Poll - Avon Storm Tire - Please rate + or - feedback

[luvtoride]

I just got done w/ a 1700 mile long weekend on my new Storms. I am a huge Avon fan... that is, while the Azaro was the FJR tire. I will not be purchasing these Storms ever again.

I didn't have time to shake these things out before leaving for my trip. Apparently, when I left my mechanic's for home the previous evening, I didn't get up enough speed for the wobbling to develop. What I can tell you is the next morning when getting up above 40 MPH I had SIGNIFICANT head shake.

I checked the air, which was a little low... so, I added some which helped. Also, the load that I was carrying added to making the wobble worse. Once the saddlebags were empty, the top box & seat pack were off, it rode a little better but was not gone. It was a bit disconcerting, to say the very least.

On the upside, I ran through some exceptionally strong rain. The kind of rain that you can actually see the sheets of rain running across the road... aka, a gullywasher, the Storms tracked true & never once broke loose even in the smallest amount. Also, when going slow enough not to wobble, they railed really well. As another said... stuck like glue.

But that wobbling... it's bad. The tire won't be staying on the bike. I see it as being hazardous... & I will not be buying them again.

I'll burn thru the rear.. but that front is coming off.

 

[Wolfhound]

NOT STARTING A WAR, just observing

Do you have a bad tire or loose neck bearings ? Headshake is Always caused by front end or tire. Azaros had a tread pattern that really contributed to the problem so the Storm was born with much better center pattern. I & a lot of others have not had any headshake from the Storms. Maybe they just work well & now the bearings not being serviced or not torqued properly are showing. Just looking to find an answer to the problems some have. So far only bad QC tires & bearings have been the problems it seems. I push the bike very hard in the twisties, not really, but just enough to keep ahead of most others...

 

[luvtoride]

NOT STARTING A WAR, just observing
Do you have a bad tire or loose neck bearings ? Headshake is Always caused by front end or tire. Azaros had a tread pattern that really contributed to the problem so the Storm was born with much better center pattern. I & a lot of others have not had any headshake from the Storms. Maybe they just work well & now the bearings not being serviced or not torqued properly are showing. Just looking to find an answer to the problems some have. So far only bad QC tires & bearings have been the problems it seems. I push the bike very hard in the twisties, not really, but just enough to keep ahead of most others...

Robert, negative on the head bearing torque. I just had the works inspected, re-packed w/ grease & re-torqued less than 3 months ago. The worn Azaro that was on there had the normal wear wobble. But it was never more than slight & that was always on decel at around 40ish. This shake w/ the Storm is on accel & decel & there is a good amount of shake. I guess that it could be a bad tire... but it seems that there are an awful lot of them out there.

Believe me, I'm an Avon lover & I am highly disappointed about this. I wanted to love these tires. Confidence inspiring, they definitely were not.

I'm a 2 rear tires to 1 front tire kinda' girl & I get slightly under or about 8,000 miles out of a rear Azaro. I'm burning thru it & moving on. The front will be coming off sooner than later, though.

Thank you very much for your suggestions.

 

[Wolfhound]

Thanks for responding back, trying to help narrow down the Storm "problems". Sounds like a bad QC on the first batch to hit here possibly . . .

 

[S76]

Looking at this thread is seems many are pleased with the Avon Storms. So thinking I may get a pair, I emailed a couple of vendors to see how they would handle an exchange in case I got a bad front tire. Here is the answer from one of them:

"Thank you very much for your inquiry. We honor all manufacturer's warranties for everything that we sell. In my opinion, stay away from the Avon. Go with a Metzeler or Pirelli instead. Avon is the most inconsistent manufacturer that we carry in terms of quality. The last thing that we want is a dissatisfied customer. There is no reason to gamble on a tire when there are a number of other tires out there which have a long standing reputation for quality and performance."

That is good enough for me! I'm going back to that same guy becasue he was so honest with me and get something other than an Avon. I don't need the hassles.

 

[sprint_st]

Just got back from ESTN07. There were 10 to 12 FJR's there. Guy on 04? said he had two cases of high speed wobble on way to Sparta. One of the incidents was so severe he believes he was lucky that it didn't pitch him into the weeds. I also experienced the problem on my 06. Tires were very new with less than 500 miles. I flat ran the heck of them on world class twisties for three days with absolutely no problem and they handled great. That said I can replicate the wobble with a 100% replication rate. Deceleration slowly on a downhill from a speed in excess of 50mph in a straight line. Take your hands off the bars and as the bike drops below 50 the vibration begins and become more violent with time. Grab the bar with one finger or more and the vibration stops. Above 50 nothing. Below 40 nothing.

I will be contacting Avon about this also. Although the Avons were very sticky, the wobble isn't exactly confidence inspiring. Also, I'm not thrilled with their performance. I have used Azaro's and loved them. With the Storms I am constantly adjusting my line because they seem to have a mind of their own. The bend in quickly which is OK, but they want to keep diving in when you are trying to maintain a line.

 

[worldbound4now]

Funny to see some negative reviews.

