1200Pete
Registered User
First off I would like to say sorry that I have not been around on the forum to much lately, you guys have been keeping me fairly busy in the workshop c7u8 NOW STOP KEEP FALLING OFF !! :t
A lot of you guys have been asking me about the Vipers and up untill now I could not say anything as I had not tried them myself, but that all changed last weekend, and here's my story.....
I finally got the chance to take the black beast out for a stroll with her new boots on. Shod with a brand new set of Avon Vipers I thought I would let you guys have my two penneth g0551p
What a strange sensation....
Out the gate and trundled up to the fuel station, just letting the engine warm up and doing a few handling and braking checks. Anyway soon enough I was fuelled up and pulling out of town, on to the first A road and up behind the first car, gave it a quick blip to pass the car and the back end stepped out.
Brand new cold tyres will ALL do that, so I was not overly concerned, slowly started to pick the speed up, heading out to some fairly sharp esses, tyres well up to temperature, I tentatively tipped the beast into the first of 8 bends, taking it a little bit more on each of them, came out the other side feeling a little perplexed. I was still taking it fairly easy at this point but I was expecting some sort of feedback, I was getting nothing :dunno:
Bike was feeling great, suspension was working well, all felt good, so I headed to the duel carriageway for a quick (and I do mean quick) speed stability test.
One minute and nearly three and a half miles latter (= quite fast) I was fairly satisfied that straight line stability was excellent. at the end of this carriageway is a series of roundabouts, tipping in and out of each roundabout, still no feedback :dunno:
Not being used to this made me a bit wary, but by this time I was at my favourite knee down roundabout, I went round a couple of laps just slowly getting lower (tyres had about 45 miles on them by now) Knee was now on the deck, still no feedback!!
I now felt I wanted this tyre to talk to me, I went back to a duel carriage way with a series of roundabouts on it, and out of each roundabout I nailed the throttle harder and harder, nothing!! No 010 shimmy, no 205 step out's, no 020 power slides, no Macadam off's nothing?
The last roundabout was exited with the front wheel a foot off the ground, still lent over and a full 180BHP being put to the tarmac and guess what...NOTHING!!
When I say nothing, I mean the tyre did not move, at all!, the bike felt so planted it was like riding on slicks for the first time, you are waiting to reach the tyres limits, waiting for the first tale tale signs, and they don't come!
The show bike is now running a 13mm ride height spacer, on fairly stiff suspension, the bike is about 3" taller than a standard Blackbird so the lean angle and ground clearance is far greater than a standard Blackbird and in two days I did not get anywhere near the limit of these tyres (and it was not for the want of trying).
I do not have any feedback for you on wear or wet whether grip yet, but all I can say is if you wanna go fast this summer, or have more grip than you will ever use, you have got to try a pair of these. :bow:
A lot of you guys have been asking me about the Vipers and up untill now I could not say anything as I had not tried them myself, but that all changed last weekend, and here's my story.....
I finally got the chance to take the black beast out for a stroll with her new boots on. Shod with a brand new set of Avon Vipers I thought I would let you guys have my two penneth g0551p
What a strange sensation....
Out the gate and trundled up to the fuel station, just letting the engine warm up and doing a few handling and braking checks. Anyway soon enough I was fuelled up and pulling out of town, on to the first A road and up behind the first car, gave it a quick blip to pass the car and the back end stepped out.
Brand new cold tyres will ALL do that, so I was not overly concerned, slowly started to pick the speed up, heading out to some fairly sharp esses, tyres well up to temperature, I tentatively tipped the beast into the first of 8 bends, taking it a little bit more on each of them, came out the other side feeling a little perplexed. I was still taking it fairly easy at this point but I was expecting some sort of feedback, I was getting nothing :dunno:
Bike was feeling great, suspension was working well, all felt good, so I headed to the duel carriageway for a quick (and I do mean quick) speed stability test.
One minute and nearly three and a half miles latter (= quite fast) I was fairly satisfied that straight line stability was excellent. at the end of this carriageway is a series of roundabouts, tipping in and out of each roundabout, still no feedback :dunno:
Not being used to this made me a bit wary, but by this time I was at my favourite knee down roundabout, I went round a couple of laps just slowly getting lower (tyres had about 45 miles on them by now) Knee was now on the deck, still no feedback!!
I now felt I wanted this tyre to talk to me, I went back to a duel carriage way with a series of roundabouts on it, and out of each roundabout I nailed the throttle harder and harder, nothing!! No 010 shimmy, no 205 step out's, no 020 power slides, no Macadam off's nothing?
The last roundabout was exited with the front wheel a foot off the ground, still lent over and a full 180BHP being put to the tarmac and guess what...NOTHING!!
When I say nothing, I mean the tyre did not move, at all!, the bike felt so planted it was like riding on slicks for the first time, you are waiting to reach the tyres limits, waiting for the first tale tale signs, and they don't come!
The show bike is now running a 13mm ride height spacer, on fairly stiff suspension, the bike is about 3" taller than a standard Blackbird so the lean angle and ground clearance is far greater than a standard Blackbird and in two days I did not get anywhere near the limit of these tyres (and it was not for the want of trying).
I do not have any feedback for you on wear or wet whether grip yet, but all I can say is if you wanna go fast this summer, or have more grip than you will ever use, you have got to try a pair of these. :bow:
