Tyring

 

The day after picking up the VFR400 I was at Mallory circuit. The VFR750 was far too loud to ride, all bets were on the new 400.

Looking too heroic.

Things started off damp and I wasn't going to push this thing too hard out of the box, so all was well initially. 

As the day war on and things dried out, the back end got more interesting however. Due to limited tyre choices, the previous owner had gone for an Avon Storm. This was clearly struggling a bit and got me thinking of options to improve back end grip. the front Avon race tyre meanwhile looked absolutely fine and did nothing but grip.

As people keep telling me there are such limited choices for the 18" NC30 rear wheel, I went straight to finding a 17" alternative.

Donors for a 17" wheel include the RVF400 NC35 and NSR250 MC28. So just the most exotic small capacity bikes Honda sold on the mass market, great. Obviously rear wheels for these were never cheap and some 30 years later, hadn't got cheaper. Other alternatives include swapping the wheel and hub from a VFR750 RC36, giving a wider rim at the cost of things getting a bit close at the sprocket side of business requiring spacers.
I also wondered if an RC24 rear wheel might work but I don't really like the 4 stud rear wheel so had discounted this offhand anyway.

So facing an expensive rear wheel swap I got chatting with some chaps who actually race these things (slightly better than road warriors chatting shit of forums) and the consensus was that there are still some good, if not exactly cheap options out there still. The Bridgeston BT090's were first suggested and Metzeler Sportecs also came up, which is what I currently run on my VFR750 and CBR400RR MC29. 

Further reading brought up the Bridgestone Racing CR11's were an interesting prospect. Marketing themselves as a race tyre that costs less than the Avon and is more available than the Metzeler.

With the BT090 aside however, none of these options come in the standard 150/60 R18 but are offered in a taller 150/65 R18. With an already tall back end, this could get interesting!

More to come