Got my new Avons

[tazshido]

I ordered new Avons from MotorcycleSuperstore.com a while ago and just mounted them on my wheels. I now have to wait for UPS to get my rear EBC brake pads to me and I'll be ready to reassemble everything.

I ordered An Azaro for the front and a Storm 2 Ultra for the rear. I am not planning on doing any fire roads this first season with the Tiger and I've ridden our dirt roads here in Wyoming extensively on a CBR600F2 with Storms on it and never even got nervous. I used Dynabeads and I'll just have to see how they perform compared to the Distanzias that were on it. I believe they were not well balanced due to the wierd wear that they exhibited toward the end of their life. The rear was very squared off, showing the wear bars with the sides (cornering tread) still with lots of lug showing. That's normal but the front had ramped wear that was the exact opposite of everybody elses complaints. The part of the lug that was worn deeper was not the first part of each lug to strike pavement but the last. I had proper pressure in them and they handled fine but wore VERY quickly.

One last note. A fellow Soldier that I was deployed with now works at Big O tires and he had me come into the shop and we swapped them out there. Lesson? Make friends with a guy that works in a tire store.

[tazshido]

Finally got tired of watching the UPS tracker NOT move. My brake pads have been sitting at the UPS hub in Commerce City Colorado for two days. This is the slowest I've ever experienced from UPS. They have always beaten their estimated delivery time.

Anyway, the weather was great and I had my new tires on the wheels so I said f@*& it and put them back on the bike and went for a ride with a friend, using just the front brakes. Oh, new tires, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Seriously, everytime I have put new tires on a bike I get to fall in love with it all over again. And since this is the first set of new tires I've put on the Argo, I'm really diggin it! After scrubbing them in around town we hit a few back roads. After a spirited zip down an unoccupied stretch we stopped for a refreshing adult beverage and my friend, who rides a slightly hopped up Shadow 1100 Sabre says "OK, we've established that I can't keep up with you." I just had to laugh. He's on a cruiser, of course he's not gonna keep up.