I'm just throwing out 80F
as a base temp to work from, I think some
if not most of you are located in midwest and east.
It's hotter here in az, but this time of year
80 might be a fair base as well.
But also, what are you running when it's 40f,
and 100+ f if you ever ride in those temps?
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From what I've read and heard, when the temp drops
we should also drop some psi, when it gets hot we
should add psi.
I had been thinking the opposite, but it makes
sense now, when it's cold the tires are going
to generally be stiffer and conversely ....
in the heat, more pliable or rubbery, to flubbery.
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I'm using Pirelli Angels currently, an inexpensive
sport/street tire that seems to be pretty competent
for the price.
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I'm running about 34psi right now front and back,
it's getting cold here, should I be considering dropping
to 28psi + - in the cold am's, then jump back to 34f
in the afternoon at 85 to 95f, or ?
--
Your PSI preferences for spirited as well as twisties
riding?

In my experience Pirelli tires have very stiff sidewalls but I've only used more race oriented Pirellis. I've run 25 psi front and back for Super Corsas and Diablo Superbike Pros in the twisties. I even tested them at lower psi at low speed and they didn't feel squirrelly like other tires do even at 25 psi. I think 25 psi is low enough.

You'll find the tire pressure increases when the tire heats up. The air inside expands.

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In my experience Pirelli tires have very stiff sidewalls but I've only used more race oriented Pirellis. I've run 25 psi front and back for Super Corsas and Diablo Superbike Pros in the twisties. I even tested them at lower psi at low speed and they didn't feel squirrelly like other tires do even at 25 psi. I think 25 psi is low enough.

You'll find the tire pressure increases when the tire heats up. The air inside expands.

Right, thanks.
The tires I took off were the original OEM's lol,
hard as a rock. When I got the rear delivered yesterday
I was amazed how nice and grippy the tread felt.
Stiff or flubby sidewalls is not something I
would be able to tell the diff with at this point,
maybe down the road, I'll be able to tell.
I am aware of a hot tire having increased PSI,
so this becomes a bit complex in as much as
the explanation I was talking about earlier
was not something I had previously considered,
they were saying when cold out, the tire
needs to have less pressure than when it's
hot where we are riding, and that made sense to
me in that a cold tire is stiff, and hot tire
the opposite.
So the issue is a bit over my head when weighing
psi hot cold, not going to keep me off the road
though, I'll just try not to go to either extreme
with my psi.
Right now, most of what I'm doing is sweepers
and slow maneuvers, I'm at about 34 to 36 psi,
very happy with my new tires, and tomorrow am
it will be about 45f, I'll drop them down to 28ps
and see how that feels.
It will likely warm up to 80f in the afternoon,
do you think it is reasonable to keep my tires
at about 28psi (checked 'cold')?
I had been able to change the front tire with spoons,
I was not able to finish mounting my rear wheel
yesterday with spoons, I wore myself out, spending
way too much time and effort, finally took it to
a tire shop and had them finish it off.
I had been watching all the videos on EASY tire
changing, but I kind of realize now that all
of the videos that I watched seemed to have
pretty generous sidewalls,
these 190 50 17's have almost no sidewall.

Stiff or flubby sidewalls is not something I
would be able to tell the diff with at this point,
maybe down the road, I'll be able to tell.

If you tested moderately low tire pressure, I think you'd notice the stretchy feeling of most motorcycle tires just making a gentle turn at low speed. On my first track day, I was advised to lower my tire ressure to 12 psi because the rear end was slithering back and forth under braking, even hard engine braking. 12 psi sounded extreme but I tried it and it was much better. I tried that for the street and the tire felt like jello just turning out of the driveway. My hypothesis is that the centrifugal force of higher speed and the rapid heating of a tire with low psi (which increases psi) makes it work under the right conditions. It feels scary under the wrong conditions.

they were saying when cold out, the tire
needs to have less pressure than when it's
hot where we are riding, and that made sense to
me in that a cold tire is stiff, and hot tire
the opposite.

