got 11,500miles+ on my last rear tourance (1150gs)
Chatting to a fellow GSer at the weekend and he is still going strong at 11K on his tourances.
I reckoned he still had another 1-2K to go.
My rear tourance is half worn at 5K.
Both of us don't really hang about and our mileage is mainly on country roads.
So to answer you Q, 4K is pish poor
Jez I'm a wuss - I do ~12k a year commuting every day on the M25/M4 and weekend trips. That sees me get ~10000 out of a rear and 18-20000 out of a front. Standard Tourances. - currently up to 15k and still on the original front. The rear got a puncture at 8k and the new one's ~half worn.
4k on a rear??? That's bike must see more doughnuts than Homer Simpson...
I'm glad to see I'm not alone. I too get better than average mileage, the last set gave me 11'000 from the rear and 14'000 from the front.
There is one exception though. I use TKC80s. I'm not a speed deamon these days but I'll usually cruise at around 75-80. However most of my mileage is done following trainees around town.
It's not the type of road you travel on that does for your tyres, but the way you use them. Acceleration is the big killer of tyres, all those short swift getaways at the lights and quick overtakes will cost you as much as 50% of your possible mileage.
Planning your progress 'junctions, overtakes, pulling away from the side of the road or the driveway' will give you loads of extra miles. You'll find it's not only your tyres that benefit too. Your fuel cost will go down as your MPG goes up. Your bike will suffer less ware and tare and you yourself will be less fatigued at journeys end.
You may even find that your journey takes five minutes less too.
There is a train of thought within the various training bodies that implies:
A rider who consistently gets poor mileage from fuel and tyres, is himself a poor rider.
Either that or he's a mad fekker
Though you'll find that actually even the mad fekker gets surprisingly good averages (and if he doesn't, he don't live long).
Going back to what
rdover was saying about 'Puncture safe' It is also proven that having a mobile material inside the tyre will create a much better overall balancing affect on the tyre as it wears down. Fixed weights are only accurate at the time of balancing. As a tyre starts to ware this point of balance becomes less effective. But having something in the tyre like slime, puncture safe or balancing beads can 'as
rdover mentions' increase the life of the tyre by as much as 40%.
Why not try some of these things. You never know you could be saving your self quite a few quid each year.
Val.
Oh I forgot to mention;
Hard acceleration is much more fun when done in the bends
Why do you think they put the tread that far round the sides
new tyres due in the next 2 weeks (trip to Spain Sept etc) I have/ride a 1200 Adv.
