ROAD ONLY tyres for BIG TRIP

[morganzola]

Hello. Help please !!.. I could do with some help in selecting the right tyres for tarmac only, for my recently acquired brand spanking new Super Ten ZE ( with the electrifying new suspenders... which are great ). Along with some friends we are doing a 3 week trip touring the USA, 400 to 500 mile days. A once in a lifetime trip for me. Our bikes will be shipped to the east coast, we then ride to the west coast, go down the west coast before riding back to east coast. Approx 10,000 miles. I want to start the trip with new tyres in the hope that I will need only one tyre change on the trip. To achieve this I need a tyre that can go 5000 miles before changing. Can anyone out there come up with first hand experiences of tyre mileages for our bikes. As I never venture off tarmac Sport touring tyres with their good in the wet and dry capability obviously are appealing, and would ordinarily be my first choice, but I am worried that the rears might not get the mileage. I weigh 238 lbs, plus 30 lbs of luggage will be on board. I wont be hooning around too much, mostly with my chilled touring head on. The bike now has OEM Bridgestone Battlewings which I am reasonably impressed with, but to date have only put 1500 miles on this bike. I would be happy to replace with these if I knew they would do the mileage( they look OK but I have been caught out like this before ).
Any suggestions (helpful ones) greatly appreciated.

 

[frez]

I can't give you Super Tenere mileage as I've only done 8000 miles on mine, but I put 64,000 on my DL650 over the previous 2.5 years and tried various tyres, this is what I got on the DL650:

Pilot Road 3: 15,600 front, 12,200 rear
Road Attack 2: 12,600 front, 8,400 rear
Anakee 2: 9,800 front and rear
Anakee 3: 8,800 front and rear

A lot will depend on how you ride it. If you are doing a lot of constant speed highway then you are not going to be wearing them much, if you are doing more point and squirt on rural roads then you are going to wear them quicker.

The Pilot Road 4s are supposed to be more hard wearing than the Pilot Road 3s. I have the 4s on my Super Tenere now and they offer excellent grip wet or dry. Whether the rear will last 10,000 miles on the Super Tenere is hard to say, a lot will depend on your right wrist and the the road surface.

 

[Checkswrecks]

I can't give you Super Tenere mileage as I've only done 8000 miles on mine, but I put 64,000 on my DL650 over the previous 2.5 years and tried various tyres, this is what I got on the DL650:

Pilot Road 3: 15,600 front, 12,200 rear
Road Attack 2: 12,600 front, 8,400 rear
Anakee 2: 9,800 front and rear
Anakee 3: 8,800 front and rear

A lot will depend on how you ride it. If you are doing a lot of constant speed highway then you are not going to be wearing them much, if you are doing more point and squirt on rural roads then you are going to wear them quicker.

The Pilot Road 4s are supposed to be more hard wearing than the Pilot Road 3s. I have the 4s on my Super Tenere now and they offer excellent grip wet or dry. Whether the rear will last 10,000 miles on the Super Tenere is hard to say, a lot will depend on your right wrist and the the road surface.

If you want the PR4s, then you want the PR4 Trails. There was a discussion awhile ago about how Michelin found that the big trail bikes create a wider flat spot than the harder center rubber of the dual compound tires. There are a couple of threads on ADVRIDER about the PR4 Trails and people are getting good mileage. Look especially in the BMW GS threads.


My best mileage so far was 17,000 on a set of K60s.

 

[Dallara]

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Since we are talking about tire mileage on a Super Tenere I will stick to just my tire experiences in the 40,000+ miles I've had on mine.

My S-10 was delivered with Metzeler Tourance EXP's right out of the box, and I got 5,800 miles out of the first rear, 5,500 out of a second, and 11,000+ miles out of that first front. Since I thought that was great mileage given the performance they gave me I stuck with them for another few tire changes.

Then, mostly just to try something else, I had a set of Michelin Anakee 3's mounted. I was grossly disappointed in those tires, and not just with their lack of rear edge grip and weird noises, but also in their mileage. Oh, the rear did fine concerning mileage, rolling up over 7,000 miles, and probably could have gone another 1,000 to 1,500 miles beyond that. The only problem was the front was worn to the cords at 7,000 miles... Whereas with the Metzeler Tourance EXP's I was always able to get two rears out of one front tire, with the Michelin Anakee 3's I couldn't get the front to even go the full mileage of the rear tire. That's abysmal.

So now I have a set of Metzeler Tourance NEXT tires mounted on there... And at the moment they now have 4,230 miles on them. Looking at them I'd have to say the rear is going to do right about the same as most of my previous Metzeler Tourance EXP's - around 5,500 to 5,800 miles - though it *might* make 6,000 or so. The front, OTOH, appears to me to be wearing slightly faster than the ol' EXP's did. It will probably go 9,000 to 10,000 miles, but then again it's hard to gauge at this point. It may go 11,000 or more like the EXP's did.

