Tire Wear (Again) Don't Chance it

Okay, started thread Clicky


Got some views on whether or not it was time to change the tires.

Took in opinions and views and began to start a search on what tires I wanted, while continuing to commute on the FJR in the meantime. Figured I had a few hundred miles or so. As I am a prudent shopper, I searched high and low, decided I wanted to try the Conti Road Attack-due to a great review. Well, while looking for the CRA I discovered there was a new version Conti Road Attack 2 just released in 2010. However the tire will not be in the states for a while, just in Europe....and they don't ship to the U.S. by the way; at least none who actually sell the tire. I digress.....

Here is a pic of the tire when I first purchased the bike, 50 miles on tire.



Ahhhhhh, Fresh Rubber on the Road....Metz Roadtec Z6

Here is my tire after 10,300 miles when I started orginal post...sorry repeat photo. And Side view angle





Here is the tire when I went to the garage this morning .........after 10,400 miles





Yes that is Freakin Steel showing through my tire, after 100 miles..of course panic sat in.

Now, dealers in this area, like to close on early on Saturday and closed on Sun/Mon.

I went to local Yama, and they wanted $195.00 for the Metz Z6, additional $85 for install.

So, went to Cycle Gear because I knew they were having all Michelin 20% off. Chose to get the Michelin Pilot Road 2, based on many guys on this forum stellar reviews.

Picked up the tire (Rear only) for $209.00 - (20%) = $167.00 not much more than the best internet price I found at Iron Pony.

Took it to a local bike shop and had tire put on for $40.00..As it happens, owner use to be the owner of an 05' FJR.

POINT....As pointed out in the Canyon Chasers review of the Metz Z6, it is difficult to tell when it's on it's last leg, because the rubber wears out dead center without much tread wear....Boy, they were dead on with this one.

Lesson learned... hopefully this will help others who ponder the Rubber Replacement Rage...

Each tire has it's own characteristics, and if it's your first set, you want know. Well, here is one set that you know about now.

wl

ummm I rode all the way home from park City with a tire that looked like that...only 650 miles....

R

Richard - I remember a short couple hundred mile ride we went on and your tire was worn but not bad IMO but half way thru the ride, you had some steel showing. I was surprised.

That's the kind of BS that happens when you buy POS tires that don't have any tread, or wear bars in the center of the tire. It's been documented many time around here.

After the samed thing happened to me on a Pirelli Strada rear, I swore never again.

Both Metzler Z-6 and Pirelli Strada are very difficult to tell when you're at the end. If it hadn't been for a dusty garage floor, I would have been in the same [steel] boat.

--G

Most of us have done way worse than that ......when your tires get to this get to this level is when you take the speed down to under triple digits

It does suck to be hundreds of miles from home and see a tire go to **** fast like that. as folks are sharing here, it very much depends on the tire, for me the PR2's have been the best .....YMMV

BTW, I've taken 'em down way beyond that and never did they have close to 10K on them .....you're getting good wear, no doubt about it.

How's this????



I too, noticed a rather quick transition when the belts "first" started to show..............this photo however is 700 miles after the belts started to show. I think the steel helped the wear slow down............... :blink: :dribble:

I decided to cut the tire to have a look, and I was surprised to see a second layer of steel below this one. I'll try and post up a photo.

SkooterG said:

That's the kind of BS that happens when you buy POS tires that don't have any tread, or wear bars in the center of the tire. It's been documented many time around here.
After the samed thing happened to me on a Pirelli Strada rear, I swore never again.

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Ain't it the truth, amen brother!

I'm new to sport bike tires and this thread is right on point for my question. This is a Battlax BT 21 with 5800 miles. Based on the photo do you think I should change it prior to taking a 1500 mile ride in about two weeks? :dribble:

Happy Rider said:

I'm new to sport bike tires and this thread is right on point for my question. This is a Battlax BT 21 with 5800 miles. Based on the photo do you think I should change it prior to taking a 1500 mile ride in about two weeks? :dribble:

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IMO- I would definitely be concerned about rain especially being so far from home.

Perhaps with showing steel and some guys getting a couple extra hundred miles.....I would bet that they were doing local riding and not traveling far from home during wet weather days.

1500 miles can produce some climate changes that may challenge the tire. Wet roads would challenge the BT21 more than the Metz, because the BT21 has their tread starting in the middle(pic shows worn tread), and the Metz does not.

I would not risk it, obviously I would say that, I didn't risk the steel showing.....not the greatest of risk takers I suppose.

I'm cheap and I like to get the max wear out of my tires. I would let it go longer around my local area but I think I will take your advice and get it changed before the trip. Tire problems seem to be the most common on trips. I have a new PR 2 ready to go, I just need to get it put on. Thanks for the info.

QUOTE (Happy Rider @ Mar 7 2010, 03:36 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

... This is a Battlax BT 21 with 5800 miles. Based on the photo do you think I should change it prior to taking a 1500 mile ride in about two weeks?

...

Change that rear tyre, they wear much more quickly towards the end of the tread life. And it's no fun if you are out there and are unsure about it, you start worrying about your tyres instead of all those cell-phone users, let alone taking piccies to show us the scenery.

This tyre (click image for larger view):



went from "plenty of tread" to as shown in about 400 miles (not mine, another's FJR).

More importantly, if you've still got a BT021 on the front, change that as well (for something different, Storm ST2, PR2, whatever), even it it's got plenty of tread left. When that gets past about half life, like this one of mine



the bike's handling goes to pot, no fun at all - particularly if you're on a long trip.

