Bye bye 200/55.

jcnaranjo51 said:

I got a set of q3s intalled yesterday the 190/55 and today I rode the canyons with my buddie and the feeback I can give you guys is that I was impressed how light the tires are the bike turns in with less effort like it lost some weight and I also noticed that is stable while the tire is on the lean I feel I can brake into the lean more , it took me a little while to get used to the front tire once I did the tire inspire confidence by the end of the day I was dragging left and right I also noticed it got hot quick !! Overall I'm happy with my purchase I was getting feed up spending 500 bucks on pirellis evey 4 months Pirellis are great but the q3 do the same but with less money out of my pocket

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Good stuff! My set was supposed to arrive today but Fedex didn't deliver and said tomorrow.

Castor Troy said:

Good stuff! My set was supposed to arrive today but Fedex didn't deliver and said tomorrow.

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Be patient my friend is worth the wait

jcnaranjo51 said:

I got a set of q3s intalled yesterday the 190/55 and today I rode the canyons with my buddie and the feeback I can give you guys is that I was impressed how light the tires are the bike turns in with less effort like it lost some weight and I also noticed that is stable while the tire is on the lean I feel I can brake into the lean more , it took me a little while to get used to the front tire once I did the tire inspire confidence by the end of the day I was dragging left and right I also noticed it got hot quick !! Overall I'm happy with my purchase I was getting feed up spending 500 bucks on pirellis evey 4 months Pirellis are great but the q3 do the same but with less money out of my pocket

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That's looks really good.

JC,

I want to take this time and thank you for further proving my point that one doesn't need to buy SPs in order to have a superb performing machine. Adjust your TC and be happy .

PS. I (as well as others) don't give two craps about what Ducati suggests so please don't bombard this thread with it. Thank you.

Castor Troy said:

JC,

I want to take this time and thank yiu for further proving my point that one doesn't need to buy SPs in order to have a superb performing machine. Adjust your TC and be happy .

PS. I (as well as others) don't give two craps about what Ducati suggests so please don't bombard this thread with it. Thank you.

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Oh yes you are right adjust the tc down I have mine on setting one and it works fine I usually have it off because every time I do a wheelie it cuts out and it's annoying lol I hope you enjoy your Q3S once you get them I'm going riding Sunday and I'm taking my go pro I will report back after Sunday oh another thing I'm not sure how long the tires will last since the sides are sticky

jcnaranjo51 said:

Oh yes you are right adjust the tc down I have mine on setting one and it works fine I usually have it off because every time I do a wheelie it cuts out and it's annoying lol I hope you enjoy your Q3S once you get them I'm going riding Sunday and I'm taking my go pro I will report back after Sunday oh another thing I'm not sure how long the tires will last since the sides are sticky

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I am being told I can expect a minimum of 5k miles...Lets hope...

Stw said:

I am being told I can expect a minimum of 5k miles...Lets hope...

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Nice I think it all depends what type of riding you do also but let's hope for the best

jcnaranjo51 said:

Nice I think it all depends what type of riding you do also but let's hope for the best

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No doubt but 5k was a worse case scenario.... could be as much as 8k..If I putz around...

Castor Troy said:

JC,

I want to take this time and thank you for further proving my point that one doesn't need to buy SPs in order to have a superb performing machine. Adjust your TC and be happy .

PS. I (as well as others) don't give two craps about what Ducati suggests so please don't bombard this thread with it. Thank you.

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I really hope they work wonderfully man. It would definitely open up a lot of doors for tire options.

EvoL said:

I really hope they work wonderfully man. It would definitely open up a lot of doors for tire options.

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I don't foresee any adverse changes at all, and I am a paranoid mofo as you know. We will re-check my suspension after and adjust fire as necessary.

What air pressure are your running with the Q3? What air pressure did you run with the SP's?

Q3 f32 rear 30 Pirelli sc f30 rear 25

Castor Troy said:

I don't foresee any adverse changes at all, and I am a paranoid mofo as you know. We will re-check my suspension after and adjust fire as necessary.

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Got mine today...short ride..so far so good..bike feels more agile but this maybe totally psychological.... Tomorrow will be the proper test...