The cold tire on the cold road will also benefit from the warming effect of lower psi. That lower psi will increase to something closer to the recommended psi when the air inside heats up. A hotter tire is stickier which is beneficial on a colder surface. ...and all the opposite applies to a tire with higher psi on a hot road, does not need to increase internal pressure, does not need to be stickier. Contact patch is another aspect of the psi discussion. A tire with lower psi has a larger contact patch so it has more grip. Ask an engineer and he'll tell you that theoretically, the size of a contact patch makes absolutely no difference concerning grip. If you do all the math, a razor thin tire has as much traction as a fat tire. I trust people who race. They use lower tire pressure for a larger contact patch.

I had been watching all the videos on EASY tire
changing, but I kind of realize now that all
of the videos that I watched seemed to have
pretty generous sidewalls,
these 190 50 17's have almost no sidewall.

I told you this was going to be a beotch Strat. Higher sidewalls probably do make it a bit easier. Bridgestone tires are the worst. They have an 18 strand cable running inside the bead area of the tire. They're extraordinarily hard to stretch. I resorted to a grinder to cut through this when removing the OEM Bridgestones from my Hayabusa. You cant use a grinder to install new ones though. That's one reason I don't use Bridgestone tires but mainly there are better tires than Bridgestone.

---

I told you this was going to be a beotch Strat. Higher sidewalls probably do make it a bit easier. Bridgestone tires are the worst.

Indeed, you were so right, I found a tire shop that had
a well designed tire machine, that looked like it
would not do any damage to my rim, and I don't think
it did, though I scratched them myself.
Since I've finally found a tire tech and machine
that seems to be doing things right, that is definitely
the way I'll be going until I get a machine, or
maybe stick with that shop period.
I think I have both tires broken in now, my
bike feels good in the corners now, a lot more
predictable and stable.

It takes me a full day to remove and mount a front and rear motorcycle tire and I'm being extremely careful. I still managed to get a couple ticks in the beads of the rim.

---

Good to hear, so it's not quite as quick and easy
as some riders might tell us... leastways not
for the ZX14'S, takes some time, and a little
more time to get it right.

Yes and some people apparently do this often enough to get good at it. it's still worth doing if you can't trust your rims to anyone else but be in for a battle.

---

Yeah, I hear that, I think one of those
'home-owner'/Hobbyist types of machines might
be in order too.
That spoon gig is a tough act for me,
on the back tire, I just don't have enough
weight and strength to get it done, maybe
a few more tire-changing videos
Pizzas, and 12oz curls would help me get there.

* Last updated by: Stratovarious on 11/30/2025 @ 3:48 AM *

The zip tie method was mentioned on one of your threads. I'll give that a try the next time I change tires. I even remember one person advising the use of ratchet straps to press the tire into the the drop center of the wheel.

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The zip tie method was mentioned on one of your threads. I'll give that a try the next time I change tires. I even remember one person advising the use of ratchet straps to press the tire into the the drop center of the wheel.

Yeah, I think it might work for the 190 too.
I tried incorporating that method, but maybe I
was too worn out for it to help.
There is also a couple of 'rope' methods
shown on youtube, seems like that will work,
at least on some tires.
---
I rode with a Ducati friend (new friend) yesterday,
he has a '25 or '26 Penigale, I couldn't keep up
with him lol, fast machine and a much better rider
than me, even though he'd taken a lot of time off
from street riding, and just getting back into it.

Yeah, I think it might work for the 190 too.
I tried incorporating that method, but maybe I
was too worn out for it to help.
There is also a couple of 'rope' methods
shown on youtube, seems like that will work,
at least on some tires.

I will try anything but so far, my experience is that installing tires is a complete beothch.

I rode with a Ducati friend (new friend) yesterday,
he has a '25 or '26 Penigale, I couldn't keep up
with him lol, fast machine and a much better rider
than me, even though he'd taken a lot of time off
from street riding, and just getting back into it.

Pardon my French but he was kind of a dick. You don't ride with a friend to outride him. Just go ride by yourself if that's what you want to do. I remember chasing a small dual sport I think it was a Husqvarna through a favorite road on my busa and I was right on the edge of crashing. That's not something you do to a friend. When it came to the straightaway, I could have easily passed him but what would be the point? He knew the road and had a much better bike for it. When I rode with friends on big bikes, i slowed down for them because I didn't want them to crash. I was pretty good on my bikes even with newbies on liter bikes but why would you want to encourage anyone to crash?