Point of all this? None, really, other than to say I'd recommend you stay away from Michelin Anakee 3's, and that either of Metzeler's current Tourance tires should serve your trip parameters as you outlined them, with the front making the entire trip and you having to swap out the rear for a new one somewhere just past halfway.

Hope this helps, and have a great trip! ::008::

Dallara




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[Ironhand]

A buddy of mine consistently gets 10,000 miles out of non-EXP Tourance rears on his GSA.

 

[Rasher]

I too got about 5k from Tourance EXP's (on S10 and a GS)

Roadsmart 2's grip a little better, not that I could push past Exp's limits, but track tests have shown the premium road tyres trounce the Dual Purpose ones - especially in the wet.

The RS2's last a bit better than the Tourance EXP's (about 20% longer in my experience) and as I like them a lot I am about to put another pair on, was tempted by Road Attack 2's as I was expecting the Conti's to be about 10% cheaper - but they were only a few quid less so I will stick with what I know works.

PR4's may also be a great choice, but in the UK are normally another £20 on top of the Dunlop price and I doubt they will last the extra 10% required to recover the cost, reviews showed the earlier PR3 ahead on wet grip and behind on dry grip to the RS2 - but the Dunlop and Michelins were very close - and a long way ahead of all others apart from the Conti RA2, Bridegestone / Pirreli seem to be falling behind in the tyre tech war (or at least for "normal" road tyres.

Bridgestone also do 023's in S10 sizes, but they came out way behind in comparison tests for both wet and dry grip.

 

[frez]

I put RS2s on my DL650 before I gave it to my son when I bought the Super Tenere. I'd say they are slightly worse in the wet than the PR3s, marginal though, dry grip was never an issue for me on either tyre. The RS2 tyres are still on the bike so I cant say what longevity is like, but it looks like they may come in a little behind the PR3s.

The PR3s I used on the wee and the PR4s I'm using now were both the trail version of the tyre.

I got 5300 miles on the Tourance EXPs on the Super Tenere.

 

[lincolnrider]

Unless you have a really agressive right wrist and with only 1500 miles on the battlewings, they will make it with only one replacement set starting with the set you have on it. 6000 to 8000 miles per set easily.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Unless you have a really agressive right wrist and with only 1500 miles on the battlewings, they will make it with only one replacement set starting with the set you have on it. 6000 to 8000 miles per set easily.

Agreed.



[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]There are a couple of things I'm a bit confused by, though.
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]One is that you are planning a 10,000 mile trip, so why would you just want tires good for 5,000? Especially if you aren't planning to go "hooning" around. Even my OEM Battlewings got 10k[/font]. (Hooning - a word that is driving my spell checker crazy)

[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Second is that you like the sport touring tires for the grip, but again don't plan to "hoon" around. If not running twists hard, the harder and potentially longer lasting mixed use tires ought to give you both better miles and the use you want. That opens up a range of tires made for the bike, including a fresh set of Battlewings, PR4, Tourance variants, Contis, and even the Heidenaus.[/font]


[/font]

I'd recommend you stay away from Michelin Anakee 3's, and that either of Metzeler's current Tourance tires should serve your trip parameters as you outlined them, with the front making the entire trip and you having to swap out the rear for a new one somewhere just past halfway.

+1 on steering clear of the Anakee 3. I've got a set now and can't wait for them to burn off.

 

[morganzola]

Thanks to all of you that have replied. You have all been most helpful.

The feedback has all been very informative. It appears I can leave the OEM battlewings on to be sure of making the half way mark and possibly a good deal more. This will be my default if I can`t be sure of the mileage for stickier rubber. However I am looking for as much grip as I can get and am prepared to sacrifice mileage , just as long as the tyres will get me half way round (approx 5K miles) before changing. This might seem wasteful, but for me I like to know I have the grip/peace of mind, for wet rides that the sports touring tyres have. I Also know that I do not always have the self discipline to stop me letting rip occasionally on the twisties. I also know that nice dry twisties can suddenly throw up wet sections, just when you are starting to enjoy yourself

I usually get through rears fairly quickly on my other bikes (if I can get 4000 miles from a BT 023 I am doing well) due to I think a combination of my weight and a heavy throttle hand. On the trip in question I can moderate my throttle hand to increase mileage, but getting rid of the weight is probably not going to happen. Apart from me being heavy the S10 is no lightweight. My local bike dealer tells me he has had a few PR4s returned with tearing rubber on the rear tyres. He is recommending Bridgestone T30`s above all the other alternatives,for reliability, but wont be drawn on the mileage.

For CHECKSWRECKS............ "Hooning"...in the west of England where I live it means the same as.."giving it the beans".."letting rip"....."going for it".. enjoying the performance of your machine........not quite "BANZAI" though. BANZAI is strictly for the fast group on track days,on race rubber and on a bike you don`t mind chucking up the road.

