tyre life?

[1200bmer]

Can anyone confirm at what rate the front and back tyres wear on a 1200gs. Got trail wings on at present.
Do they both wear at a simalar rate. IE you normally replace both at same time.
Do you normally get two backs per one front?
Or something else.

Plus what are the best tyre for the 12gs? 99% on road BTW

Cheers

 

[John Armstrong]

In my experience, wear rates are totally personal and that includes what type of riding you're doing on that particular set. For example down to the south of Spain and back two up in 40 deg C and all on motorway is going to give a different milage to solo, only on B roads in the UK's summer.

BTW Trail Wings are known as "Death Wings" by those who've had the "pleasure" of having them fitted. Replace them with almost anything
else, but Tourances / Battlewings / Annakees would be my suggestions

Never got to the end of the Death Wings so haven't a clue about wear rates.

 

[SpyInTheCamp]

I've only had Dunlop Trailmax and Metzler Tourances on my GS. For the former, I got two rears for one front. Around 4 to 5k for a rear.

I'm now on my second set of Tourances. The front seems to wear almost as fast as the rear. I got over 7k miles on the last set.

FWIW, I'll be going back to the Trailmaxes next tiem ... I think. Better road performance and edge-to-edge grip even if they do wear faster. IMHO of course!

But you may want to consider a pure road tyre like the Bridgestone BT021 / 020.

Kai

 

[Dellis]

I mainly ride two up, have loaded luggage on around 50% of the time, genarally like to press on, average 45 mpg which gives you an indication of my riding style and cover around 18,000 miles a year on tarmac.

Tourances

Rears 5,500 - 6,000 miles now on my forth on the 1200
Fronts 11,000 miles for the first one the second will probably see the same sort of mileage.

FWIW I was getting the same sort of mileages on both my previous 1150's

Dave

 

[SilverBobGS]

Just doing a tyre life test on my bike due to an upcoming 6500 mile trip planned for next year.
Running Battlewings at the moment as they are very good in the wet and roll into corners in a controlled way. Very much like a BT020 as they have the same carcase.
6000 miles and the rear is right on the limit. Some spin up on heavy accelaration and a little looser in heavy braking in the wet. Squared off and you have to muscle them over in mid speed corners, still have lots of confidence in slow and fast corners. I reckon you could run these well under the wear bars and virtually bald before they started to become a problem.
The front is showing signs of distress as I am heavy on the brakes and tend to ride the front heavy. About another 1000 left in it so will replace both at the same time.
Ridden normally and sensibly I should expect someone to get at least 8000 out of these.

 

[Eastriding2002]

The rear on my Anakee was changed at 6200 miles, it had 3mm left on it, I didn't want to risk it on a 2500 mile tour so swapped it. The tour took 1mm off the new tyre, so i reckon I could get between 8-9000 miles from the rear. The fron currently has about 3-4mm left with 9000 miles on it.

 

[Tippers]

I always ride solo without-with luggage, still on original Tourance tyres.
These have so far covered 10,300 with about 4mm left on the rear.

Metzler have recently brought out the Tourance EXP which is biased 90%
for road use which has better dry and wet holding with same tyre life.

Well that's what the guy from Metzler claimed at Garmisch.

 

[gwyrdd]

I've got Michelin Pilot Roads on mine and I feel great confidence in them in all conditions. I'm on my second rear tyre and expect to replace the front when this rear is done so I'm getting ~5k for each rear and 10k for the front.
I previously had Tourances and though they're very hard wearing they don't give as much confidence on twisty A roads or in the wet.

 

[GSoh]

I have anakees on my 12gs. 5,200 miles and looks like there is a couple of thousand left, providing they don't behave like the fuel guage. I like them a lot - seem to suit my riding - all on road, all weather, all year commute. They inspire confidence in all weather.

 

[princec]

OEM Metzelers, 9000 miles and counting on the rear with another 1000 left I reckon, mostly heavily laden motorway work at 90mph or so. I'm not very gentle with the throttle. To be honest I'm surprised it's lasted so long, although it's kinda squarish now.

Cas

 

[(RIP) Arkwright]

Battlewings

My Battlewings now have 6000 on them from new, front has 3mm left, rear has 4mm left. Ride solo and mostly unladen, the front has started to thrupenny bit and the rear has squared off a bit, going to replace them before I go to Belgium, France and Northern Italy next month, going to try Conti Trail Attacks. If I didn't change them I think the Battlewings would do 8-9000.

Duncan