Guys,

Steve B from TN has reported previously about his positive experiences with Bridgestone S20s. Based on his earlier thread posts, I pulled the trigger on a set on my original base wheels a couple days ago (Had my OEM Supercorsas swapped to the used S wheels at the first service).

I'm going up to the Blue Ridge Mountains all next week and was worried about the Supercorsa's in the inevitable summer showers I'll get caught in during the week and wanted a tire that would be safer in the wet but stick like hell in good conditions.

Steve B gave me some awesome set up info, such as a rear tire height difference of 3.5 mm, necessitating some chassis changes to keep the handling the same. Of the two options he suggested, I went with lengthening the shock by 2 full turns of the adjuster nut which raises the rear 4 mm.

I only have about 30 break in miles but the tires seem great. As Steve B posted before, the TC seems to be 1.5-2 steps more intrusive with the S20's, i.e. I was using setting 4 on the street and I can feel an obvious increase in TC cutting power when getting on the throttle hard out of turns when cranked over. I will likely turn it down to 2 for the mountains.

When I get back I will be starting a new thread under Bridgestone S20 Tire Review and Steve B, myself and anyone else with experience on the tires can post up information for the collective knowledge base. I'm bringing several GoPro cameras and will have one on the dash so we can see when and how the TC activates.

JeffD said:

Guys,

Steve B from TN has reported previously about his positive experiences with Bridgestone S20s. Based on his earlier thread posts, I pulled the trigger on a set on my original base wheels a couple days ago (Had my OEM Supercorsas swapped to the used S wheels at the first service).

I'm going up to the Blue Ridge Mountains all next week and was worried about the Supercorsa's in the inevitable summer showers I'll get caught in during the week and wanted a tire that would be safer in the wet but stick like hell in good conditions.

Steve B gave me some awesome set up info, such as a rear tire height difference of 3.5 mm, necessitating some chassis changes to keep the handling the same. Of the two options he suggested, I went with lengthening the shock by 2 full turns of the adjuster nut which raises the rear 4 mm.

I only have about 30 break in miles but the tires seem great. As Steve B posted before, the TC seems to be 1.5-2 steps more intrusive with the S20's, i.e. I was using setting 4 on the street and I can feel an obvious increase in TC cutting power when getting on the throttle hard out of turns when cranked over. I will likely turn it down to 2 for the mountains.

When I get back I will be starting a new thread under Bridgestone S20 Tire Review and Steve B, myself and anyone else with experience on the tires can post up information for the collective knowledge base. I'm bringing several GoPro cameras and will have one on the dash so we can see when and how the TC activates.

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Well this post brings me to say the following, any of the SuperCorsa loyal club members want to sing the song of your people again?

Castor Troy said:

Fedex has me plotting murders, I am fuming right now. Tracking number provided by Motomummy states that my tires were on the truck for delivery as of 0802am Friday, that truck must have driven into bermuda ....... triangle. It changed to "Delivery now scheduled for saturday" and then to "N/A". I had my boy Todd ready to go to slap those things on and all. My body is ready for Q3s.

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Well that sux.... Getting ready to test mine...

As Steve B posted before, the TC seems to be 1.5-2 steps more intrusive with the S20's, i.e. I was using setting 4 on the street and I can feel an obvious increase in TC cutting power when getting on the throttle hard out of turns when cranked over. I will likely turn it down to 2 for the mountains.

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In my opinion, this means the tire is not sticking as well as the stock tires. I'm sure what you are going to tell me is that it may be because of the difference in size, and maybe it is. But the way most traction controls work I doubt if that is the case as much as the fact that the tire is slipping more.

Part of the reason I say this is because even on my stock OEM tires I frequently see the orange traction control light come on with mine set at #5. And I'm not cranking on the throttle all that hard, just pushing through 100 mph sweepers at a pretty good lean angle.

jjsC6 said:

In my opinion, this means the tire is not sticking as well as the stock tires. I'm sure what you are going to tell me is that it may be because of the difference in size, and maybe it is. But the way most traction controls work I doubt if that is the case as much as the fact that the tire is slipping more.

Part of the reason I say this is because even on my stock OEM tires I frequently see the orange traction control light come on with mine set at #5. And I'm not cranking on the throttle all that hard, just pushing through 100 mph sweepers at a pretty good lean angle.

