Does cold affect how a tire rides?

When I leave for work about 1-1:30pm it's usually in the 70's and I can pretty much ride 65-75 fine if it isn't windy. It seems like I feel a little more road vibration than I should, but it is toleratable.

When I ride home from work anywhere from 11-2:30am it's in the 50's and it seems I can't really go over 60 even on windless nights because I just feel every little imperfection in the road mostly I feel the grainy road surface, but sometimes...
And it could be my imagination because I am cold and tired, I feel some slight oscilation from the back with it. The other night it got me so nervous I pulled over and checked the rear tire and everything I could on the side of the road and everything seemed tight. It seems the colder out it is the worse it is, which also might have something to do with how rigid my body is too.

My bike has about 6100miles on it. as far as I know the tires are original, or at least thee original brand with good tread.
This is not my first bike, however it is my first bike in about 8 years. I had a KLR250 that I used to ride 75-85 almost everywhere so I understand what a light bike feels like in the wind, but this is different. It's almost like my tire rubber is too hard.
Myh commute is 25 miles one way. Mostly highway, and at least 8 miles of the highway is the same road I have ridden other bikes across many times, so I'm oretty sure it is the bike I am uncomfortable with and not the road.

I read this post and it seems like I might have the same problem as this guy, but nothing was ever concluded.
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1317996336/0
I suspect my IRC tires just suck even though they have good tread, and based on what I have read I should get Metzeler Marathon 880's and the bike will ride much nicer and corner better.
This bike seems to be the worst handeling bike I have ever ridden.
With my work gear I am about 180lbs. I raised the rear tire pressure to the 2 person psi and it cornered better, but seemed too rigid, so I lowered it back down to the 1 person pressure, and I am running about 31psi in my front tire.
Most of what I feel seems to be coming from the back of the bike, but I am still thinking about lowering my front tire pressure to 29 when I get a new gauge, but something tells me that will make things worse.
I have my rear shocks on the lowest setting because on the 2nd setting it was just too painfull to ride with a 25lb backpack, and it is still a little on the rigid side.

It's not the ambient temperature that matters, it's the road temperature.

IRC's suck

Get another brand of tire when it comes time.

Serowbot wrote on 10/02/12 at 11:38:07:


I have never "worn out" a motorcycle tire. How will I know when they are worn out?
I replaced the Continentals on my KZ750 because the sidewalls just looked scarey. I replaced them with Bridgestone Spitfires, and had the bike another 4 years and for 2 of those years the bike was my primary vehicle, and for the 1st year it was my only vehicle. I lived in Las Vegas at the time and rode the bike year round from about 30 degrees up to 117 degerees. They still had good tread when I sold the bike, but were starting to look dryrotted around the sidewalls. I was heavier then too, and had 2 people on the bike most of the time, so there was pretty much between 400-500lbs of people/gear on the bike when I wasn't  flying to work.

I hear people saying they wear a tire out in 5k. That just seems rediculous to me.
I commute 50 miles round trip 5 days a week, and if the bike will handle it, I want to make it my primary vehicle except when it is snowing. I put about 20k a year on my car, so I expect to put at least half that on my bike. Which tires will I wear out in 5 years?
I'm thinking I want something with good handeling and smooth quiet ride. I like to run 70-80 most of the time and corner fast which I can't currently do with this bike.

I forget what came stock on DP. I think they might have been Dunlops? Although I have been told the tires I had sucked that bike was the best handling bike I have ever ridden, so it was probably just a good bike. I used to ride that thing like a crotch rocket.

Cavi Mike wrote on 10/02/12 at 12:27:28:


What does the road temp do to the tires, or the handeling trates?
I have ridden 100mile trips through NJ winters down to about 10degrees, but that was about 10-12 years ago and mostly on an enduro which showed no change at all, and the rest was on a KZ750 which I also do not recall changing, and the tires on that bike really sucked when I first got it.

When its down to the wear bars & will not pass inspection, its wore out.
That can happen in less than 5.000 miles. I wore one out in 3,000. Cheap as that tire was, & as well as it stuck, I didnt want another one.

Seems to me as if every bike forum and every bike review complains about whatever tire comes stock on every bike in the world. They can't ALL be bad - can they?

Charon wrote on 10/03/12 at 09:51:02:


Nope. Although people told me my stock tires on my 1998 KLR250 sucked, I thought that was the best handling bike I have ever ridden, and very rarely broke traction on pavement, and when I did it was always my own fault and usually from stopping too fast. You could put that bike almost horizontal at pretty much any speed, and even accelerate and shift while almost laying sideways. So light weight and perfectly balanced! I could not even imagine how great the bike would be with better tires if the ones I had "sucked"
I rode that bike year round in all kinds of weather too from an NJ winter to a Las Vegas summer.

If that bike had less of a plastic dirtbike look to it, and just a little more power I would have gotten another. I rode that thing as hard as it could be ridden almost everry time I went out and it still got over 70mpg, and was capable of cruising at 80 smoothly.

I think Suzuki could pull off an even better bike if they made a TU with a bigger frame, and like a 400-450.

If you liked the Bridgestone spitfire on your other bike, go for it.  I put a set on mine last spring, and at 3000+ miles, I'm just starting to see signs of wear.