Tire talk again.

Micheline Pilot 5 Radial on the rear - this is the goofy looking one with no siping on the sides. Have 5000 miles on it, and should get about 1000 more. Hope so - I leave on a 900 mile trip on Monday.
Michelin Commander II radial front. Again, have 5000 miles on it - looks good for at least another 2000.

Note that my miles are mostly high speed. Either fast vacation road trips (Tucson to Carmel last month for the Quail, about 2000 miles RT), or 30 miles of my 45 mile one way commute. I generally run slightly faster (80-85) than most traffic (75-80).

At $3/gallon, I actually spend about as much on tires as gasoline. So instead of 35 MPG, I get about 18 MPGWT (MPG with tires).

Crimeny - on a cost basis, may as well drive the Jeep Liberty - it also gets 18 MPG - as well as 75k on a set of tires. Nowhere near the fun though...

But other than going darkside (which still seems goofy to me), or swapping wheels and trying a bona fide GL1800 tire (which is on my project list, along with about 20 other things...), not much else to do.

I realize this post is now a month old, but I *finally* got my new tires on today.
I gave up on the Dunlops but got 12,000 miles out of them.
I went with these:

Rear: Michelin Road 5 - 180/55ZR17 73W
Front: Michelin Road 5 Trail - 120/70ZR19 60W

Ran me about $450 for the set and after the first couple of hours on them I have to say I like them a lot! Cornering is noticeably different with the narrower front so still getting used to that. Not sure if it is strictly the width or also tire shape, but the Dunlop felt more "stable", where the Michelin is effortless to add lean in either direction, instantly!

I've seen many reports of the Michelins (mostly the Road 4's) and that is part of what helped me make my decision. If you are still considering tires (e.g. haven't purchased yet) I am happy to offer any feedback or answer any questions about them.

bp, be sure to give report of performance at least several thousand miles from now. any new tire is going to feel different, aka better, well because its new and you just came off of worn out questionable tires. after a goodly amount miles and wear then the real behavior of the tire emerges. the real praise is at the end of a tires life. let us know how these go.


btw, I just topped 7k on this new sled ~7weeks. the front is quickly wearing flat on the left as expected. It might make it to 10k.? I have been looking at this front wheel and it appears I may be able to pull the axle and rotate the whole wheel and ride this tire backwards for another 2k'ish. the current right side becomes the new left side for additional tire tread wear.


before anybody gets their dander all up about reverse rotation tires / cords / wear, be advised I have done this before and I don't ride stupid. I know what I am doing.


as for left side early wear, flat spots. if you want to know how even minimal road crown does this, I will 'splain clearly. if you want to argue their isn't enough road crown to cause it, don't bother. poncho

use2b said:

I wonder why the left side does seem to wear more on the front?

Click to expand...

u2, skinny stock tires are most prone to this normal tire wear. left side flat flat spot. some even develop scallops that will "howl" when turning left as they slap the pavement. stock tires tend to be the cheapest the mfg can put on a scooter. but that it not "why" they wear to the left.


it IS the Road Crown of the pavement that causes this errant left side wear. All, most all pavement have some degree of road crown or tilt for drainage of rain water. Some will say that there is no crown or not enough to cause such a huge offset wear on the left side. The road surface does have some degree of tilt such that rain water does find its way to the side drainage with the exception of tire wear grooves made by heavy trucks.
It is not just this Tilt that causes the wear but rather How the bike must be Trimmed to keep it going down the road Straight. The road surface is not perpendicular to the center of the earth but has this offset tilt.
When you ride down the center of the lane and maintain some degree of straight running, you Must Imperceptibly tilt your bike a bit of degree to the left to keep it going straight.
If you could only hold the bike exactly perpendicular to the road surface (as you think you are) your path of travel would be affected by Gravity and in short order put you on the right shoulder. To counter effect this, you naturally lean your bike imperceptibly to the left to maintain something resembling of a straight line down the road.
this is much like the Trim Tabs on the Rudder of an Airplane, the pilot dials in a small degree of left pitch to correct for prop wash and sometimes crosswind. So that even the airplane is Yawed at an angle and appears to be Crabbing (flying skewed), it is maintaining a straight flight path in relation to ground.
Ok, this minimal offset you do without thinking, your front tire contact patch New Centerline is skewed to the left of center. but that is not the end of the story. If you pay attention to just the little movements in your ride-flight path, you will notice that the bike drifts to the right (left in oz) and you are continually giving little commands to bring the bike back up center of the line you are trying to maintain. What is happening is you are Constantly Climbing to the left at a microscopic rate that is scrubbing the left side tire tread even further beyond this new left-center of your tire,, considerably more so than the right side.
I would expect some of our aussie couz to chime in and give account of Right side front tire wear from having to do everything backward and upside down.. But then maybe because it doesn't ever rain (much) in Oz, they might have zero road crown and all their pavement is flat perpendicular to the center of the earth.? they do things funny down there when no one is watching. poncho