Front vs Rear Tire Wear

[RossKean]

Reminder. This thread is specifically about Front vs. Rear Tire Wear.
As with most threads on this forum, you want to veer off topic and talk about other things than the thread subject....please start another thread or use one of the many, Many, MANY existing threads generically about tire wear, tire brands etc.

Thanks.

The Management

While I agree that the subject can easily veer off topic (and has), I wouldn't say that tire brand is irrelevant. It is one variable that may affect longevity of front vs rear along with things like riding habits, road condition, temperature and tire pressures. I have definitely found that relative F vs R lifetimes are different based upon brand.

 

[redneckj]

Ross, I agree 100%. Tire brand could have a lot to do with uneven F to R wear. That should never be overlooked. My PR3's wore pretty even. The Angels and t30's wore 3/2 fronts to rears.

 

[FjrVfr]

I burn the fronts faster, at least I did for my first 130K on FJRs. Oddly, I just changed out the Metzelers that I bought on Spud's special deal and the rear was worse off than the front. I have no explanation.

 

[JamesW]

Unless I have caught a flat I change tires as sets anyway.

 

[art miller]

I have been running Michelin PR2's until I could no longer get 190/55 rear in Pr2. I was getting a few more miles on the fronts than the rear tires. Now I am running PR4's and the wear seems to be very close front and rear. Current set has 5,000 miles on them and the front has 3/32 and rear 5/32. When new I measured 5/32 on front and 7/32 on rear. I am running 39psi F and 42psi R. Riding conditions is about 50% slab 50% twisties. I try to avoid breaking on curves using engine to slow by downshifting.

Just returned from a 700 mile ride with a friend who has a 2014A. His bike has just under 5,000 miles on the clock and the front tire was showing thread on original Bridgestone. He is running 36psi F and 42psi R.

 

[Fred W]

The 36 psi front recommended in the owners manual is too low for the amount that these bikes weigh, IMO. That will definitely cause the front to wear faster than the rear, and will have the bike steering like a truck no matter what tire is on there.

Since this is essentially the same bike that my '05 FJR was, I knew better than to run the stock Bridgestones at anything but 40F / 42R, and I got the same mileage out of those OE tires that I usually get, which is about 9k from rears and 12-13k front.

When you spoon your own tires on, not changing them at the same time is no hardship. It's actually a bit nicer to split the job up to occur at different times. The only down side is having to setup and take down my cycle hill changer more often, but that isn't all that much of a hassle.

 

[RossKean]

I chance them when they are worn and not necessarily in pairs. I have to admit that I rather enjoy the feel of new rubber on front and rear when the two tires are done at the same time!

 

[puppychow]

9K rear and 12K front? My wallet would love to get those kind of mileages. Sorry if this is off-topic slightly, but the most I have wrung out of a PR2 rear is 6.5K, and T30-GT rear is 5.5K. PR2 fronts and T30-GT fronts have more or less worn equally, with PR2 mileages being higher - perhaps max is 9K out of the fronts, usually less.

 

[BrianT]

With only 3500 miles on my 16 ES so far and on the OEM tires, the rear tire is wearing significantly faster than the front. Must be the magical FJR motor and right wrist. Since you mentioned past experience on BMW's I'll include mine as well. On my K12GT with PR4's I was seeing pretty even wear between both tires and sometimes the front wearing slightly faster than the rear with an uneven wear pattern on it. So far the FJR front seems to be wearing better than K12GT front did. It might just come down to tire brand and model though.

 

[HotRodZilla]

Make sure your pressures are set correctly. The pressures recommended by the owner's manual are too low. 41 or 42 front and 43 rear is a good place to start. +/- a pound or two.

 

[Bill Lumberg]

Plus one. And those are cold pressures.

 

[art miller]

This may have been discussed at some point so pardon me if I ask again. Has anyone run a PR2 on front and PR4 on rear? I have had very good wear experience with PR2's but Michelin no longer offers 190/55 size in PR2. I am running 39psi in front and the wear pattern is becoming uneven. I did not have that issue with PR2 front tires. I would up the pressure but I weigh 145lbs and I think 39psi should be adequate.

 

[RossKean]

I have not tried the PR2 front with anything but a PR2 rear so I can't help with the specific question. I have, however, run a few of these front tires and found them to be noisy after a couple thousand miles and developed a pronounced trapezoidal profile faster than most dual compound front sport touring tires.

 

[HotRodZilla]

This may have been discussed at some point so pardon me if I ask again. Has anyone run a PR2 on front and PR4 on rear? I have had very good wear experience with PR2's but Michelin no longer offers 190/55 size in PR2. I am running 39psi in front and the wear pattern is becoming uneven. I did not have that issue with PR2 front tires. I would up the pressure but I weigh 145lbs and I think 39psi should be adequate.

In my opinion, get away from the PR tires. After the PR2, longevity was no longer a priority. The PR3 was trash, and because of that, I won't use a PR4, unless I have to. To be fair, the tire felt good, but no longevity. At the price of those tires, I expected more. Lots of people are running the Bridgestone T30 Evo GT. Until that tire, I was done with BT's tires, but I'm on my second set and love them. Good price, good wear, and they ride WELL. I just hammered mine at The Dragon, the Cherohala, and other roads east. Never slipped, and never had an issue.

All the weird sipes on the PR3s and 4s cause weird wear. At Michelin's price point, those tires should be way better. They seem more gimmicky than anything.

 

[Fred W]

I agree. I don't like any Pilot Road tires on the front due to the way that they wear.

The PR4 rear tires pricing is whacked out. Using Jake Wilson pricing (known to be among the cheapest) you can buy a PR2 rear for $151, a PR4 for $182, or a PR4 GT for $194

Since I know that I can average 9k miles on a PR2 that would mean that I would have to get 10,850 miles on a PR4 or 11,560 miles on a PR4 GT... just to break even.

Or... you could buy a T30 GT EVO from Jake for just $145 shipped! Not sure how long those bad boys last yet. I think that will be my next rear tire.

 

[BigOgre]

Just as another data point, I went 12,400 on both my rear PR4 GT and the front T30 EVO before changing them out a couple of months ago. A lot of slab and probably could have gotten a little more out of them locally but the rear was feeling hard and the front was singing in the turns. Actually I noticed the rear feeling hard somewhat earlier so because of that combined with always riding solo and 'trying' to pack lighter on trips, I opted for the same setup but with the non-GTs front and rear this time around. So far so good but then again new tires always feel great. Curious to see if there's any significant change in mileage.

 

[sporto]

...and have never had a front tire wear out before the rear. On average it is 2 rears to one front for me.

^^^ Ditto