Tire/Tyre life.

[Cal Price]

Well, I just fixed my puncture, plugged from the inside. This prompted me to inspect both tyres very closely. The  "Wear Bars" on both are just starting to hint at their presence. Back slightly more than front so I shall be shopping around for some BT45s or similar very soon. The point being that they are the stock ones from new, just less than 6000 miles on the clock seems P*** poor to me or is that reasonable ? what mileage would you expect from a set of road tyres ?

[tdan553527]

I would think you would get alot more than that, I got 12,000 out of the front, and it could still go another 4-5000 easily, the rear BT45 that was on my bike had about 8000 on it and could have gotten another 1500-2000 out of it. I replaced them with some fresh AVON AM51/52's for my trip to Deals Gap coming up. Not sure how many miles I'll get out of the Avons.

[scratch]

That sounds about right for stock tires on most bikes, don't feel bad, they're just old tires; they get get worn when they get worn.

I just ordered a set of the Avon's, AM51/52. On my BT45's the rear had squared off at 8000 miles, but it still handles good; and it's only worn down to the wear bars on half the circumference at 11,000. The front is cracking in the sipes because I overpressurized by .5psi (33.5, shoulda been 33 (on a 110/80)), has really bad cupping from braking in the corners because of bikes in front of me, and the left is worn more than the right because of crowned roads, but the center sipe is pristine!

[gsJack]

Cal, I forgot what year your bike is but can tell you from experience that old dried out tires can wear in half the miles or less than those that are still soft.

My OEM tires went about 8k miles and were replaced by BT45s and the rear BT45 went about 9.5k miles.  A second BT45 later on went about half as far due to pushing it much harder than the first.  Tire life can vary greatly based on age of tire and how hard it is used.  My front BT45s both went 13-14k miles.  

After 3 years and 3 sets of sport touring radials, I just ordered a set of the Avon AM51/52 bias ply tires that will be here next tuesday.  They seem to be very popular here now.  Think I'll try them on the 02 GS first since it needs tires now and if I don't like the handling compared to the radials, I'll put them on the 97 which needs tires before next winter. Will get a better idea of tire life faster on the 02.

I really want to lower my 02 GS back down to standard heighth with OEM size tires as it has been about 3/4" taller with the sport touring radials in 110/80 and 140/80 sizes.  Getting a little harder each year to get my arthritic hip up over it.   :lol:

[gsJack]

PS-  If you are most interested in milage over handling, I used to run Dunlop K291 and their replacement K491 tires on the rear of my small 400-750cc bikes and got 25-30k miles from them.  The Metzeler ME88 now replaced by the ME880 would last 15-20k miles.  I was not happy with the K491 rear on the GS500 at all, broke loose to easily.  The ME88 was about as good as the BT45 handlingwise and went about 17k miles.  These touring tires come in 130/90 size and raise rear of bike about 1".
The sport-touring radials went about 14k miles for me.

[Cal Price]

The bikes is June '03 and to be honest I welcome the "excuse" to change the stock tyre, I was just a bit surprised at 6k. I'm not exactly heartbroken.
I was asking my local father-son-and-his-dog bike shop about BT45 and he is doing his best to sell me some German ones, "Internationals" I think that are currently on offer at about 25% less than BT45s. I recon there's a couple of hundred laeft in the rear so I'll start looking around.

[Kerry]

Cal, what ARE the stock tires on an '03 GS500 sold in the UK?

The stock tires on my '99 were Bridgestone Exedras (may they rest in peace).  I can't remember now how worn they were when I replaced them, but I swapped the rear tire out at just below 5,200 miles and the front at 9,600.

[Cal Price]

Kerry,

Surprise surprise, Bridgestone Excedra G550/G547.

[gsJack]

The bikes is June '03 and to be honest I welcome the "excuse" to change the stock tyre, I was just a bit surprised at 6k. I'm not exactly heartbroken.
I was asking my local father-son-and-his-dog bike shop about BT45 and he is doing his best to sell me some German ones, "Internationals" I think that are currently on offer at about 25% less than BT45s. I recon there's a couple of hundred laeft in the rear so I'll start looking around.

My 97 sat in the showroom for 2 years befere I bought it and the tires were already cracking a bit between the treads and on the sidewalls.  Just didn't seem right to a thrifty fella like myself to throw away new tires so I put the 8k miles on them in 4 months without any really high speed riding.  It was shortly after I put the BT45s on that I became a child again.   :lol:   Think you'll like the 45s on the GS.

[Cal Price]

Good enough for me Jack, 45s it is then

[Anonymous]

Cal,

For what it's worth I use the 45s too.  I get about 10,000 out of the rear (mostly bald in the middle by the time I take it off) and I'll probably get 20,000 out of the front.  I'm not REAL agressive but I don't ride like an old man either.  I do about 1/2 two up riding with a little over 300 lbs total weight.

[jake42]

Hey guys, I haven't been around for awhile (damn semester), but thought I'd chime in on this one.  I bought pirelli sport demons in stock size in the summer of 2003 and the cneter on the back is completely bald already and that's after only about 2700-3000 miles. They are really soft tires, but I also have the katana shock on the back and I had the pressure set about 40 cold.  Don't know if that affected them or not, but I'm not too pleased with only 3000 miles.

jake

[500rider]

I just replaced my Metzler ME550 with a BT45 on the rear.  The BT45 seems as good or better than the Metzler.  I picked up a screw  in the Metzler on the first day out this year and it took me almost 2 weeks to get the tire replaced and back on the bike.  

Wouldn't you know it that it was the best two weeks of weather in southern Ontario's history for April.  Now that I have the tire back on it's snowed for the last three days.  At least I got one day of riding in b4 the snow.

The stock tires only lasted about 10 000 kms.  They were actually starting to crack so I replaced them with the Metzlers.  The Metzlers seemed better than OEM (after I wore off the mould release).

The BT45 had great traction from the start.  I washed it with soap and rinsed well before riding.