Satellite measurements of the thermal anisotropy of solar wind protons have shown that the particle velocity distributions at 1 AU are not adequately described by a bi-Maxwellian distribution function. On the other hand, the stability criteria derived from a bi-Maxwellian distribution require T⊥>T∥, which is, however, hardly ever observed. A modified axisymmetric distribution function for solar wind protons is used here to calculate the stability and growth rate of the iom cyclotron instability in a warm slow speed solar plasma at 1 AU. Cyclotron wave growth is found also in the case t∥>T⊥.