BEST tires for the money

Drift1 · January 02, 2014, 21:17:10 PM

JMBO I'd say new shoes are a must . Man sure glad you spotted the front tire problems before you had serious issues , brother Seems tires are a hot topic this off season this year . I'm also going to be in the market for a new set of www once I pick up the new to me 1500 from pilgrim .

jmbo · January 02, 2014, 21:12:18 PM

Baby needs new shoes!!. I have the bike apart getting ready for paint. Once I pulled the rear fender off it became obvious that I needed a new rear tire. I quibbled about the front because the tread was good and couldn't read the date code while the tire was on the bike. Front tire is now off and first, there is a crack in the sidewall (not good!) and second, I finally got a good look at the date code. It's an original tire from 1999 (Holy Crap!!). Actually the date code predates the bike by a year. Needless to say baby gets a new pair of shoes.

John Hopkins · January 02, 2014, 10:00:26 AM

Quote from: greenbarn on December 31, 2013, 22:20:16 PM
It's a strange thing - nobody that wholesales auto tires also has m/c stuff. Don't now why... I don't see many motorcycle shops selling truck tires, either, I guess...

Think about it, it's not strange at all..why was this post started, because there are so many motorcycle tire makes, sizes, and prices available, then add white walls and tubed, tubeless..For me Avon Venom's are the best tubeless tire, if a tire holds the road in any weather with my type of riding it is good, for the 1500 I will only use Michelin Commander II's..but some prefer Metzlers, or Bridgestock, Pirrelli are in there somewhere then Continental there are many far eastern very cheap tires for those sunny sunday trips after church riders.

And don't forget tires are date marked so they have to be sold quickly so the stockist has to try to find a same day delivery from a wholesaler who can pricematch with the online end of range seller,

I'm afraid the days of rich shop owners have become a thing of the past.

John.

chief · January 01, 2014, 18:53:45 PM

I managed a tire store for my father a long time ago. You usually only stock what you can/will install. You make more money on the install than on the tire. And, there is the expense of the tools and experienced folks for installation. SO... we didn't stock motorcycle tires or tractor tires... but we would have some delivered if someone wanted them without installation.

pcarrell · January 01, 2014, 13:31:06 PM

That's a lot of inventory to buy there Ratman!

CDNRatMan · December 31, 2013, 22:52:41 PM

Com'on be a trend setter and start a new trend a tire shop that sells all types of tires, cars, trucks, bicycles, motorbikes, trailers,

greenbarn · December 31, 2013, 22:20:16 PM

It's a strange thing - nobody that wholesales auto tires also has m/c stuff. Don't now why... I don't see many motorcycle shops selling truck tires, either, I guess...

CDNRatMan · December 31, 2013, 21:58:02 PM

my dumb question is why don't you stock tires in your tire store for motorcycles.....then you could get a deal on them......

greenbarn · December 31, 2013, 20:59:54 PM

Looky what I found... the new Metz Triple 8 evidently now comes in www too.

http://www.motosport.com/cruiser/Metzeler-Triple-Eight-Rear-Tire-15080B16-Wide-Whitewall

But, they're out of stock. Anybody heard much about them??

And one other thing I noticed... MAN, the 1 1/2 inches of white stripe is EXPENSIVE! Makes me want to go with a black wall just for the sake of the $50! But alas, the allure of the whitewall is probably going to win!

pcarrell · December 31, 2013, 08:32:26 AM

I think a stickier tire offers a bit more control, but at the cost of being more fragile and needing replaced sooner.

greenbarn · December 30, 2013, 17:54:30 PM

That all makes perfect sense. But that begs another question - are "stickier" tires "SAFER" than harder tires?? How about for 1) beginning 2) intermediate and 3) experienced riders?? This should get some opinions flowing...

pcarrell · December 30, 2013, 15:03:24 PM

greenbarn,

To be fair, I'm a pretty laid back rider. The Metzlers do handle better, and make you more brave, but with my riding style the longevity was worth the trade off.

I bought my Conti's in the spring of '09. The rear lasted 2 riding seasons and the front is still on there, but it needs replaced now. The bike had 22k on it when the Conti's went on and it's now got about 49k on it.

The thing with the Metzlers is that because it's a softer compound (Avon's are too), you really need to stay on top of your tire pressures. If you don't, they'll cup on you quite quickly, and then you might as well have square tires. If you're meticulous though, they'll reward you with floorboard dragging cornering about any time you want.

Troll · December 30, 2013, 14:52:04 PM

They keep improving the breed, that's what competition is all about. I think, based on my current experience, I should not have to change tires for at least another 5,000 or more miles. I have 14,000 on the Michelins right now, and about 2/3 of the tread left! No white walls...oh darn!

greenbarn · December 30, 2013, 14:29:08 PM

Quote from: pcarrell on December 30, 2013, 01:00:14 AM
I'll be needing tires again before spring, and I was thinking on going back to the Conti's instead of the Metzlers because I got a lot more miles from the Conti's. The Conti rear gave me 16k I think, where the Metzler has barely done 11k and needs replaced.

How much better do the metz's handle, though?? It was your post that I found through a search that said the metz were softer/handled better, if I understood it right. Since you've had both, you're the one with the INFO... One thing to consider though - I BELIEVE the Contis were improved recently (according to info on their website) - This may have been after you had your last set of them, so you might be getting a different tire than the last one you had. 11K vs 16K - that's the type of info I was looking for - so you must not think the handling improvement w/ the Metz is worth the mileage penalty you might get compared to the Conti?

pcarrell · December 30, 2013, 01:00:14 AM

I'll be needing tires again before spring, and I was thinking on going back to the Conti's instead of the Metzlers because I got a lot more miles from the Conti's. The Conti rear gave me 16k I think, where the Metzler has barely done 11k and needs replaced.

Drift1 · December 29, 2013, 18:56:14 PM

great topic GB

I , as plenty of others here run the metz as your well aware of . I almost went with the shinkos just because of the price factor . The only reason I didn't is because shinko didn't make either the front or rear ( can't remember ) in www for the 800 size . I could only purchase the one witch would looked inappropriate imo so went with the metz . My suggestion would be look at the customer reviews for this tire if you haven't already .

greenbarn · December 29, 2013, 18:42:10 PM

I wanted to put on a new rear on the 1500 by spring, and so am tire shopping. I'd really like to put on a Mechelin's from Troll's recommendations - sounds like they wear like iron. I planned to go WWW, though - I hate cleaning them -It must be that I'm a glutton for punishment, but they look so good...

There aren't many www's to choose from, so there are only a few choices.
Dunlop, Bridgestone, or Avon: It seems that I've read on this forum these don't handle as well as the others, so I'm not really considering these, against the other choices, unless this post changes my mind.

So that leaves Metzler 880s and Continental Milestone, and Shinko 777s. So far I've gathered, from searching this site I've gathered that the Metz are perhaps a little stickier than the Contis. Conti's and Metz are about the same price - roughly $200. The Shinko is about half that. I know Bake just bought a set of Shinkos. Has anybody had any experience with them, compared to Metz/Conti??