MSerfozo

I'm not a track guy but I AM a Michelin guy. I worked at Michelin for 6 years in the '80s & '90s but we only made car tires in the US. I'm on my 2nd set of Power RSs and they've been great for me. I know that Michelin recommends MUCH higher pressures for that tire for street use. I run 38 psi. I have run Michelin Power tires of all flavors exclusively for 15 years. I have found that when I run pressure too low, the tire seems to squirm more and wears quickly - in my case the middle "flat spots" from my highway commute. Higher pressure seems to hold the carcass in a "rounder" shape and prevent the squirming and flat spotting. Almost all of your damage is at FAR less than full lean so it looks like the tearing happened from acceleration coming out of turns. I would recommend higher pressure but that might not give you the track response you want.

Thanks mello dude for the info and the compliment. I've been at building this Bandit for 19 1/2 years now - if it's not awesome to anybody else, at least it's what I want. I found an All Balls Racing bearing kit on Amazon for $32.75 and it includes both dust seals so I'm going to go ahead and buy it. Maybe I can get around to swapping the bearings over the holidays, unless I spend the whole 2 weeks off watching TV and drinking beer!

Lately, my '01 Bandit 1200 has been giving a slight chatter with hard front braking just before coming to a complete stop. At speed, it's not noticeable at all - just at a few mph when coming to a stop. I'm planning to replace the head bearings and I thought I remembered that there was a change from ball bearings to roller bearings in the later years. Sure enough, Ron Ayers shows a different part number for '03 and up and describes the later years' bearings as "tapered bearings". I last replaced mine with All Balls Racing brand when I swapped the forks for Hayabusa USDs several years ago. Anyway, I started digging and found the dimensions of the stock bearings are 25x47x15 and 30x55x17. Ron Ayers and BikeBandit show them for over $30 apiece and backordered. I can buy NSK brand tapered roller bearings in those dimensions from Amazon for less than $15 apiece and have them in 2 days. For reference the numbers are 32005XJ and 32006XJ. Does anybody have any experience doing this? I can't imagine there is anything special about the OEM or All Balls to justify the price.