 

[Don in Lodi]

I know this is meant to be a tire thread, but the destinations, times listed, miles/day listed, ummm, I don't think you're going to have a chance to do more than run freeways and see freeway attractions. You'll have a couple extra days to play, but sight see? Down time? Dunno. You'll need to double your miles at least a few times to gain days. Not much need for sticky tires when slabbing it.
Shipping the bikes... air or boat? Air freight to Seattle or Sandy Eggo or something like that, see the west coast, have extra time to wander back to the east coast, actually see things. Eliminate one 3000 mile 5-6 day slog across country. Add two thousand miles of wandering. You're in the States, gotta see some National Treasures... that aren't necessarily along major corridors.

All these essentially sport tires, sheesh. Just for slabbing it, fair sport touring, I've often wondered if something like the Touring tire from Metzeler, the 880 Marathon has our sizes. Always handled great and wore into the mid ten thousands on my last Heavy, a hard pressed Royal Star.

Maybe way late, just my two cents.

 

[Dallara]

All these essentially sport tires, sheesh. Just for slabbing it, fair sport touring, I've often wondered if something like the Touring tire from Metzeler, the 880 Marathon has our sizes. Always handled great and wore into the mid ten thousands on my last Heavy, a hard pressed Royal Star.

Just for the record, Don... And I may be wrong... But if memory serves me correctly, the only rear Metzeler ME880 that even comes close to fitting the 150/70-17 size on the Super Tenere is a 160/70-17, and it is designed to fit a Harley-type "Safety Bead Rim", not the conventional rim on our Super Tenere's. Likewise, factory specs call for a 110/80-19 for the front of our bikes, whereas the Metzeler ME880 front tires only come in the taller 100-90-19 and 110/90-19 sizes... Neither of which is an ideal match for our rims.

Just FYI...

Dallara



~

 

[Don in Lodi]

No 140s? Bummer. Woulda made a great road tire.


LOL, Beads schmeads, don't even want to mention the Dark Side here, do we. ::025::

 

[Dallara]

No 140s? Bummer. Woulda made a great road tire.


LOL, Beads schmeads, don't even want to mention the Dark Side here, do we. ::025::

Amen, Bruddah! Amen! ::008::

I agree with you - the ME880 would have made a terrific long distance road tire for the Super Tenere, which is exactly what I thought when I looked into them. I had remembered they made 880's in 19" and 17" sizes, so back when I was compiling my list of various tires I might put on my Super Tenere for various types rides, I had it down as a possible if I were ever to do some mega-mile around-the-country, etc. jaunt... But then when I looked into it further I found they didn't *really* make anything in the 880 that would be an ideal fit. I guess the sizes they offer would work, but I'd actually want to measure the 880's up close and personal to make sure there wouldn't be any issues.

Of course, all of that research I did on the 880's was a couple of years ago... It is possible they have some new sizes I am unaware of.

On another note, for the OP, I have heard good things about the relatively new Bridgestone T30 sport-touring tire. If you are going to be sticking to pavement only, with maybe just some dirt and gravel roads tossed in, the T30's might be worth taking a look at, and they do come in Super Tenere sizes.

Dallara



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[jimmy z]

I am currently running metz 880 rear 160/70/17 reinforced.On front im running metz 880 110/90/19.Same reason for me,long road trip.Fair warning metz reinforced rear is quite slippery on wet pavement.

 

[Don in Lodi]

Ha! The 160 clears. I remember my HBs didn't like wet paint, tar stripes, tracks, manhole covers... LOL. I wonder if the standard ones do better. Don't need that much reinforcing. Most are under a #1000 loaded. The Royal and I were over without gear.

 

[Dallara]

~


Well, that's cool news, Jimmy Z! Thanks! ::008::

I'll have to put the 880's on my "will fit" list for the Super Tenere. Nice to know the option is there if a really, really long trip comes up on the horizon. Appreciate the warning on the wet weather characteristics, too. That's an important point.

That said, the ME880's should get wear like iron on a Super Tenere! How many miles do you have on your set, Jimmy Z, and how long does it look like they'll last?

Thanks again!

Dallara




~

 

[Bigbore4]

Whatever ya decide, and I think the Battlewings will do okee dokee (got 10k plus out of mine), if your route brings you to Minnesota, I have tools tire machine balance etc. We are smack dab in the middle of North America, about as far as you can get from salt water. Any help ya need holler out.

Be advised, I am a heathen, I put ice in my Whiskey.

 

[morganzola]

Ok so now I am thinking bridgestones T30 or 023 will be reliable and give the grip I want/crave. Does anyone have any experience of these tyres mileages on the Super ten, and if its not too personal how much do you weigh ? and how do you ride ?. I have had 023`s before on a BMW K1300 GT and only got 4K out of the rears, but that bike was also heavy and had to put lots of horses through the tyre.

As I said before, if I cant get enough info to make me feel fairly certain I can get 5K out of a rear I will stick with the OEM battlewings and have to live with the lower grip.

Many thanks for everyones input.

 

[hANNAbONE]

JustBob may chime in here - but he has been running with some serious mileage the Michelin Pilot 4 I believe...

He loves 'em.!

Tarmac only for him (*and me*) -- it'll be my next tire

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/64927/i/michelin-pilot-road-4-rear-tire