Motorcycle tires

In My Humble Opinion
1

I looked at my rear tire yesterday, and it’s getting down to the wear bars. Interestingly, I saw some cord inside of the treads. Obviously, it’s time to replace them. (They have about 8,000 miles on them.)

Currently the bike wears the factory-issue Dunlops. My other bike came with Dunlops, and it has also worn Bridgestone Battleaxe and Metzlers. (For some reason choices for the Seca II seem somewhat limited; I think it has Bridgestones on it right now.) I dropped the R1 a couple of months ago when I was making a left turn accelerating from a stop sign. The Dunlops were wet and the back end just slid out from under me. (Thank the gods I have frame sliders! Not a scratch on the plastic.) But since then I’ve been a little leery about Dunlops.

Which tires should I get? I’m leaning toward Metzlers. (Oh. Pun.)

(I’ll replace the chain and sprokets at the same time.)

2

Metzelers are very good tires, can’t go wrong with them. I prefer Avon tires myself. I have had Michelins and Dunlops before and I have found that the Avons are better on wet roads. Their sportbike tires are very sticky but don’t last as long as others, though. BTW, I have Distanzias on my '96 Triumph Tiger and Roadrunners on my '73 Norton Commando.

3

I’m amazed that you get so many miles out of your tyres on a R1, I’d have thourht that half that and you would be doing well.

How about the Bridgestone BT014 dual compounds.

I believe they are recommended for Michelin Pilots, at least for the later ones.

4

I’ve had Metzelers and liked them a lot. (Incidentally, I also have a Metzeler self-inflating air mattress. Used to be a bit of a joke that I’d be on Metzeler rubber day and night when I went camping on the bike)

I’m on Bridgestone Battlax right now, and I like them - the fact that I picked up two screws in the threads withn 3 months probably can’t be blamed on the tires.

5

Holy crap, I have a '97 Tiger. I was feeling awfully alone. I have a new friend today! I have two new Michelins leaning against my toolbox waiting for time to put them on.

On my CBR 1000 I always liked the Avon DT 207"s. (I think that’s the number. It’s been a while since I sold it.) Sticky as hell but don’t last very long.

My Honda Transalp isn’t on the road and I dread looking for tires for it. Talk about limited choices.

6

When you replace the back, you might consider dropping back one size in the width(to a 170)…I did it with my R1, it turns in much quicker. The tire profile to the road is much more aggressive

7

Sadly, almost all of my riding nowadays is on flat, straight roads. :frowning:

8

Got the new tires today. I happened to get a good look at the old rear one. Scary.

I could see about a ten-inch by eighth-inch strip of cord down the middle. A couple of weeks ago I saw that it was getting down to the wear bars. It seemed to wear extremely fast, if it’s showing cord!

I ended up getting Michelin Pilots. The bike is much quicker into turns now than with the stock Dunlops.

9

Oh, to clarify: I did see some cord inside the tread. That was a little mystifying. The cord I saw today was on the outside, right down the middle.