nice bike dude, got one just like it, sat next to me in the kitchen! tyre wise..i'm on BT30's front and rear at the mo, about 1200 miles on the front, barely seen a dry mile, and about 2500 miles on the back. The rear is showing signs of wear now, a couple more rides and i think the wear bars will be nagging me. performance wise, in the wet, really cant fault them, once you get some heat in them and start trusting the DTC, you can have a proper blast, good feedback, positive steering.. think the rear was £160 fitted at a local tyre shop, cant remember the front one... top tips: (or not) dont bother with the dB killer, get some ear plugs, watch all the cars pull over for you ditch the rubber inserts on the footpegs, better grip in the wet
No I had rosso corsa on before. I find these warm up as fast not too much difference in dry grip but give more confidence in the wet (never had any actual problems with the corsa in the wet either mind)
Those tyres suck in the rain even with traction control on full: I found they lit up in straight lines on wet roads if I struck a shiny patch and were pretty sqidgy even on good road in thew wet.. I use Michelin Pilot Road 4 GT's and it's a much better ride. (Mine is the SP). I got all of 1700km from the Corsa rear tyre and decided to swap em as a pair. The PR4 std gets me around 7500km and the PR4 GT on the back should get me another 1000km. That's good for me as I've never really got better than 5000km from a rear tyre before. BTW: Ducati has set that bike up way too hard for solo riding and well over damped even for 2 up! If you never take a passenger, you will probably need a lighter spring (I'm 103kg and need a lighter spring!). Front damping: back it all the way out to full and wind the rebound in about 3 or 4 clicks (ignore Ducati's recommendations; that's far to hard and prevents the suspension using all or even most of its travel). Set the rear up much the same but you'll need a wee bit of compression damping this time; about 4 clicks and 4-6 clicks rebound (in from fully out). That's have it tracking much better and you can tune it to your weight and style from there. Of course you should set up the sag first but I found it pretty good stock except I ride like a motarder so have less front sag (35mm) to bias it toward that style.
wow idelidolidyll thanks for the detailed response. I find the bike quite stiff and will definitely try to tweak it to your suggestion. btw I now have swapped the tyres for some Pilot Road 4 myself and quite please. I don't really plan to have passengers (I am 83 kg): are you suggesting to tweak the spring or to actually physically swap it for a different one?
the rear spring is too hard for someone your weight unless you ride with a pillion passenger. I'd get a lighter spring. If you do that, my damping settings will not be correct; you'll probably need to add a little more damping overall. Mind you, at 20kg less than me, you probably should back the damping off even more than I'm suggesting. I posted my actual setting on another thread; where the hell did that one go?
ah, there it is: copied from Hyper SP settings: I set this up with an old friend who specialises in bike suspension. The idea was to use what we have and set it up to be the best it could be. Starting at Ducati's setup, I rode the bike with cable ties on the suspension and wasn't surprised to find that only just over half the suspension travel was being used solo. That rear spring is too hard solo and should be replaced unless you ride with a passenger (that's always gonna be a compromise). As for the damping, it was just too hard all round but unless you ride like me and are my weight; these are only a starting point from which to tune in your own settings. Hang on, I'll go look at the actual numbers (I keep them written in a log book)............ Here are my current settings (assuming you've set static sag already):Screw all damping screws fully in then adjust to these settings. Solo Riding (with std springs) 104kg rider: Fork compression: 28 clicks out. Fork Rebound: 13 clicks out. Rear Shock compression: 34 clicks out Rear Shock rebound: 11 clicks out Two Up Riding (with std springs), 104kg rider, 70kg passenger: Fork compression and rebound: same as above, i like them like this Rear Shock compression: 8 clicks out Rear Shock rebound: 2 clicks out Note the big difference between solo and two up riding. That's why I can't fit a lighter rear spring. If I did, I would probably not have enough damping adjustment left to control rear shock speed. The weights are 'with gear' leathers, boots and helmet. Note: the Hypermotard SP has almost 7" of suspension and on the road, you should be using 80-90% of that every ride on your normal routes. The last 10-20% is for when you hit something unusual like a pothole. Yes, the front WILL dive under hard braking; this bike has almost double the suspension travel of a sport/race bike. However, if you slow down largely by changing gears using the slipper clutch to prevent lock ups; you'll probably be a smoother rider and have a much more comfy bike.
