New Tyres and VFR Brakes

Last Friday we had new Michelin Road Pilot 2 tyres fitted to all of the bikes. Helen’s VFR was on 9731 miles, my VFR was on 20997 miles and the ZX-9R was on 13348 miles.

Since then it has pretty much rained, so tonight was the first real time we have had to take out the VFRs to scrub in the new tyres, prior to our impending holiday. We had a quick run up to Hawes via Settle and the Ribblehead Viaduct. It was very quiet but some numpty has decided to resurface the B6255 from Ribblehead Viaduct. Unfortunately they have applied the crap loose chippings on top of the original worn surface. This is a nightmare for bikes as for some time until it gets bedded in the surface will be loose, which could cause bikes to low side off the road (It has happened before).

While we were out I noticed that the brakes on my VFR weren’t that great. Looking at the rotors you could see thick black lines running around the full travel of the disc. So I decided to clean up the rotors with 1200 grit paper and also cleaned off the pads with 400 grip paper. Took the VFR back out after doing this and the brakes have returned to normal again. Not entirely sure what had happened to them, glazed or contaminated probably.