Replaced the Pirelli Scorpion Trail front and rear with the Continental Trail Attack II and already very positive about these tires!
They felt that confident that I had my footrests on the ground after only 15 minutes of driving (so maybe the Traction Skin did help here).
In a few weeks a trip is planned to France. Aprox. 3000km in 5 day's so that will be a serious test run for the new Conti's. Will post my experience here when I'm back from this trip...
Hi all,
Took some time before I could give you all an update about my experience with the Trail Attack II tyres... The 3000km trip was done with a lot of luggage. It was the first time we did a trip that far going from Hotel to Hotel, so afterwards I can say that I took too much luggage with me. But I also wanted to have some driving experience without the luggage…
Up to now, my opinion about the Trail Attack II is not 100% positive.
From handling point of view they are fantastic! I have never had such a confidence in grip and driveability in short curves like hairpins and roundabouts. It’s almost standard that I have the footrests on the ground in these conditions!
But stability at high speed is a lot worse than with the Pirelli’s. The first few 100 miles with the GIVI cases fully loaded were very unpleasant. I could not drive much faster then 110-120 km/h. At higher speed the bike started to wobble/shimmy… After changing the tyre pressure it was a bit better, but cruising at higher speed than 120 km/h was still not an option.
Later that trip I found out that after replacement of the steering head bearing, the bearing was not mounted tight enough. After adjustment of the head bearing, the steering improved a lot and also the stability improved. But wobble/shimmy still appeared at higher speeds than 140km/h.
In the meantime I needed to do other maintenance (driving chain needed to be replaced, valves needed adjustment, and there was a serious issue with afterburning in the exhaust system), so it was not before yesterday that I could test the stability without luggage. The result up to now is that I still have a wobble/shimmy effect from approx. 160km/h.
I will proceed in finding improvement, planned to do a bubble check on the head bearings and will also go for suspension check at one of the Hyperpro service centers. If anyone of you has other ideas, please let me know!
But if this will not improve, I’m not convinced that the next set of tyres will be Trail Attack II’s again…
To be continued…