The Storms are not Azaros. I recently changed out my front to a Storm from a worn out Azaro, this also included a Hyperpro front fork spring install and rear shock install. It's like riding a new bike again. I'm pleased with the storms so far, but they do not corner like my past two Azaros did. Less "fall in". It takes a bit more purposeful action to lean into a corner. My feelings are neutral. I'm re-learning my ride and have no complaints. The balance was pretty easy to achieve, the handling is new, and I am loving the ride.

 

[FJRocket]

... Although the Avons were very sticky, the wobble isn't exactly confidence inspiring. Also, I'm not thrilled with their performance. I have used Azaro's and loved them. With the Storms I am constantly adjusting my line because they seem to have a mind of their own. The bend in quickly which is OK, but they want to keep diving in when you are trying to maintain a line.

I finally got a decel wobble out of my front end. Not bad, but not "confidence inspiring" as Sprint said.

When I first put these tires on, I still hadn't dialed in my Hyperpro fork springs or my Penske shock. It took a while to find the sweet spot, but I think I finally have a respectable set up.

Anyway, in the beginning I thought the Storm was REALLY twitchy. The bike felt loosey goosey and wanted to go all over the place at the slightest input. I thought it was my suspension setup but maybe it was (at least in part) the tire? After about 4K on the tires, the ride of the forks feels great and the front tire stays planted. The bike is now very stable through a hard curve and stays where I point it. In fact my AE is now to the point where it outperforms me (which doesn't take much), almost as good as my '04 was.

The rear Storm chicken strip is still there, but just barely outside the tread. Like I posted elsewhere, it seems that once you get into a peg feeler, you are beyond the tread and onto solid rubber. I haven't been there, but I have nearly touched a peg and like I said, the chick strip is outside the tread. That's a good thing IMO, but you may have another opinion. I can't imagine going over any farther in adverse conditions, so I would think a solid rubber patch would be a plus.

The rear Storm hasn't worn as well as my Strada E has. From day to day and ride to ride it's hard to compare apples and oranges, I know. So this is all very subjective (read:NPERTs). The front Storm seems to be holding up fairly well and doesn't seem to be toast. But I think another grand or two on these tires and it'll be time to think about whether to switch back to the Pirelli Strada, try a Pilot (or something else) or continue "riding the Storm out".

 

[nesbocaj]

Just got back from ESTN07. There were 10 to 12 FJR's there. Guy on 04? said he had two cases of high speed wobble on way to Sparta. One of the incidents was so severe he believes he was lucky that it didn't pitch him into the weeds. I also experienced the problem on my 06. Tires were very new with less than 500 miles. I flat ran the heck of them on world class twisties for three days with absolutely no problem and they handled great. That said I can replicate the wobble with a 100% replication rate. Deceleration slowly on a downhill from a speed in excess of 50mph in a straight line. Take your hands off the bars and as the bike drops below 50 the vibration begins and become more violent with time. Grab the bar with one finger or more and the vibration stops. Above 50 nothing. Below 40 nothing.
I will be contacting Avon about this also. Although the Avons were very sticky, the wobble isn't exactly confidence inspiring. Also, I'm not thrilled with their performance. I have used Azaro's and loved them. With the Storms I am constantly adjusting my line because they seem to have a mind of their own. The bend in quickly which is OK, but they want to keep diving in when you are trying to maintain a line.

I'm the guy with the that '04. I also just got back. The front tire created a wobble that really is seriously dangerous. Both at high speed, 120 on a "closed circuit, by a professional driver", and at ANY decel speed. They also exhibited a strange control problem at highway speeds, almost like they would just balance, then fall off center, causing a weave.

Having to deal with these tires for a 1400 mile weekend was not a 'special moment'.

I had a local Yam dealer install the Storms, he will be visited by an irate customer first thing Tuesday morning. The tires stick like glue so I hope there will a satisfactory solution. As a side note, the dealer needed 35 grams on EACH side to balance the tire, I am hoping that rotating the tire on the rim 180°, and re-balancing may help.

I also found it strange that the rear tire has NO weights on them.............we will visit that as well.

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

5k miles and my rear tire is toast

 

[rogerc]

Just finished putting 500 miles on my new Storms.

Short version

GREAT TIRE!!

Long Version

Really like the way the tire sticks, my cornering has improved and my confidence has gone way up. Bike is much smoother and a joy to handle on all types of services.

These tires have made the biggest performance increase of any tire I have tried on a number of bikes.

I would buy another pair.

RC

 

[beardo]

Ok, here's my report on the Avon Storms.

