If both tires are exactly the same size and make, which one will wear quicker, front or rear - with normal road use on a GS500?

I think the general rule for road use us two rear tyres for a front.

Thanks. Now that I think about it, it makes sense. The narrower front rim causes a smaller contact area, plus the front brake doing most of the work would wear the tire quicker.

I think you read herennow's post backwards. In general, you go through rear tires faster than front tires because the rear is the drive tire.

Its different for every tire but I've never seen a front wear as fast as a rear. With modern dual-compound rear tires they can last almost as long as a front tire, especially on lower powered bikes. On softer single compound tires it really is two rears for one front.

You are right. I made a mistake. Thanks for the correction.

So the rear wears faster, despite the front working hard during braking and the smaller contact area?  I can understand if that's the case with a one liter superbike, but is it still true for the GS500 with such low horsepower? I have not done enough mileage on my bike to see a trend.

Yeah, the front tires seem to last forever, like 12,000+ miles for sport touring tires. I usually have to replace them because of age before I wear them out because I don't ride enough. Rears last 6 - 10k miles for me and thats without running them all the way to the cords because I do a lot of riding in the cold and wet and don't want to push my luck. If I can get both tires to 10k miles I just replace both at that time for simplicity but usually the rear is all squared off and getting to the wear bars and the front looks mid-life.

The GS is pretty easy on tires and IMHO tires have gotten a lot better in the last 5 years so all this info might be out of date. I'm 5,000 miles into a set of Michelin Road 5s and both tires look almost new -- wearing much better than my last tires, Pirelli Sport Demons and TKC80s. TKCs are an amazing performing dual sport tire but notoriously short lived on the rear. Big adventure bikes are lucky to get 3,000 miles out of a rear but I could get 6,000+ on the GS.

I like using tires that use tread pattern for grip rather than compound stickiness. After my stint of 8K+ on the train wings on my bolt, that feeling has been reinforced. You want to get 15K out of a rear, put on trailwings 140/70-17 like on the scr I got, and run a sticky front, braking is far more important really.
Cool.
Buddha.

Thanks for the input, guys. I really appreciate it.

Reason I asked is that I have one new and one almost new tire. Got the latter at a third of the price of a new one - so couldn't refuse. Both are the same size Kenda Big Block 130/80-17. So I want to put the slightly used tire where it will get the least wear, which now turns out to be the front.

As you can see, it's almost new. Only been on grass, according to the seller.

That looks like a hard core dirt tire. I would look at a trail wing and compare, the knobs being angled and not straight across.
The hard straight across is going to do 2 things that I would find undesirable.
Rain may be a problem, remember tread pattern has to let rain squeeze out center outward thats why the inverted /|\ where it makes contact with the ground - remember when you brake and lock up it should let water flow out that's the general idea - that may not happen well, but your tread depth would let you penetrate it I would think.
The 2nd is you're going to get a more rough ride because each tread set takes over from the previous one at the same time. Would it matter ? and would you feel it ? Maybe not. Run em and check.
Cool.
Buddha.

Quote from: The Buddha on April 15, 2021, 07:14:31 AM
That looks like a hard core dirt tire.

The Kenda Big Blocks are advertised as 60% on / 40% off road. And I don't use the bike to commute, so chances of riding in the rain is very remote. As to ride quality, I'll just have to see and accept it for what it is. I'll know in a week or so.

I'm installing an R6 rear shock and hope that it will dampen out some rough feedback from the rear.

To me that R6 shock was harsher than a cheap crap audio system playing Kamala Harris's Laugh on infinite loop.

In fact the shock you may want to think of is the GSXR750 showa unit with the large can remote reservoir (not piggy pack) But good luck finding one of those intact nowadays. It needs to have what is called "bump" dampening. Now that may not be enough or even required. Play with air pressures in the tires within safe limits. That may help more than anything else.

Cool.
Buddha.

Well I hope my experience is different to you yours with the harshness of the R6 shock.

I have the 2011 model with black coil spring and it's adjustable in four ways: Preload, Rebound, Low speed compression and High speed compression.

Thanks for the tip about tire pressure. If all else fails, I'll try that.

That's more adjustments than a Chiropractor convention.

One of those I think high speed compression is the one called bump.

But in spite of that I think the showa GSXR750 and R6 shocks are stiff as a mofo, and that was when I was 240lb. Now that I'm barely tipping 170, and soaking wet in full riding gear may be 180. The kat 600 is all I'll ever run, if no kat6 is available I'll run the stock.

Cool.
Buddha.

And you're right all the R6 shocks I had dealt with were those red or was it blue spring I think.
You know when they start painting the mechanical parts to match the body color you know some crap is up.
Is the 2011 one also piggy back ? Or is it remote reservoir ?

The ride height can be adjusted which IMHO was the biggest factor I didn't like those, the chain hitting the swingarm on the power side is a huge no no IMHO.
The best part of the kat shock was that it was going to leave the ride height where the chain and everything else was exactly like stock, but the GS rear shock was built for a 120lb rider, and a 240lb porker like me smushed it, but kat was built well for a kat which is 80-100lb heavier more unsprung weight and built for a 180lb rider and possibly a passenger. Perfect for 180-240lb on a GS. Basically the difference between stock GS and with kat shock was when fully loaded.

Cool.
Buddha.

I notice that my reply yesterday went missing with the maintenance work on the server. I'll try and remember what I posted...

Here is the 2011 R6 shock with black spring that I have. Would it differ much from the red spring model? Guess not.

You need to grind the linkage to clear that bottom clevise - certainly not deep enough to compensate for the steel linkage, and otherwise fit it and see what your chain and ride height etc etc looks like.
Cool.
Buddha.