April last year, at 24,000 miles, my CT stopped holding air for some reason. It would hold enough air for a day or two, and then it got to where I'd have to check it a couple of times a day. it had been plugged two or three times, but none of the plugs bubbled soapy water, I spritzed around the bead and found the leak.
No clue why, after 4 years, it would start leaking at the bead, but it did, so I removed it. Found a tear in the rubber at that point, again, no clue how it tore under the rim. Wear bars were getting close to the surface but not there yet. The tire had at least 5K left on it, maybe 6 or 7.
My brother had some discards in my shed, and I mounted one of those as i was in an "emergency" replacement need. I went un-Dark for a while. I was ran that one down to the steel last week. A whole year out of it, but not a lot of miles, as my bike was disassembled for half of the year as I gathered transmission parts, split the case and fixed that issue. That tire only got 3200 miles, but like I said, it was a used discard, and it went farther than I expected.
Looked on Tire Rack earlier this week, found the same Dunlop Direzza DZ101 that I used previously now on closeout for 77 bucks. Shut up and take my money! Had the tire two days after placing the order, and mounted it last night, with soapy water and a set of
these. It went on much easier than I expected, and the hard part was getting the old tire off. I broke the bead by using furniture clamps to squish it as far as I could, then while so squished, I jacked up the front wheel of my car and set the wheel under it (supported with wood blocks) and let the car down on the sidewall of the squished tire. I took me about 2-1/2 hours from up on centerstand to rolling off.
Yes, a tire changer would be nice to have, but I don't have room for one, nor can I justify the cost of it, for a front tire every year or so.
So with hand tools and slippery liquid I have returned to the Dark Side!