losing my mind looking for tires

[JOHNDADDY]

Good for you Marty, and I mean that positively.
Not here! No good shops.
Swear on my albums I'd get 3 years on a Conti as a daily driver if she were straight, often times more.
A mount and balance now is min 60$ if you bought the tire. 40$ if you get it through them.
That's without strips and tubes.
My buddy paid a hundred last year for a mount and balance on his Dyna, FM
Ridiculous, I'll do it my self.
Got the front tire today and the rear tube, naturally.
The rear and front should be here by next Friday. Yup, perfect.
This weekend is putting wheel bearings is the wife's Subaru anyway so, yay me!
Don't know how tis turned into a book but it is what it is.
I'll do pics as I do or at least when I'm done.
Damn these tires are ugly as Hell!! It'll work.
Night All.
JD

 

[Kevin Werner]

Don't know how tis turned into a book but it is what it is.

WE all expect different things from tires. In the 70s and 80s I read the M/C press religiously and magazines had side by side tire testing with one bike, one rider and multiple tires mounted for track testing. And I consumed that info voraciously. I presumed I was as good as the best tires. Now the worst tires are far better than I.

 

[JOHNDADDY]

Didn't get to do pics putting tires on.
Shinko's 777
The front went on first, the rear not delivered yet,
took it for a ride,
not happy.
Squirmed all over the place on the seams and patches in the road
but that was with the bald rear. I put the new rear on,
GREIF for 3 days after work trying to get that bitch straight.
Finally got it right.
A couple'a short shake downs and tightening things down
good to go. Took it out today, she felt squirrely.
I don't like the looks of these tires to begin with, so I'm already biased,
20mi in, I guess the rear warmed up and yippie! Go daddy go! Waay happy!
Still ugly as sin but...
They are new and round, I don't get a chance to drive aggressive enough to
keep them that way so we;ll see how they do as a square car tire as time goes on.
So far so good.
Oh and by the way, MF SOB popped 2 tubes getting the front mounted.
I have never popped a tube in my life and that includes bicycles,
using the ends of cresent wrenches or rusty screwdrivers or whatever was at hand.
Spray silicone and is your friend

 

[Grewth]

Maybe twenty years ago, I fitted Mitas/Barum tyres on my Honda CB550F.
Totally reliable bike, in the best Honda tradition, but , for a 550, it was dead slow, and boring to boot.
Nevertheless it's mediocre power output started to pull the carcass of the rear tyre apart, well before the tread was worn off.
Tyres never felt 100% safe to me, like they'd have been much happier on a smaller lighter bike.
Took them off and junked them before something nasty happened.
After reading all of this thread, I'm still undecided on what tyres to go for

 

[jetmechmarty]

After reading all of this thread, I'm still undecided on what tyres to go for

I believe to the greatest extent, you get what you’re willing to pay for. As I said, I’m good with the Dunlop 404, but at 4,000 miles, the rear tire is worn to limits. More miles are going to mean more $$. There are a lot of good tires available. It’s striking that balance of $$ to miles that is the challenge.

 

[Grewth]

I think that the problem with me is that the world is changing too fast for me to keep up.
Went I find a brand/type of tyre that I'm happy with, I might get through a few sets, and then the bloody things are out of production, NLA, something else is now flavour of the month.
I remember when Kenda tyres first started appearing in the UK, they were promptly nicknamed "Kenda Killers" by everyone I knew.
They really were terrible quality then, almost made from Teflon, only old men bought them for ride to work bikes.
Probably very different now.
And CS tyres, Chen Shin. Regarded with the upmost suspicion, until people started using them for production racing.

 

[Its been a long time]

I fairly recently had a pair of Mitas tyres fitted. Only because the Dunlops were about 2x the price. They'll be rotten before I do enough miles to wear them out!

 

[Grewth]

I fairly recently had a pair of Mitas tyres fitted. Only because the Dunlops were about 2x the price. They'll be rotten before I do enough miles to wear them out!

They should be fine if you don't like blasting it everywhere.
I had aftermarket cast alloy wheels on that 550 Four, dunno if that made a difference, but the rear tyre started to crack between the treads after 4,000 miles or so.
And it was getting worse every week.
Not good, and I didn't feel safe keeping them any longer.
Maybe just a Monday Morning tyre, if there is such a thing, just a freak quality lapse.
I've got a new set on a pair of XS1 wheels that I bought.
Fingers crossed.

 

[jetmechmarty]

I just replaced my front tire. A Dunlop 404. I got 8,000 miles out of the one I just removed.

 

[Dunc]

I run Michelin on all of my vehicles. I suppose working for the Michelin Asia/Pacific Motorsport tyre supplier I'm a bit biased.