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Originally Posted by
Tony660z
Jmo- re brakes they are ok and I most certainly agree you need progressive brakes off road and not to powerful. I feel it takes alot of lever effort to get a reasonable braking force into the system on road though. I have upped the front preload and adjusted the dial on the front brake. I think I need to retune myself to it. Trouble is I have just spent the last 6 months on a mountain bike and the brakes and weight are obviously not comparable etc so the bulk of the XT is a factor. Re the dive on the front, I actually love long travel soft suspension. In fact I may dial out the preload again.
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I've had the occasion to use the brakes pretty hard on the motorway a few times and certainly felt the front getting pretty squirally without obviously noticing that I really had to squeeze the lever hard. Certainly I was worried more about locking the front, while stopping in time than the force required.
Certainly the sports bikes I've ridden (Fazer 600, TDM 900) with R1 inspired brakes give signifantly more feel and qualitatively I would say they are better. I feel most of this is down to the suspension however (hense my suggestion to up the pre-load on the front) and uprating the springs/forks should help you get more of the feel that the brembo brakes should be able to provide.
I'd be interested to see if JMo things changing the suspension on her rally bike made the braking feel any better (I know the bike only has a single disc now but would still be interesting to get some feedback after such a radical change)
That said I think the brakes are pretty good, they just feel different to a sports bike, let alone a mountain bike.
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| Re suspension, The previous owner dropped the front forks down and I returned them to stock positions. On reflection it was much much better the way he had it so I plan to return the drop ASAP. That also helped with the ride height. The height is close to perfect so a minor tweak on the rear may just do it for me. If not then I will go for the dog bones idea as its a simple easy to return to stock solution. As I say I dont need to much so small changes in small steps is all that is required. |
I'm a similar height (6 foot) and also cycled alot so deliberately chose the tenere because of it's great height. On a push bike you get used to balancing on one tip-toe only so it felt more natural to me and I've developed the reactions over several years to get my leg/foot out quickly if required. I certainly had one interesting instance early on at a junction to a main road turning right where the left hand side of the road slopes down very sharply (coming downhill to join a hill going uphill) where I found myself well out of my seat to get my foot down, trying to keep my bike balanced and with my foot slowly sliding down the slope on the wet winter tarmac. If my friend had taken much longer at the junction himself i'd probably have tumbled off in a rather undignified mess and rolled into the main road with the bike following me.
The ride height and position have certainly taken me a long time to get fully used to but now the suspension has worn I'm now often find I feel it is too low! Again it's something you do get used to but being able to reach the ground easier does give more confidence (and riding a bike well is a lot about confidence isn't it? - if you think you're going to fall you tense up giving less contoal and making it more likely you will, as well as being less fun). Bottom line is I guess I'm saying that at 6 foot (32" inside leg) the Tenere is quite manageable but you might need to spend lots of time with it before you feel that confident. Even my short stint on more sporty loan bikes for ages I felt more confident more easily than I was on the Tenere. Now after a year I feel unconfident on the sports bikes
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| I think the tyres will help as well as me putting alot more ride time in on it. Overall I love the bike and am glad I have it. I am being really picky and I dont wish to put any others off in any way. |
The siracs' start behaving quite badly once they square off which is why I replaced mine with 3mm tread still left in the centre (after 11.5k miles). It made quite a difference although I still found them good in corners and their wet weather grip was still excellent - WHEN they were warm). I've been much happier with my BT45s or the Anakee I currently have on the rear.
Also don't forget to remove the rubber on the footpegs if you have not alreday, makes a big difference.