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You're 100% correct! At least as far as your second sentence, that is; not so much the rest...

The ECU sees tire slippage as a function of front/rear wheel speed variance from its hard-coded tables, and that is precisely why the tire diameter causes more TC engagement, regardless of slippage. Put a small enough tire on back and the TC will engage all the time, even puttering down the road at light throttle - nothing whatsoever to do with actual tire slippage. Ducati's TC is a pretty simple system as such systems go, which is why it can't accommodate different tire sizes, etc. The guys racing Pani's have proved numerous times that you can vastly change how it works just by changing to custom sensor rings to accommodate different diameter tires. Not sure why that should be so hard to understand, as the math's pretty simple.

The reason you see your TC light on when it's set on 5 is because Ducati made it way too sensitive. One of the first things I did when I got my Pani a year ago was turn ALL the electronic aids off and ride the thing "bare" for a while, so I could understand what I was working with sans computer interference. I'd had liter bikes with no TC at all before and knew how hard you could push without it, so I was interested to see how it worked. I picked a favorite stretch of mountain road to test on and rode it back and forth for a good while one afternoon, just to test different TC settings. Started with it on 7, which was absurdly oversensitive for dry roads, and finally got down to 3 before I could push it anywhere near as hard as I was used to (with no TC on an '08 Fireblade) and not have the system slowing the bike down way too much. Remember, any time the light is on it is slowing the bike down, for better or worse. Kept going all the way to zero, and ended up settling on using 3 for sport mode and none in race mode. I later migrated back to using 1 or 2 in race mode, just because it got to be a bit fun to just nail it off corners like a hamfisted moron, feel the rear start moving and then see the magic light come on bringing it all back in line. Fun little game for an old dirt biker like me. You can still use TC with a 190/55 S20 or similarly dimensioned rear tire, though you need to pay attention to the actual tire dimensions and not just the general size. As I noted when I first mounted mine, the center diameter of the new S20 was 5mm more than the worn OEM SP that came off. Edge diameters are what really matters for TC, but it shows the tires aren't that different in size. On that point, do note that even on stock tires, the TC will engage more as the rear tire wears, and not because it's slipping. It’s the math…

So you have to realize what the size differential does to the math and adjust the settings accordingly. However, since the system's skewed towards oversensitivity, you run out of settings pretty quick as you lose a couple of levels. If you’re running it on 5, you’ll see very similar TC engagement on 3 with a 190/55 on back (even a 190/55 Supercorsa SP). I'd like to get a custom sensor ring so I can get more range of adjustability out of the system, but I'd still want that with stock-sized tires since half the adjustment range is useless to me. Better yet, maybe one of the tuner gurus can hack the tables so we can customize TC maps. If the functionality is already there, one shouldn’t need to go to a Nemesis or the like unless they’re doing serious track time.

I'm on record here as liking the SP's a lot, and for a nice day, warm weather tire they're great. That said, there are perfectly good alternatives that have very, very nearly as much raw grip (certainly all you need for remotely sane riding on public roads), just as much “feel”, and that are better in cool or wet conditions. And of course some are a lot less expensive, which may or may not matter to a given rider.

I look at buying street tires for the Pani this way. If I were going through SP's in 1500 miles and wearing the edges out first, I'd switch to SC's or maybe Power Cups. If I were getting 5000 + out of SP’s and wearing the rear out in the middle, I'd put something harder (or at least cheaper) on there since I'd be wasting money for grip I wasn't using. But for the spirited, but sane mountain road use I put my Pani to, SP's, S20's, Q3s, and maybe the new PP3 (haven't ridden them) are all viable candidates. They all are going to last me about 2500 miles, +/-, and all of them have enough grip for my purposes. The SP’s and S20’s have a bit better feel than the Q2’s I’ve run in the past, with the Q2’s a bit closer to the SP’s in hot grip. The S20s beat both when they’re cool. Remains to be seen, but if the Q3’s are much better than the Q2’s, they will give up nothing to the SP’s.

Steve, good discussion. Thanks. I actually tried to back it off last week but it did not save the setting. Still learning.