BT023GT front cupping

[Falko]

Anyone else experiencing cupping with the BT023GT front tire? I am getting the irregular wear pattern on this one just as much as the stock 021. I have about 2000 miles on the tire now and that irregular wear is quite apparent. I am running 39PSI in it. Rear is wearing fine as the old tire and running 41 in it.

 

[Auburn]

Anyone else experiencing cupping with the BT023GT front tire? I am getting the irregular wear pattern on this one just as much as the stock 021. I have about 2000 miles on the tire now and that irregular wear is quite apparent. I am running 39PSI in it. Rear is wearing fine as the old tire and running 41 in it.

picture?

you probably should be running 42 psi in the front due to the wieght of the bike.

 

[azitlies]

Anyone else experiencing cupping with the BT023GT front tire? I am getting the irregular wear pattern on this one just as much as the stock 021. I have about 2000 miles on the tire now and that irregular wear is quite apparent. I am running 39PSI in it. Rear is wearing fine as the old tire and running 41 in it.

Doubt this will help but I ran 44 in both with the GT. Read a long time ago the best way to deter cupping is to over inflate. Controversial I know.

Since yours is already cupping you've nothing to lose... try putting 44 in it and see if it starts to wear better. I had to do that with the oem 021 when the original owner under inflated them and it had bad cupping when I picked it up with 3500 miles. Got another 1k miles out of em with 44.

 

[Bounce]

BT's always cup. You can slow it some by running 41 to 42 front and back but it will happen.

 

[DennisJ]

Just over 6000 miles on 023GT on the front of my '09 ppurchased in May of 2010. Tire inflated to 41psi, no signs of cupping or other unusual wear. Close to 14000 on the original 021 rear tire inflated to 44psi, the center of the tread has flattened some. I'm 160#, ride solo with ~15 lbs in the side cases, a little more on weekend excursions to Eastern Washington/Oregon or out to the coast.

 

[Desmo75]

My FJR eventually cups every front tire. Stones, Michelin, & Metzeler, it doesn't matter. Also tried with & without a fork brace. It didn't matter. Maybe it's all these flat roads in the Midwest...

 

[SkooterG]

Mine is also starting to cup but I have 11,000 miles on it. It sure as hell wasn't cupping at 2,000. I too run higher pressures in the 41psi range. Though a couple times I did catch this one low in the 37 psi range. If I had been more diligent I might be seeing less cupping.

I'm not too concerned however as I am not experiencing any handling or ride issues with this cupped tire as I have with other tires. It doesn't have much life left anyways.

This is the first set I have run. I like them. Bought another set recently when on sale at BikeBandit.

 

[Slardy]

Falko,

I have no cupping and almost perfect wear on my BT-023s after 2700 miles. Here are photos of my front. After my last ride I was thinking that this is the best wear tire pattern that I have had on my FJR for years I was unhappy with my Michelin Road Pilot 2s because of harsh ride and typical dual-compound trapezoidal wear pattern up front. And higher price, too.

Don't know what the mileage will be, but it looks like ~6K, same as the Road Pilot 2s that I have used.

edit: I forgot to mention that unlike the 42/42 that I have been running in the PR2s, I have been running 39/39 psi on the 23s.

FRONT #1

FRONT #2

 

[user 28803]

I'm at 3900mi and my 021 front is cupping a little. I've kept it at 39-40psi. Maybe I'll bump it to 42 and see what happens.

The stealership tried to tell me I need to replace it (they called while it was in for the 4k). The tech suggested I had run it under inflated. Nope. And, no, I don't want to buy a new tire. I already have my next set at the house, thanks.

 

[SkooterG]

I'm at 3900mi and my 021 front is cupping a little. I've kept it at 39-40psi. Maybe I'll bump it to 42 and see what happens.

The stealership tried to tell me I need to replace it (they called while it was in for the 4k). The tech suggested I had run it under inflated. Nope. And, no, I don't want to buy a new tire. I already have my next set at the house, thanks.

The 021 is known to be a POS tire that will not last long.

 

[user 28803]

I'm at 3900mi and my 021 front is cupping a little. I've kept it at 39-40psi. Maybe I'll bump it to 42 and see what happens.

