Re: Commuter Tires

[RSRiding@xxxxxxx]

Another solution to a long lasting tire...
Last year before the Iron Butt Rally, I had determined that I wanted to go 
the entire event (11,000+ plus miles added to the 1500 to and from Denver from 
home) without having to worry about a tire change. One of the guys in the 
IBAssociation commented that the bias ply version of the ME880 was a good long 
lasting tire. I was referred to someone that had a K12LT rear wheel for sale that 
would fit my R11RS. It, being a 17" wheel, would be just about the same 
circumference with the bias ply tire mounted as the stock 18" wheel with its radial 
tire (and shorter sidewalls). 

After the requisite exchange of $$ for a wheel and a set of ME880s, I found 
myself with a long-lasting set of bias ply tires mounted on the RS. If the rear 
wheel ends up being about the same size, I suppose the front assembly is 
slightly larger in circumference, but I never noticed a problem from it. 

I rode through some fairly intense storms in both Florida and Nebraska, 
blitzed some delightfully curvy roads in the Appalachian Mountains, and never had a 
problem with grip. Total mileage in the 16 days from home and back was a bit 
over 16,000 miles. And true to everyone's words, the ME880s lasted all of that 
and then some. The rear was noticably flattened in the center, but still has 
miles left in it. The front looked almost brand new...to me, it was more 
surprising than the high mileage rear.

I don't know if there is as easy a swap (wheel for wheel) for whatever bike 
our commuter friend is riding, but this one was pretty darn painless and has 
worked like a charm. I'm wearing out the radials I took off to mount the bias 
ply tires and will then go back to the bias plies to see just how many more mile
s I can get out of these tires. For my kind of riding, the bias ply tires work 
just fine.

Geoffrey Greene
Knoxville, Tennessee



In a message dated 4/26/2006 11:17:47 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
I've run both Bridgestone and Metzler tires down to max mileage.  This is
usually about 10K or a bit more.    When commuting, most people use up the
center of the tire a lot faster than the outsides.   Under those
circumstances, I like the Bridgestones better because they reasonably fun
tires from the beginning of their life to the end.

------------------------------

End of oilheads-digest V3 #65
*****************************