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You don't ride with a friend to outride him. Just go ride by yourself if that's what you want to do. I remember chasing a small dual sport I think it was a Husqvarna through a favorite road on my busa and I was right on the edge of crashing. That's not something you do to a friend. When it came to the straightaway, I could have easily passed him but what would be the point? He knew the road and had a much better bike for it. When I rode with friends on big bikes, i slowed down for them because I didn't want them to crash.

I hear ya, that's an excellent point.
Oddly enough this dude is beyond super cool,
I think it was an over-sight, and on the way
back he had me take the lead at my own pace,
and something I wanted to remember to mention,
I was getting about 45 mpg at 80mph on the
way back.
I rode a couple of days earlier with a kid
on a ZX6R, I was mindful not to lead him
into untested waters, even though in some
ways I felt he was a more capable rider.
My overall position on riding is that
while I and everyone else loves to hit
100+ from time to time, I'd much rather
cruise at 70 to 80, and get to the
twisties, for me that is where the
talent, skill, challenge, 'workshop' is,
I think anyone can get on a bike
with a year of riding and to 170mph,
in a straight line, but is that skill (?)
not in my way of thinking.
I did get a chance to ride through some
35mph 'warning' placards/signs,
sweeps yesterday that I'd ridden before
with a 'club' , but that was on my Harley,
and with my new tires on the 14, it was
really rewarding to hit those sweeps at
a good clip and with confidence.
Those yellow caution signs are NOT created
equal, I've found some that 'caution'
45mph and you damn well better be doing
just that or maybe 50 and others that
say 35, that I can hit at 65 and close
to 70, of course the semi pros can
do them at a much quicker pace, and
I don't really care about max, just
competence and knowing that I could
probably go a little quicker.
Like you and the friend I rode with yesterday,
I think we all want to be able to ride
forever and realize that if we're always
going 'max' the odds are not good
that we can ride 'forever' .

on the way
back he had me take the lead at my own pace,
and something I wanted to remember to mention,
I was getting about 45 mpg at 80mph on the
way back.

I'm happy he did. ...and it's hilarious that you chacked your fuel mileage! I'm pretty sure I got about 30 on my Gen1. Same as an economy carbut I didn't ride it for economy.

My overall position on riding is that
while I and everyone else loves to hit
100+ from time to time, I'd much rather
cruise at 70 to 80, and get to the
twisties, for me that is where the
talent, skill, challenge, 'workshop' is,

Me too. but there's deer here. Lots of them.

I think we all want to be able to ride
forever and realize that if we're always
going 'max' the odds are not good
that we can ride 'forever' .

If you're going max, you can't go forever. Your bike will end up a pile of shite and you will be hurt badly or killed. Do it on a track with a track beater. It's safer for you and you don't care so much about the bike.

Those yellow caution signs are NOT created
equal, I've found some that 'caution'
45mph and you damn well better be doing
just that or maybe 50 and others that
say 35, that I can hit at 65 and close
to 70,

Yes generally I can do twice the posted limit but there's some (usually the slower corners) you actually have to do the posted limit pretty much. It might say 25 but any sane person will slow to 20 at most in a normal road vehicle. 25 is really fast.

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I'm happy he did. ...and it's hilarious that you chacked your fuel mileage! I'm pretty sure I got about 30 on my Gen1. Same as an economy carbut I didn't ride it for economy.

LOL, I know, this is not an economy hobby/sport.

I ride a couple of hours + every day, so I have my
readout set at Range usually, cause it goes from ''you have 170 miles left''
to ''you have 9 miles left''
And sometimes I forget to look, and I look down only
to see that I literally or actually do have about 8 miles
or range left, sometimes it's not fooling.
I got home the other day and noticed the tank
was almost empty, the gas station was
about 4 miles away , so cruising to the
station biting nails, the readout never went to 9
and kept dropping, 1/4 of the way there, it
finally dawned on my that I could have thrown
a 1 gal can in my backpack; ''should I go back
and get it...''

So yeah, I made it with maybe 4 or 5 miles left,
there may actually be 20 or 30 miles left,
after it says empty or maybe it is empty, it
was too cold for me to want to test it.
---
So yeah, I just like to keep an eye on my range
and will flip over to 'current' and 'average'
on occasion just so I can tell people that my
bike gets 45 to 50mph, which is impressive to me
when just cruising, and at 80mph, that surprised me,
shocked me. So the cool thing is , a 170 or 180 mile
range on a long trip, when stuck between towns on
a long stretch of 'empty' country might come in handy.
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Me too. but there's deer here. Lots of them.

