I am getting ready to leave on a 4K trip and while I knew I probably should put new tires on, I decided to do some measurements to confirm.
Both my currently-mounted tires are 90-10 types, an OEM Tourance EXP on the front and a Bridgestone Battlewing on the back. Since I knew I'd need new tires either before or immediately after the trip, I went ahead and purchased new Battlewings so I was able to accurately measure the tread depth of the new tires.
Here are the tread depth measurements (done with a digital caliper tool):
New BW502 Front: 4.5 mm
New BW502 Rear: 8.25 mm
Worn Tourance EXP Front: 2.0 mm with 7300 miles
Worn BW502 Rear: 5.0 mm with 1900 miles
Assuming the front Tourance probably started out with about the same tread depth as the front Battlewing, you get the following tread wear rates:
Front: 2.5 mm in 7300 miles = .34 mm per 1K miles
Rear: 3.25 mm in 1900 miles = 1.7 mm per 1K miles
While I'm not surprised that the front wears more slowly, the fact its wear rate is only 20% of the rear is a bit surprising. And it illustrates why fronts don't go 5x as long; they have a lot less tread to start out with.
Assuming 1 mm as a minimum tread depth (this is typically where the wear bars are set at), you can extrapolate the following useful tire lifes:
Front: 3.5 mm / .34 = 10.3K miles
Rear: 7.25 mm / 1.7 = 4.3K miles
So it appears you can use a 2x front to a single rear strategy on the S10 successfully. Of the last few bikes I've owned, the S10 is the easiest on the front tire and makes this strategy pretty reasonable; on my FJR the front tire life was only slightly better than the rear and I usually replaced them in pairs.
Needless to say, even thought I hate changing tires before they are worn out, I'm changing them before I leave to avoid having to change a tire in the middle of nowhere.
As always, YMMV.
- Mark
Both my currently-mounted tires are 90-10 types, an OEM Tourance EXP on the front and a Bridgestone Battlewing on the back. Since I knew I'd need new tires either before or immediately after the trip, I went ahead and purchased new Battlewings so I was able to accurately measure the tread depth of the new tires.
Here are the tread depth measurements (done with a digital caliper tool):
New BW502 Front: 4.5 mm
New BW502 Rear: 8.25 mm
Worn Tourance EXP Front: 2.0 mm with 7300 miles
Worn BW502 Rear: 5.0 mm with 1900 miles
Assuming the front Tourance probably started out with about the same tread depth as the front Battlewing, you get the following tread wear rates:
Front: 2.5 mm in 7300 miles = .34 mm per 1K miles
Rear: 3.25 mm in 1900 miles = 1.7 mm per 1K miles
While I'm not surprised that the front wears more slowly, the fact its wear rate is only 20% of the rear is a bit surprising. And it illustrates why fronts don't go 5x as long; they have a lot less tread to start out with.
Assuming 1 mm as a minimum tread depth (this is typically where the wear bars are set at), you can extrapolate the following useful tire lifes:
Front: 3.5 mm / .34 = 10.3K miles
Rear: 7.25 mm / 1.7 = 4.3K miles
So it appears you can use a 2x front to a single rear strategy on the S10 successfully. Of the last few bikes I've owned, the S10 is the easiest on the front tire and makes this strategy pretty reasonable; on my FJR the front tire life was only slightly better than the rear and I usually replaced them in pairs.
Needless to say, even thought I hate changing tires before they are worn out, I'm changing them before I leave to avoid having to change a tire in the middle of nowhere.
As always, YMMV.
- Mark
As most of my mileage is interstate commuting, I have little wear on the sides and a massive flat spot up the middle. I ran them down to the indicators.
