Ordered a set of Pilot Road Michelins through Motorcycle Superstore a couple weeks ago. Pulled the wheels and took them and the new tires to a local shop on last Monday and he said he could do them Wednesday. Thursday I called and got no reply. Went over and no one around. Tried again Friday, no answer on the phone but he was in. Tires not mounted. Me agitated, but staying calm. Said they'd be done by Saturday. I show up at 2pm on Sat. Still not done, he's nowhere around, some kid I hadn't seen before was there and called him on the phone. I said, nope, I'm taking them with me, a week is plenty long to get the set mounted. Took them to a place who's name would imply that they were strictly MX'rs or off road in general. Turns out he does everything, just named it and had the legal stuff done before he realized that street bikers would want his services as well. He mounted and balanced them right then and there, no leaving, no wait. So tonight I was able to re-mount the wheels, torque all the bolts to the Service Manual's specs, and I'm done. I love wrench monkeying it things, I just wish my garage was air conditioned. While I'm in, I have a question about the Pilot Roads. The rear is mounted with the tread the way I would expect, but following the arrow on the rim and the tire, the tread on the front looks backward. Is that right or am I just nuts. (My wife would vote for the latter I'm sure. . .) I'll be leaving for Colorado in four days so I had hoped to put some miles on them and check the torque on the bolts before I leave. Hopefully work and back a few times will be enough.
[image: View Post]Norkie, on 15 August 2010 - 12:33 AM, said:
Ordered a set of Pilot Road Michelins through Motorcycle Superstore a couple weeks ago. Pulled the wheels and took them and the new tires to a local shop on last Monday and he said he could do them Wednesday. Thursday I called and got no reply. Went over and no one around. Tried again Friday, no answer on the phone but he was in. Tires not mounted. Me agitated, but staying calm. Said they'd be done by Saturday. I show up at 2pm on Sat. Still not done, he's nowhere around, some kid I hadn't seen before was there and called him on the phone. I said, nope, I'm taking them with me, a week is plenty long to get the set mounted. Took them to a place who's name would imply that they were strictly MX'rs or off road in general. Turns out he does everything, just named it and had the legal stuff done before he realized that street bikers would want his services as well. He mounted and balanced them right then and there, no leaving, no wait. So tonight I was able to re-mount the wheels, torque all the bolts to the Service Manual's specs, and I'm done. I love wrench monkeying it things, I just wish my garage was air conditioned. While I'm in, I have a question about the Pilot Roads. The rear is mounted with the tread the way I would expect, but following the arrow on the rim and the tire, the tread on the front looks backward. Is that right or am I just nuts. (My wife would vote for the latter I'm sure. . .) I'll be leaving for Colorado in four days so I had hoped to put some miles on them and check the torque on the bolts before I leave. Hopefully work and back a few times will be enough.
Does it look like this? It's hard to tell from the pic - your tread looks a bit different but these are also Michelins. But sure the arrow on the wheel is also pointing in the direction of rotation as well as the tire. If they're not the same, the tech mounted it backwards - and don't flip the wheel around just to get the arrow on the tire going the right way - the wheel is directional too and both have to match up.
I watched him mount them and made sure the arrows followed what the wheel's markings indicated, and then made sure I put the disks back on with their arrows matched to the wheels as well. Then made sure that the arrows would point to the forward motion of the wheel. It just looks odd. I'll go take a couple pics on the bike real quick.
Don't worry, they're mounted correctly. The grooves in motorcycle street tires have not much to do with channelling water away but with allowing the tires to deform and put heat in them. If the pattern would be the reversed the tire would likely suffer from cupping.
I dont blame you, I've never heard of such time on carry in tires. Any large shop will mount them while you wait, they have more than 1 mechanic.
Pilot roads dont belong on that motorcycle, they are nothing but Balloons, the road 2 is a much better tire, that yields the same or better life and and better handling.
and I dont really like road 2's but they are more usable than original pilot road
They are correctly mounted, and it's a good thing that 1st shop didn't do the job IMO... I think the PR is a good tyre, I ran them long before the PR2's came out, but next time buy the PR2's they'll last and work even better(and you'll save money in the long run due to wear longer).
You can get a good size fan for your garage to help with not having air..........