I'm going to get it changed this week. Thanks! I agree with you about the front tire. I had to replace the Battlax on the front at about 4200 miles. After a 2500 mile to Colorado it had a horrible flat spot down the middle. The bike handled like crap and had a bad shake on decel. After changing the front tire things were good again. I was surprised at how much a little wear on the tire changed the way the bike handled.

Here’s something many riders don’t realize or perhaps haven’t thought about. I took a trip on a Gen1 FJR a few years ago on a BRAND NEW set of OEM Bridgestone (BT021 I think) tires, inflated properly. Two up and mostly straight up riding. Fifteen hundred (yes 1500) miles into the trip the rear tire was basically bald. No tread in the center and it was completely flattened out with cords starting to show. The front looked new, or as you would expect it to look. What I learned from that experience and from talking to my buddy (veteran rider/racer) afterward was that I wasted the rear tire because of the speeds we were traveling at and the fact that the windscreen was in the raised position for most of the trip. Yes, pushing into abnormally high resistance will waste the rear tire in no time.

FJRless said:

Two up and mostly straight up riding. Fifteen hundred (yes 1500) miles into the trip the rear tire was basically bald. No tread in the center and it was completely flattened out with cords starting to show.

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Dude! Where's Paul Harvey when you need him, because there is more to this story. High speeds and the windscreen up will not waste a tire in 1500 miles. At least not that tire. So either it was defective, or severely under-inflated.

Two-up riding will have the biggest impact IMHO, and speed will definitely make an impact too, but won't waste a tire in 1500 miles. At least not a sport touring tire. Windscreen up impact would be minimal.

Heck, I got 3900 miles out of my White Pine Fever rear, and I can just about guarantee you weren't going faster than me.

So if this ain't B.S., then you had a defective tire.

SkooterG said:

FJRless said:

Two up and mostly straight up riding. Fifteen hundred (yes 1500) miles into the trip the rear tire was basically bald. No tread in the center and it was completely flattened out with cords starting to show.

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Dude! Where's Paul Harvey when you need him, because there is more to this story. High speeds and the windscreen up will not waste a tire in 1500 miles. At least not that tire. So either it was defective, or severely under-inflated.

Two-up riding will have the biggest impact IMHO, and speed will definitely make an impact too, but won't waste a tire in 1500 miles. At least not a sport touring tire. Windscreen up impact would be minimal.

Heck, I got 3900 miles out of my White Pine Fever rear, and I can just about guarantee you weren't going faster than me.

So if this ain't B.S., then you had a defective tire.

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I hate this, but I have to agree with Skooty on this one! If you lost a Bridgestone BT021 in 1,500 miles, you were dealing with a defective tire! I'm not a huge fan of the BT's, but my 2003 came stock with them and I rode them until they were gone. I ride like an old man, that is because I am an old man, but I still got 6,500 miles out of a Bridgestone BT021 rear and 9,000 miles out of the front. I'm big, fat, ugly and way too heavy; however, 1,500 miles makes your Bridgestone a defective tire!

I guess I am a chicken and toss mine when I could probably get a few hundred or maybe even 1k more out of them but then again I ride every day, rain or shine and have kids I want to see again so I'll fess up and say I change them more often than needed.

I seem to recall a bike at EOM in '08 that was showing a lot of steel on the last day and IIRC he had to ride back to TX and was looking for a spare that last night. Talk about going to extremes!

SkooterG said:

FJRless said:

Two up and mostly straight up riding. Fifteen hundred (yes 1500) miles into the trip the rear tire was basically bald. No tread in the center and it was completely flattened out with cords starting to show.

Click to expand...

Dude! Where's Paul Harvey when you need him, because there is more to this story. High speeds and the windscreen up will not waste a tire in 1500 miles. At least not that tire. So either it was defective, or severely under-inflated.

Two-up riding will have the biggest impact IMHO, and speed will definitely make an impact too, but won't waste a tire in 1500 miles. At least not a sport touring tire. Windscreen up impact would be minimal.

Heck, I got 3900 miles out of my White Pine Fever rear, and I can just about guarantee you weren't going faster than me.

So if this ain't B.S., then you had a defective tire.

Click to expand...

If I hadn't experienced it for myself I might not believe it either. The only thing I left out is that it was a Rifle windscreen with blocker so it was like pushing a wall down the road. The combined weight of my passenger and myself geared up was under 300 pounds.

I know you understand the type of riding affects tire wear. For example, 150 miles on a set of tires is all you should expect on the track. I know it's a different compound but you would get well over 1,000 miles on that same set of tires riding in the canyons. When I described the FJR event to my buddy his attitude was: Hey, what did you expect. It's common knowledge. How could you not know that....blah blah blah. In terms of the level of experience and understanding all there is to know about motorcycles you know what they say: One man's ceiling is another man's floor. I'm not completely clear on which factor had the greatest weighting, the windscreen or the speeds we were carrying.

I'm passing this on for those who find themselves in a similar circumstance so they might be able to get to where they need to by dialing back their speed.

One has to wonder what "inflated properly" meant for that trip. What you describe is common for two up riding, with one up tire pressures. The screen has little to do with tire wear. The majority of the weight to the rear explains the light front wear and heavy rear wear, all the more if rear tire pressure was not increased. I'm not a lightweight, (300 in gear), and ride at 42/42. I still add pressure if I'm putting a passenger on the back, (and still get some additional wear if I do a lot of two up riding).

High speed, road surface, ambient temps and load all play a part in tire wear.

@Happy Rider - Glad to hear you're replacing the tire. In the center of your pic are wear bars. Note that you are at and nearly at them in different places on the tire. That's when it's time to toss it.