Dwight_Rudder, on 03 June 2012 - 10:27 PM, said:

WOW, those would be some soft springs. I have rode this bike with the stock .469 and then .48 which were pretty good but was a little harsh on downhill breaking bumps because they rode too low in the stroke but it is much plusher with the .50's. I have raised the forks to 9.5mm and went out two clicks on the rebound and I will give that a try this weekend.

Everyone has favourites ;-) everyone says the pirelli inter is the best,  its a good Tyre but wear was unreal,  in only 5 rides on inter conditions it looked half a season old!

tpars121, on 05 June 2012 - 05:26 AM, said:

I think you are not understanding what I said and only reading in what you want.  You have to make the sags work if you are to make your bike turn.  Both ends must have compatable sags.  You have yet to set your sags anywhere close to right, but try it your way.

maxamillion125, on 04 June 2012 - 07:47 AM, said:

  

Dude the mx51 IS NOT a hardpack tire, and clearly states that on the packaging of the tire itself.
Many pros opt to use a MX51 even when they have access to prototypes. dont say that its flawed its a great tire.

mog, on 05 June 2012 - 10:08 AM, said:

My findings exactly.  I love those tires.  I also need a stockpile of them to run them.  I run the MXMS on the front and a Michelin or MX51 on back.  The MXMs on the back feels better but again 5 rides and if you go 6 you chunk. Of course at Southwick you run the Pirelli Soft Scorpion Paddle.

Edited by mikerides33, 08 June 2012 - 05:57 PM.

MX28, on 08 June 2012 - 04:02 PM, said:

Apparently you haven't tried any other tire out there.  If you believe mx51 front is a good predictable tire on any condition I feel sorry for you.

shockdoc, on 29 May 2012 - 07:28 AM, said:

kx450f63, on 30 May 2012 - 05:00 AM, said:

Am a bit lost here and trying to understand, by increasing the length of the forks over the triple clamps make the bike turn sharper?? in this case pushing out (understeering) increased by this?

same as sag on the rear?? if you increase sag you lose turning and vise versa!!

Edited by wblake, 11 June 2012 - 09:14 AM.

mog, on 05 June 2012 - 10:08 AM, said:

The MX32's don't last very long, but its a small price to pay for pretty much the best tire available today. The only conditions where it doesn't excel are the rough hard-pack tracks, but everywhere else, its just stellar.

The MX51 is an intermediate tire and it marketed as a tire that can deal with "most" situations from sand/loam through loam/hardpack.

http://www.dunlopmot...ax-series/mx51/

The 51 does work OK in sandy/heavy loam conditions, but step out of those and you're in trouble. Sadly, most tracks of the world are loamy in the mornings and hard-pack by the afternoons. So you need a tire thats got the ability to perform over a large range.

I rode a track that was loamy in some corners and dry and hardpack in others yesterday,  cant fault the mx51 honestly

Dwight_Rudder, on 03 June 2012 - 10:27 PM, said:

Don't listen to this.  You'll hurt yourself running front setups like that.  Just verify the amount of preload you're actually running on those fork springs, as the YZF's can come measured out to run around 10mm of preload in stock form.  That can be one cause of the problem.

Run your front rebound a click or two slower, and try running your swingarm a little bit shorter to snap through the turn quicker.  The Yamaha's have a lot of offset in their front ends, and they have a tendancy to "knife" - this sounds counterintuitive, but it's the habit of the wheel flopping over sooner in a lean, and then causing a push.  That excessive wheel flop makes the front end climb out of ruts VERY easily.  Shorten the rear end, maybe run 1-2mm more rear sag, steer with the rear more.  Don't rely on that front end to get into a line and stay there on that bike.

maxamillion125, on 10 June 2012 - 07:41 AM, said:

Okay you honestly are a retard.

It's  an intermediate terrain tire man, its not meant for HARD PACK
you buy specific HARD PACK tires for HARD PACK terrain.
NOT an MX51.
What don't you get?

MX28, on 11 June 2012 - 03:18 PM, said:

Read what I posted above. Dunlop clearly markets the MX51 as a tire which can go from sandy loam to hard pack.

Not only that, but hard pack specific tires suck in every other condition. Good luck riding in the morning when the track is soft and loamy. Good luck riding when the track has just been watered. Hard pack tires have compromises to help with longevity which make them horrible tires for any other condition but blue-groove situations.

Since we all know that most tracks go from soft/loamy in the morning to hard pack in the afternoon, what tire would you suggest that covers the entire range? Its called an intermediate tire, and Dunlop's intermediate tire is called, I bet you didn't know... MX51!