Do the 'Deer' whistles do anything?
A friend gave me one to put on my gold wing, said it
will ward off or scare off deer and other critters,
I wonder though if they really work.
Bell Helmets even sells one.
---
People say deer are dumb, cause they run into our
headlights car/bike etc....
My theory is that they are actually running from
the shadow/s from the headlights.
Anyone that has seen their own shadow unexpectedly
at 3 am, knows what I'm talkng about, yeah we
get used to our shadow, but when it is totally
not expected, it can give a bit of a hair raising
jolt. The old saying; ''he is afraid of his own shadow''
is a great saying, but everyone has been fooled
at one time or another by their own shadow.

Do the 'Deer' whistles do anything?

I heard "no" years ago. I'd have plenty of opportunity to try it here but if I see a deer, I'm not trying to sail past it whistling. That's how I hit the one that wrecked my Gen1.

People say deer are dumb, cause they run into our
headlights car/bike etc....

A lot of them don't know because they have little contact with humans. You can actually see the deer that have grown from birth in my town looking both ways before crossing the street. They're about as smart as a dog. The young ones, unfortunately are about as dumb as a puppy. I don't trust my expensive vehicles to the intelligence of most humans let alone a dog. Deer are out of the question. What makes dogs roaming about much safer is that there are almost no dogs left to roam about. There are tons of deer here. I counted a herd of 13 trotting down the sidewalk a couple weeks ago and there are many more. Bucks are normally very wary but I see a couple monsters with enormous racks walk through my yard.

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A lot of them don't know because they have little contact with humans. You can actually see the deer that have grown from birth in my town looking both ways before crossing the street. They're about as smart as a dog. The young ones, unfortunately are about as dumb as a puppy. I don't trust my expensive vehicles to the intelligence of most humans let alone a dog. Deer are out of the question. What makes dogs roaming about much safer is that there are almost no dogs left to roam about. There are tons of deer here. I counted a herd of 13 trotting down the sidewalk a couple weeks ago and there are many more. Bucks are normally very wary but I see a couple monsters with enormous racks walk through my yard.

Interesting that they are actually smart.
Must be awesome to see them roaming about,
not so awesome to run into them though.
We have Donkeys out here up in Oatman Az,
I just rode a loop that included the
outskirts of the town, warning signs are all over
the place.....
There are pull offs here and there, the donkeys
hang out with the motorhomes waiting for the
owners to come out and feed them or give them
a snack, and there are almost always a few of them
in town on the main drag, the main drag is
just about the only thing in town just that one
street, and some dirt leading up here and
there to someone's trailer.

Must be awesome to see them roaming about,
not so awesome to run into them though.

Yes it is and NO it is not. That's the paradox. Personally, I'd rather see a lot less since that would mean the roads would be a lot safer.

the donkeys
hang out with the motorhomes waiting for the
owners to come out and feed them or give them
a snack, and there are almost always a few of them
in town on the main drag, the main drag is
just about the only thing in town just that one
street, and some dirt leading up here and
there to someone's trailer.

If home owners feed the deer here, the deer will hang around that home. My neighbor walks among them in his back yard like they're horses. Sometimes you'll see a deer run across one of the two main roads here that are lined with businesses. The traffic is pretty heavy. Mostly, they stay in the residential areas where it's quieter and there are lots of nearby wooded areas.

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Yes it is and NO it is not. That's the paradox. Personally, I'd rather see a lot less since that would mean the roads would be a lot safer.

I had road runners here, hanging out and I helped raise
lots of them, I can see how having deer around is a mixed
blessing, it was with the roadrunners too.

I had road runners here, hanging out and I helped raise
lots of them, I can see how having deer around is a mixed
blessing, it was with the roadrunners too.

I like the deer here. I even like seeing the bucks in the last few years. The logical conclusion is that we will start to see small packs of coyotes. I think logic will rule at that point and we will start killing them off before wolves and cougars start roaming our back yards. We have those here too. We have deer here because there'seasy food and safety from predators but what do you think the predators will do if the prey is already doing it?

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I saw a coyote earlier this year run across the road in town right by my house. It was way too tall to be a fox and had a gate like a dog. That was a coyote.

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