My Dunlop D404’s wore out and I’ve replaced them with Metzeler Me880 Marathon tires last week. The Dunlop stock tires lasted me 16.277KM… but I probably should have changed them earlier. Looking forward to seeing how the new tires perform. They give out a weird whining noise on wet roads, but are very silent on dry roads. Not sure if the whining sound will go away after a while or not, will be interesting.
The D404’s were horrible at pavement seams, even passengers found that uncomfortable. If you’re a rider, you know what I mean – that feeling of not being 100% in control because of a long seam in the road. In Norway there are a lot of seams! This is partly because of the harsh winter and partly because of the wrong type of asphalt being laid (probably cheaper and designers underestimate how cold it gets in winter). Anyways, if a set of tires can minimize bike movement due to seams in the road… count me in!
There seems to be a consensus online that you the tire pressure per inch (PSI) should be around 38-40, front and rear wheel respectfully. The Metzeler website has a very nice overview right here:
Spring is in the air in Northern Europe and my bike is back on the road again, what a great feeling! The battery was flat just like last year (must be those gremlins eh?), but that was entirely my own fault as I , once again, waited waaaay too long before connecting my maintenance charger. A boost with a stronger charger and the battery was just fine. You know what I’m talking about, I’m probably not alone on this right? We’ll get it right next year ;-)
After a spring clean and a few kilometres into the new season there’s a couple of things that pop into my mind about safety at the start of a new season. First thing I noticed is this, OTHER DRIVERS ARE NOT USED TO SEEING MOTORCYCLES!!! We’ve been hiding all winter, and cage-drivers don’t remember to look for motorcycles on the road. I guess it takes a little while before they do, so take care out there. This, combined with rusty motorcycle skills over the winter is potentially a lethal combination.
How’s that for a first post of the season huh? A bit serious right? Oh well, I’ll be back with awesome photos and some fine trip reports as soon as I’ve been out on the road, I know a lot of you really appreciate the pictures from Norway and I really appreciate your nice comments and feedback. Please don’t hesitate to contact me or even write in my guestbook I you feel like it.
Bikesureblog, an insurance company initiative, have made a simple printable 1-page checklist for everyone to download. About time these companies give something back to the man, eh!?
It’s a great little checklist to have. Be sure to check your bike before you put it on the road!
Now here’s something new, Reevu’s MSX1 helmet features a built-in rear-view mirror! Reevu calls this the “Vision System”. The helmet relies on an entirely mechanical mechanism rather than rear-view cameras. There’s a small mirror in the front resting just outside the rider’s line of sight.
Oh, and according to WebBikeWorld.com the helmet is also really good at protecting your head ;)
Shark has released a new helmet series called “RSI-carbon”. The helmet manufacturer are building their new series on the old RSR2-carbon series. The helmet scores 4 stars in the Sharp test (same as the Shark Evoline mentioned in a post last year). The old RSR2-carbon series gets 5 stars in the Sharp test, mind you. Shark promotes its’ new helmet series as an ultra light option where the helmet is made up of 35% carbon fibers, 35% epoxy resin, 15% aramid fibers and 15% multi axial fibers. The weight is from 1290g to 1360g, depending on the size you need I guess.
The RSI-carbon helmets come in 4 different colours; black, orange, red and white.
