The K100RS was feeling a little neglected since I had ridden my RT the entire week. The temperatures had dropped into the high 20's in the early morning and frankly I decided I wanted the full fairing and heated grips of the R1150RT. So when the following Saturday rolled around and morning temps were in the balmy 40's I decided to roll out the RS and take it for a spin. As a creature of habit, I pulled out my Joe's Racing Garage tire pressure gage and checked the front and rear tires. The front was fine but the rear was showing only 25 psi. I filled the tire up to 40 PSI and checked it again. 40 PSI. I waited a few minutes and checked it again. It still showed 40 PSI.
If I had a leak it was a slow one. So I inspected the tire and found a small nail in the tread. It was pretty well embedded and did not seem to be a major threat. No hissing sounds or anything. Regardless, the tread was close enough to the wear bars that it was time to pony up for a new rear. I called around and the only tire I could find in my size was a Dunlop D404. I wanted to get a Bridgestone Battleax BT45 but nobody had one in stock. I have a pretty new Battleax on the front and also run them on my RT.
I took my bike to Ken's Motorcycle Tires in Woodstock, GA. Nice little shop, very friendly owner and the tire was swapped out in minutes. It was a short 20 mile ride back home and the new tire seemed to handle a lot better than the crappy old Michelin Macadam that had been on it. The Macadam had been on there for over 8000 miles so the life was good, but the handling in the twisties was pretty average. We'll see if the Dunlop outperforms it when I get back to the mountains again.
After returning from the tire shop I decided I needed to pickup a vacuum bleeder for my brakes. The brakes seem to be getting a little spongy so I'll change the fluid and if that doesn't help then I'll see if my master cylinder needs a rebuild. To be continued...