After about 2000 miles I picked up a nasty screw in my rear tire on the BRP and ended up having to have it replaced in Asheville, NC... it continued to leak air after I plugged it. I now have about 5700 miles on my front and 3500 miles on my rear that I had replaced. The front still has a little life in it, but I'll probably replace it when I replace the rear. The pros and cons are as follows:

Pros:

• They stick like glue!!! I don't recall any tire slippage on clean dry pavement. On the rear I've leaned it to right such that no surface area on the tire has been untouched... only touched the peg once. On the left I have about 1/8 of an inch of the tire that has not touched the the pavement. Yeah... my technique on right hand leans are not that refined... I lean it too far and do not have proper body positioning, thus the reason I feel that I've touched the right peg to the ground.
• No cupping on the front tire.
• No front tire "thumping" or out of round tire.
• Price seems reasonable

Neutral Comments:

• After 3500 miles on my second rear tire... it's toast!!! needs replaced. I'm not saying this is negative, but I was expecting the tire to last longer. With that said however, approximately 900 miles where in curvy roads in the Smoky Mountains and 1800 miles where in the curvy roads of northern Arkansas. These 2700 miles were pretty aggressive riding miles, so I guess that explains the shorter life of the tire.

Cons:

• As usual, the front tire has the low speed wobble. Not a big concern for me... I can live with it.
• Both tires take a significant amount of balancing weights.
• It seems as if I have some strange wear on the rear tire. It don't know if it's called cupping, but the tread blocks on the sides of my rear tire have rubber that has started curling at what I would call the leading edge of the rubber blocks that contacts the pavement first as it moves forward.

I'm not sure what I'm going to go with next. I'd like try the new Pilot Road 2's, but I'm not sure I want to pay the premium... guess I'll wait until I receive more feedback from other forum members. The BT021's sound like a possiblity. Better priced that the PR 2's, but I really don't want the front tire cupping that I had with my original BT20 stones... I'm not sure if the front BT021 cups like that of the BT20's. I've had two sets of Avon Azaros and liked them... might go for another set if any can still be found. Another consideration is the standard Pilot Roads... I've heard a lot of positive comments on these on the forum.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents on the Avon Storms.

BeardO

 

[teerex51]

(....)Cons:

[*]As usual, the front tire has the low speed wobble. Not a big concern for me... I can live with it.

[*]Both tires take a significant amount of balancing weights.

[*]It seems as if I have some strange wear on the rear tire. It don't know if it's called cupping, but the tread blocks on the sides of my rear tire have rubber that has started curling at what I would call the leading edge of the rubber blocks that contacts the pavement first as it moves forward.

(....)

BeardO

Very sensitive tire. You just need to think "lean" and the bike's already leaning into a curve. Coming from a set of badly worn neutral tires I nearly got into trouble from the get-go. Having less than 500 miles on this set I cannot comment on wear.

I will quote BeardO's comments here regarding the "Cons", except that the tread blocks "scalloping" is certainly not unique to the Storms.

You'll find it in varying degrees on any tire with chunky tread design and is caused by the uneven wear of the tire tread patterns subjected to the combined effects of lean and acceleration.

On the Conti Road Attacks it had become very obvious after just 2,000 miles. :blink:

Stef

 

[CCook82]

Well after getting 3500 miles out of Pilot Roads on the rear (lot of two up at 42 psi), I decided to go back to Avon and purchased the Storms. I mount and balance my own. Previously had run through at least three sets of Azaros. Usually 5000 on the rear and 7000 to 8000 on the front.

Have not put a mile on the front Storm yet, but was reminded on balancing that I had indeed had gone back to Avons. Had to put 40 grams on the front. I repeatedly spun the tire on the rim until I got DOWN to 40 grams.

I really wanted to run the Avons for better wear. but from these comments, it looks like I get a more rapid wear from the Storm, probably the dreaded weave (had that on one set of Azaros), and maybe a good thump to boot.

Will ride tomorrow and advise. I had already sent a note to Avon to please not abandon the Azaro for a more sticky and higher wearing tire. Looks like they may have done just that, and tossed in variability in other areas as well. What is a poor boy to do??

 

[AGirl]

FWIW, I'm on my 3rd front Storm. Tire #1 got 9,100, mostly high speed. Tire #2 was having issues at 5,400 miles. I wasn't in a position at the time to take it off (was in Nowhereville), but finally removed it at 6,981 miles. My bro's 7 year old said “It looks like there is a snake in your tire, AGirl”, pointing to the middle of the tire. The first 5,700 miles were 90% backroads/twisties at a prudent pace, 10% gravel/dirt. The remaining 1200 miles were straight shot interstate, and I felt like I was wrestling an alligator (gotta stay with the animal theme here). I was never more glad to get a tire off a bike. I took a few pics and will put them below. BTW, I religiously check tire pressures.

Being on the road (waning laptop battery), I didn't have time to research other tires, (not to mention I loved the first Storm despite low mileage, as well as the first 5,400 miles of the second one!). So, I just replaced it with another Storm. I only need 5k to get back to my garage anyway. I'm aware SWMoto has issued a “We do not recommend” for this specific sized tire, I'm guessing b/c of other complaints. IMHO, it's a darn good tire, I just wish there was more than a “hit or miss” in getting a good one.

AGirl

 

[FJRay]

I posted here once about the front going to shit and thumping. After thinking about it I contacted Avon about the problem and after a little discussion they are sending me a new tire at no charge. I thought that was really good on their part.