8550 miles and New Tires

Just crossed the 8500 mile mark and got new Bridgestone Hoops
for my Silverwing. In my younger days I would have put them on myself but age and experience has taught me the wisdom to let the shop do it and save the aggravation. Probably could have gone a few thousand miles on the original tires but the general consenus
from the forum is that they should replaced at around 8000 miles
I've had a tire fail on me in the middle of nowhere before so i have no inclination to tempt fate if I don't have to.
Even bought Mrs. Surly a new riding jacket to celebrate the new tires.

The depth of tread is what determines when to replace a tire. I fit in the 8,000-8,500 mile category but I have a friend who consistently gets 13,000-16,000 miles out of his rear tires, even with a Pirelli Diablo. I don't understand how he does it. He leads most of the rides in our club and lately I have been his wing man. He rides just as aggressive as I do and I can't understand why the big difference but he would be wasting money if he replaced them as often as I do. Just out of curiosity do you know the depth of tread left on your old rear tire?

The thread depth still looked ok but I was also worried about the age of
tires . they were the originals on my 2007 . Even though I bought it new
in December 2011, they were still six year old tires.

I just replaced my Rear Tire at 4556 Miles. It had 2/32nd tread depth.
It was the OEM IRC tire. I had a Michelin city grip installed by my dealer.
The new tire tread measures 6/32nds. I'll report back at times on how it is wearing. I don't know how some of you guys are getting 8000 + miles on a rear tire. My dealer says expect about 5000. Which has be true for me on Motorcycles.
I never see anyone posting the tread depth they have when replacing a tire.
Do you run them down to the cords?
What is your tread depth?

surlybiker58, yes I forgot about age. Six or seven year old tires would worry me as I was riding down the road.
Rich, I usually change my tires when they get down to the wear bars. That said I had one tire that did not come with wear bars. I just replaced it when it looked like it was worn down to too much to last the the trip I was going to make. I was going to make a 500 mile trip and felt safer replacing it befor I left rather than on the trip. I probably could have made the trip but I had around 6,000 miles on it and with no wear bars on the tire I wasn't going to take the risk.

model28a wrote:

surlybiker58, yes I forgot about age. Six or seven year old tires would worry me as I was riding down the road.
Rich, I usually change my tires when they get down to the wear bars. That said I had one tire that did not come with wear bars. I just replaced it when it looked like it was worn down to too much to last the the trip I was going to make. I was going to make a 500 mile trip and felt safer replacing it befor I left rather than on the trip. I probably could have made the trip but I had around 6,000 miles on it and with no wear bars on the tire I wasn't going to take the risk.

Ok, thanks moel28a. I don't believe my IRC tire had wear bars, I didn't notice any. I have a tire gauge and measure the tread depth regularly. When I lived in PA where they have annual vehicle inspection the tires fail inspection at 2/32nd and must be replaced. I use that tread depth as my standard as when to change tires and even on my Motorcycle it was always at 4500-5000 miles. I keep my tires at Max PSI of the Manufactuerer spec. on The Swing I inflate the rear tire to 36psi and the front tire to 29psi. I don't baby my bikes but also don't beat them to death.

On my previous bikes , I had gotten about 12k miles on a set of tires.
Maybe i just don't brake as hard the rest of you do

Rich, I believe the tires I had without wear bars were IRCs also. I think I will pick up a tire depth gauge just to be safe. I would be interested to see what the tread depth is when the tire is at the wear bars.

I just changed out the original tires on my 2003 S-W. I had 8100 miles on so I'm pretty happy with that. 

I've changed my 2 sets of Pirelli Diablos around the 10K mark. The front could have gone longer, but was easier to get them done at the same time.

I picked up a nail in my Mitchelin city grip rear tire and am replacing it with an IRC tire as recommended by Honda. The city grip tire had 1986 miles on it. I measured the tread depth at 5/32nd when new and it is now at 3/32nd. That is a wear rate of aprox 1/32nd per 1000 miles, not very good!
So it looks like I would only get about 3 thousand miles out of this tire to the replacement spec of 2/32nd tread depth.
I am going back to the Honda recommended tire, IRC.

I consistantly get 11,000 miles on my rear tire and 20,000 on my front.They are IRC  and they do have wear bars but not on every tread .I don't abuse my swing but I don't baby it either.

I am getting about 6k/12k (back/front) miles on my Bridgestone Hoops, but I am about to try Heidenau K66 tires on my mechanic's recommendation. I am actually changing my tire at 5800 miles this time because I am about to go on a week long 1700+ mile trip.

I installed a TPMS (tire pressure mgmt syst) that frequently showed my tire temp to be in excess of 140F. The tires are aired up according to the manual (29/36).

I suspect that several things effect my tire longevity. I tend to ride in extremely hot (90F+) conditions at fairly high speeds for long distances. I suspect my love of fast twisties may also have something to do with shorter tire life, as does my extra weight.

I bought the bike with 10k miles on it and (I suspect) the original Hoop tires. I put a 3k miles on it and it STILL showed no signs of wear.. I replaced them because I realized the tires were 5 years old and hard as a rock. The new tires made an amazing difference in handling, made twisties fun, and now only last half as long. But it's worth it!