The stealership tried to tell me I need to replace it (they called while it was in for the 4k). The tech suggested I had run it under inflated. Nope. And, no, I don't want to buy a new tire. I already have my next set at the house, thanks.

The 021 is known to be a POS tire that will not last long.

That's what I told the tech "Actually, I check the air before every ride and they've never been ridden under inflated. It's just a shit tire."

The cupping isn't that bad yet and there's still plenty of tread. We'll see how it looks after the SS/BB this weekend.

 

[phroenips]

a +1 on higher pressure. I do 42psi, and my 023GT has 10k miles. It could maybe go another 1000 miles or so, but with SW-FOG coming up, I'd rather not chance it

 

[gumba]

I'm on my second set of 23s non GT. They have shown all the normal signs of fucked tire wear but have handled really good right up to 10k (I mean really good) I went with the non GT because a friend advised that the GTs were hard to mount. Wanted a tire that isn't harsh. Running 42 front has made a big difference for me. I have spent a good amount of time on fork tube- front wheel axle placement- alignment. Got to get the stiction out to make 42 psi tolerable.

 

[Falko]

Thanks, all. Sounds like I'll cram a few more molecules of air in them and see if that helps. I went to the GT's as I thought they were more designed for the heavier bikes. Maybe I need a new tire gauge.

 

[escapefjrtist]

On my second set of 023GTs, at 6700 miles the wear is so even that other than the scuffed edges and thin tread, they look great. Road feel and tip in is still excellent, no front cupping or funky handling...basically I'm very happy with them. For comparison I'm running 41/42 for one-up, two-up, loaded or empty. Rear tire does have some trailing edge feathering, mostly due to me. This set looks to be good for another 1500 +/- miles. I can post pics tomorrow if anyone's interested.

I'm on my second set of 23s non GT. They have shown all the normal signs of fucked tire wear but have handled really good right up to 10k (I mean really good) I went with the non GT because a friend advised that the GTs were hard to mount. Wanted a tire that isn't harsh.

Don't know where your friend got his information, but the 023GTs are as easy to mount as PR2/3s, even *B* spec. IMO, the GT ride is better than Michelin new and a huge improvement at end of life. Try'em!

--G

 

[03silverbullet]

Mine is also starting to cup but I have 11,000 miles on it. It sure as hell wasn't cupping at 2,000. I too run higher pressures in the 41psi range. Though a couple times I did catch this one low in the 37 psi range. If I had been more diligent I might be seeing less cupping.

I'm not too concerned however as I am not experiencing any handling or ride issues with this cupped tire as I have with other tires. It doesn't have much life left anyways.

This is the first set I have run. I like them. Bought another set recently when on sale at BikeBandit.

I like the tire too, however at almost 11k it was shot with slight cupping. Not that many miles for a front tire.

The backs get relatively good mileage - approximately 7-8k miles before they need replacing.

The tires handle well.

 

[Fred W]

Falko,

I have no cupping and almost perfect wear on my BT-023s after 2700 miles. Here are photos of my front.

:huh: Ummm... I see definite cupping there, man. (easier to see on the right side of this picture) If you've got that in 2700 miles you might want to heed the advice given and raise the pressure a few psi to see if you can keep it from progressing further.

 

[Slardy]

Falko,

I have no cupping and almost perfect wear on my BT-023s after 2700 miles. Here are photos of my front.

:huh: Ummm... I see definite cupping there, man. (easier to see on the right side of this picture) If you've got that in 2700 miles you might want to heed the advice given and raise the pressure a few psi to see if you can keep it from progressing further.

How does one determine the correct tire pressure? With 39/40 psi, after a good warmup, my front tire pressure is 44 psi: a 10% increase. This is what I understand is optimum.

 

[RossKean]

Falko,

I have no cupping and almost perfect wear on my BT-023s after 2700 miles. Here are photos of my front.

:huh: Ummm... I see definite cupping there, man. (easier to see on the right side of this picture) If you've got that in 2700 miles you might want to heed the advice given and raise the pressure a few psi to see if you can keep it from progressing further.

How does one determine the correct tire pressure? With 39/40 psi, after a good warmup, my front tire pressure is 44 psi: a 10% increase. This is what I understand is optimum.

Tire specs are based upon cold inflation pressure.