The Honda PCX / Forza / ADV150 / SH Forums

Hi, I commute daily to downtown Lisbon and historical downtown Lisbon streets are cobblestone streets riddled with bumps, sewage covers and tram tracks. Ridding in these conditions is really hazardous, not to mention nerve-racking, specially with wet pavement. I'm thinking of changing tires to deal with this situation, because I almost crashed three times with the stock ones (the first two were in cobblestone roads, the third one my front tire got stuck in a tram track). What tires should i buy. Can I get wider tires? Will that help/solve the issue? In what size should I buy them? I don't really know much about these things, and the more I read about them, the more confused I get.

We have a lot of cobbled streets in Edinburgh too, uncomfortable in the dry but can be lethal in the wet if you're not very careful. Luckily I've never had an accident on them but I slways slow right down snd take corners very gently.
Can't comment on the quality of the PCX tyres as I haven't taken delivery of mine yet but had a couple of Honda scoots in the past and they were fine.
Interested to hear what other owners say.

No tyres are wet cobblestone or tram track proof.
Wider ones would make no difference.
You just need to observe the road surface and avoid the hazards.

My house is on a very rough cobble road, I use CityGrips and while I do get some wheel spin, it's controllable.

We had some of the wetest weather across the UK the past few days - and riding home on Friday was through water logged roads, congested traffic and rather awful riding conditions. Luckily my water-proof over-mac kept me completely dry but braking was noticably worse than usual on the stock IRC tyres (5200 miles and little wear on rear). Still, I knew conditions were poor so road accordingly - no issues and got home safe - up and down hills with tight corners and lanes flooded.
Many hate the IRC's, many love the city-grips, but they have served me well for 14 months. I just don't do FT take offs at lights or brake hard all the time like others may do and take heed of what the road and weather is like.

Ride sensibly and the IRCs are perfectly ok.

gn2 wrote:Ride sensibly and the IRCs are perfectly ok.

In the manual it refers to them as Bias tyres, that makes them sodding crossply's the CityGrips are Radial tyres, for just nipping shops or work 10mile away per day sure the stocks are fine, for cruising 50miles there, and then back, before doing shopping, I want some quality tyres.

DrewJW wrote:My house is on a very rough cobble road, I use CityGrips and while I do get some wheel spin, it's controllable.

I've never had wheel spin on a scooter over. Even in the wet no matter how hard I try unless I gas it from a standstill on cobbles for a laugh and it moves out half an inch and feel like Marc Marquez

It's the front that is a problem. Ride sensibly (gingerly) if its wet just don't touch the front brake.

DrewJW wrote:

gn2 wrote:Ride sensibly and the IRCs are perfectly ok.

In the manual it refers to them as Bias tyres, that makes them sodding crossply's the CityGrips are Radial tyres, for just nipping shops or work 10mile away per day sure the stocks are fine, for cruising 50miles there, and then back, before doing shopping, I want some quality tyres.

The PCX is not intended to have radial tyres, consequently there are no radial tyres available in the correct sizes.

gn2 wrote:

DrewJW wrote:

gn2 wrote:Ride sensibly and the IRCs are perfectly ok.

The PCX is not intended to have radial tyres, consequently there are no radial tyres available in the correct sizes.

Fair enough, for some reason I thought the CityGrips was Radial. That being said someone will eventually make a radial tyre in the sizes we need. And I cannot see how a rim is not designed to have one or the other!.

Also the stock tyres are okay, but I would not trust them if you do serious mileage. I had them on my Vision and in the wet less said the better.

YouYou, my road is pre ww2 cobbles, which was last maintained about 1940, worn very smooth, it takes a knack to get the PCX up when it's been raining, especially after a long dry spell.

DrewJW wrote:I cannot see how a rim is not designed to have one or the other!

Its the geometry of the suspension and steering rather than the rim.
http://www.dunlopmotorcycle.com/info-ce ... vice-versa

Amazes me the difference in ride quality, and grip then with the CityGrips over stock tyres.

Your preference for CityGrips and desire for radials is interesting, the CityGrips are stiffer than IRCs and therefore less like radials than the IRCs.

And My CityGrip doesn't have any more grip than the IRC did. But it is lasting a little longer.

Even a highly regarded motorcycle review site found the IRC's better than the Citygrips (someone posted that link some months back - hard to find now!) - but I wonder if some of the love of city-grips and hatred of IRC's may come down to the kind of tarmac in peoples towns - it does vary. Where I live it's normal road tarmac (if there is such a thing) but in other countries (perhaps cities in the UK) it does vary - some tarmacs are course, some are smoother, and now it seems we pay ever more council tax and the roads and kerbs are not cleaned anymore - dirt, loose stones and crap just left on the road which is made worse when it rains.

iceman wrote:but I wonder if some of the love of city-grips and hatred of IRC's may come down to the kind of tarmac in peoples towns - it does vary.

I think it is just an "Emperor's new clothes" thing. People automatically assume that whatever tire comes on a bike is junk and whatever is new, is better. Then there is the fact that the average owner has no way to really test tires side by side.

Tyres are definitely a personal thing. I've ridden many bikes over the last 20 yrs and found the pcx irc's fine when dry but absolutely lethal in the wet and the worst I've ever used which is why I switched to citygrips. I'd tend to agree re tarmac type possibly but there's many who are happy with the originals so who knows.

I'm happy with the peace of mind I now have knowing I can trust the rubber. Mileage wise I'll have to wait and see. The irc rear was squared off after 5000m but the front was fine. With the relative cheapness of scooter tyres against bike tyres I'm happy to change when required. When I got citygrips put on, the tyre place wanted £30 per wheel!!! so I took a few spanners with me and took both wheels off outside with the help of a mate. Saved myself £60 which is almost as much as the citygrips were. (£80 fitted to loose wheels)

Just my two penneth

I'm glad that you find the CityGrips to be better. If anything I find my CityGrip rear to feel somewhat less grippy in the wet and harder.

sendler2112 wrote:I'm glad that you find the CityGrips to be better. If anything I find my CityGrip rear to feel somewhat less grippy in the wet and harder.

Surprising how peoples opinion of the CG compared to stock varies so much - comments from amazing and much better grip to no difference or worse (although we don't often hear that). Sendler - are yours pointing the right way (arrows) - just trying to work out why you find them different to most

Actually, "most" find the IRC's quite adequate and never even bother to write anything about it. It is a big difference in the average persons opinion of adequate to the outliars who make comments like deadly, leathal. roadkiller, ect that a few seem to state. OEM tires just must be bad. Right? The new Michelin Pilot Street bias tires on the Yamaha R3 are getting picked on quite a bit in the press in comparrison to the long standing benchmark IRC road Winners on the CBR250R and the Ninja300 calling the Michelins sketchy. This after the same type of bashing and name calling of the IRC's on those bikes for years.
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Until you really compare the tires on the same road, on the same day, you are really just going from memory. And there is a strong financial psychological motivation to think what you just spent money on is much better.