Just so we can get this straight, most people recommend Dunlop's MX31 (medium/soft) tire as the replacement for the MX51 front because it works so much better. If the MX51 sucks in the hard pack as you say, wouldn't the MX31 be useless? Sadly its not the case. I run Pirelli MX32's in hard pack conditions and they work awesome, wear out quick, but its a small price to pay for grip everywhere.

Moral of the story, stop being a dick, the MX51 sucks. Everyone agree's, its straight-up unanimous and those people who don't think the MX51 front sucks are either riding in exactly the condition its made for, which is perfect, moist, loamy, OR don't know any better.

GHILL28, on 11 June 2012 - 12:50 PM, said:

LOL,  Really ?    I guess I have been setting bikes up wrong for years .   LOL

mog, on 05 June 2012 - 10:08 AM, said:

LOL,  WOW.   How many rides do you get on a tire ?  If I get 6-7 out of a front, that is great.  I rarely get more than 3-4 out of a rear. Now my races are about 50-70 miles long.  It depends a lot on the rider and terrain. I get my best wear out of a Pirelli MT16 front and rear.   My next best is out of a Scorpion Pro front.  MX EXTRA lasts pretty good just not as well as a MT16.
I was proud to get 4 races out of a set of KENDA Millville II.  Worked pretty good. One race was hardpack and loam (Nat'l Enduro), another was Sand and hardpack (Hare Scrambles), and the other two were rocky , long and hard (One Nat'l and the other a Blackjack / SERA Enduro).

I normally do at most 4 20 min sessions per ride,  maybe only 25 miles Max?  Probably less,  normally a front shows wear at half a season ( I don't ride every weekend) and by the end of the season its worn out,  the mx51 looks great after about 5 hours,  the pirelli whilst did grip good looked half worn at the same hours,  I cant feel any big difference but I'm only a long time expert like yourself so I know I must be wrong ( not directed at you Dwight)

Dwight_Rudder, on 11 June 2012 - 11:04 PM, said:

Based on what I've been reading on here, and the opinions and feedback of basically any other educated rider who has come across your recommendations....yup. What you recommend can be called dangerous for the riders you refer to.

The only thing I can think of is that you must not ride where there are any hills and never use the front brake.

Sorry if it's rude, but I've seen more than one person take your advice and get pitched right off the bike because the front end just collapses and the rear is set up correctly.

GHILL28, on 12 June 2012 - 08:12 AM, said:

WOW,  I say you have never seen anyone with my setup at all.  I have had too many positive comments to give any creditbility to this statement.  Yes, you are being rude. FYI , I use a lot of front brake and probably ride more hills than you do.  I think I have won more than my share of offroad races also over the years.  If you don't like my recommendations then by all means go with another.

mog, on 12 June 2012 - 02:49 AM, said:

The MX51 rear works great, which is probably why you didn't notice a big difference. You are probably use to the front end not working so you've adapted to it. When I moved to the MX32's (not some random pirelli, but the MX32) the front offered so much more grip, all of a sudden I felt comfortable railing corners. I figured out that I had adapted to a bad front tire for such a long time, my riding style was inhibited.

Again, you might be riding in conditions that benefit that MX51 front and since you say the Pirellis don't last a long time, you probably haven't done enough testing to find out they do work better. I've been running the Pirelli's for 8 months now, gone through 2 sets of 32's and 2 sets of 554's.

Edited by tye1138, 12 June 2012 - 08:32 AM.

Dwight_Rudder, on 12 June 2012 - 08:25 AM, said:

Sorry bud, people deserve a fair warning.  You may have a huge wealth of other great advice and knowledge to share, and I'm quite certain you do, but this isn't part of it.  I'm sure I'd agree with you on 99% of the other advice you have to offer, however this is a standout.  I've seen a lot of sports where top contenders are competitive with very unconventional gear setups, and that doesn't mean it's a good baseline for everyone.

Both heavy 4-strokes with heavier riders who were told to run softer springs than what I run in my 2-stroke to get a neutral set up (I'm 180#).  Those are the ones where I've seen crashes in front of me related to a collapsing front end and been informed they had set things up off your specs.  Can count a few others who set things up that way and immediately took the springs out for stiffer ones, or had even called the ride short because they felt unsafe riding the machine that way.

Reader warned, that's all.

Also, it is important to understand that the springs work in conjunction with the valving pkg. This stuff is tough and everyone has a "feel" that may differ from another. I personally cannot trust my bike with springs on the soft side. I am sure I have developed a  riding "technique" over my 40 years that may not be ideal but if I go too soft, especially on the front end, I get into trouble. I favor stiffer springs and softer, linear valving.

Edited by YHGEORGE, 12 June 2012 - 09:55 AM.