of Avon's to try next (Going on the hyper)...came by a brand new set really cheap....I will be trying Dunlop's after that though...ill be trying those on the zed. The RSV will always get supercorsa's as ive found nothing better and, it hardly gets used so the mileage I get out of them isn't an issue although this years visit to the TT should see this set off nicely. Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
Some people claim OE tyres fitted to bikes often aren't as good as the same tyre bought from the manufacturer. Don't know if that's true. One of the biggest issues with the Dunlops is slow warm up, which coupled with poor feel mean its hard to know when they're ready to be pushed. They were proper bald in the centre by 1900 miles. The Metzelers are currently on 1400 and I reckon they'll just about squeak past 2000. But one good ride could wreck them. Also, I've had a touch of instability from the front with the M7s. I had the beginnings of a slapper going round a fast sweeper at 120. Had to back off to calm it down. Never had any of that with the Dunlops, though I could barely feel the road through the front and had little idea of whether it was even on the tarmac or not. Could that wobble simply be down to running the Metzelers at too low a pressure? Do I need a better steering damper? Has the suspension set-up made the bike more twitchy? Hard to say. The factory suspension set-up had a rear bias. The back was sitting lower than the front. The suspension guy added 9 mm of rear preload and that got the back 1 mm higher than the front. It lightened the steering and produced more feel at the front end. Going by the experience I had with front end wobbles on the SMT, I reckon this is a tyre, or tyre pressure issue. I'm taking the SMT on a track day in three week's time. Got to work out what tyres to put on that now...
This is mostly true mainly for the Japanese manufactures who would have 'oe spec' tyres such as the BT-014/5 (can't remember which) which u could only buy as an official Honda spare when I had my cbr600, same for a lot of the R1's etc. However the Diablo Supercorsa SP albeit a compromise is the same model for any manufacturer that fits them so not OEM specific, and actually I think manufacturers are steering away from that sort of practise. The only thing I would say is that by the time u buy the bike the tyre could be a year old as they buy in such bulk, that's a whole other can of worms though!!! I'm a big fan of Dunlop tyres but I agree they don't have such an obvious 'switched on' feeling u get from a Pirelli for example
Funny you should say that Gimlet - about your tyre mileage...im the same....never got more than 3k out of anything ever period and at the other end of the scale (supercorsa's) 1.5k...I don't know how bike magazines claim to get 5, 6, 7 or 8k out of tyre....based on my 25 years of riding bikes with all types of tyres I would say its pretty well....well, lying.
I going to stick with the M7s on the SDR. Got a proper hot run in tonight on the higher pressures. They were absolutely fine. Got them to the edge of the tread on some nice flick-flack twisties with some rather ragged knee down antics. I'm not very good at getting from one side of the bike to the other in a hurry and doing it smoothly without overloading one peg or the other, so a certain amount of twisting and shimmying going on but even with that provocation the rear didn't budge an inch. The secret at road riding temperatures, for me at least, is higher pressure not lower. Running at 38/34. I'm going to try that on the Streetfighter as well when that's back on the road again. Seems whoever it was on the trackday forum was right: if they're twitching and squirming pump them up a bit, not let them down.
I agree. I don't know where they get their figures from, unless they're riding at 60 mph everywhere on a light throttle. The rear M7 is now barely 1 mm off the wear bars at 1400 miles. Its not going to make 2000. I think the Metzelers are slightly better than the OE Sportsmarts though because although that rear went to 1900 miles, 1000 of them were running-in miles. Reckon I'd do well to get 1500 from the Dunlop now.
