Tiring time

It's time to get the old XJ600 a new rear tyre. I last fitted it with a
Bridgestone BT45 110/80 on the reccomendation of this group. An excellent
tyre it was too but is dead, well nearly, in only 4000 miles. I do mostly
dual carriageway/motorway stuff.

The problem this time is the perennial one. I don't want to be chucking £75
at a SOB every six months and would like to get something a bit cheaper.
Anyone know of something decent that would do the job and where to get it?

 

I don't think you'll get anything even half-way decent for less than
75 quid? You'll be looking at one of the last-forever, grip never,
chinese types then, I guess. I'd hate to be on something like that
over the winter period.

OTOH WTF are you doing to get through a BT45 in that time on a 600
commuter? Burnouts at every traffic light, perhaps? I used to get that
much out of a BT57 or 020 on the Sprint ST I had, even when doing
commuting miles, and it's considerably more powerful on a considerably
more grippy tyre, which defies logic.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

gazzafield wrote

Erm, I don't wish to appear pedantic but I should point out that your
problem, or one of them at least, appears to be semi-annual.

 

It does defy logic. I was very disappointed to see that it's about done
with so little mileage. I would probably be classed as having a very boring
riding style. So, no. I don't do burnouts at the lights or wheelies. If I
did at least then it would have had an excuse for its poor performance.

 

I was never much of a gardener.

 

gazzafield wrote

I had a 45 on my Ole VT when I was commuting that and it didn't last
long, certainly not compared to the factory original Chinese Teflon
coated thing it replaced. Gripped like a fucker though.

I did some sums at the time and sort of worked out that on an average
day: I did half a mile with back brake hard on another mile or so
trailing it, 10 miles of making progress on the throttle, 5 or 6 full-on
racing starts and all that sort of shit (with the average bar now
somewhat higher on account of the better all round grip). So I wasn't
really surprised the tyre wore away quicker. Although it did seem to go
rather quicker than I expected this is true.

Poor performance? 45s work well, imho.

 

Put shit tyres on it.

I'm quite fond of my BT45's and got just under 8,000 miles out of it.
I do use my rear brake, though. People that don't use it seem to get
more life out of their rear.

Even using them at traffic lights, trailing it for stability with the
throttle open does tend to wear it down more.

I noticed the rear was nice and sticky right down to the limit bumps
when I replaced it, when the tyre was visibly squared off.

 

<snip shit>

My English teacher must be spinning in her grave. I never used to
write in such a crap fashion. Please accept my apologies.

 

I'm getting the impression it is my use of the rear brake as I do actually
use it most of the time.

 

For it to be contributing significant wear to the rear tyre you'd need
to be locking it up all the time, I'd have thought. And certainly
you'd be getting through rear brake pads very quickly as well? How
long are they lasting?

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

Good point. I'm hard of thinking today, bad head cold. Anyway, I've had
the bike 8,000 miles give or take and I haven't had to change the pads.
There is still life in them. I haven't locked it up to my knowledge or I
reckon I'd have shit myself! Getting too old for falling off.

 

Rear brake isn't dragging, is it?

 

You don't think that would cause excessive pad wear then?

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

Or excessive tyre wear?

 

Not even slightly.

 

But, as I thought I'd already said, you would _not_ get excessive tyre
wear from this cause without _incredibly_ excessive pad wear. Plus the
amount of drag there would need to be to put undue braking force on
tghe tyre whenever you're off the throttle might just possible be
noticeable all the time?

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

I only get 4000 miles out of the BT45s on the Guzzi (120 section rear)

 

gazzafield wrote

Now we are at the nub of the matter. You are going to have to
compromise between performance and lifetime.

You need to define the point where the graphs should cross and tamper
with the data accordingly.


I think the biggest problem with tyre choice for the road is the pure
subjectivity of it all. If I am charging round a track at weekends in
the company of others doing exactly the same then comparisons are a
piece of piss. A commute from here to The City contains a lot of
unique_to_this_ride/bike elements which cloud the issue somewhat.

 

BGN wrote

Apples and Oranges.

It is mostly the engine that wears out a back tyre and if you think
about the sheer volume of horses directly connected to the back wheel
his XJ will be wearing it faster than your ER5 even if he is only making
progress.

Although I can't help but notice that between 4 and 8k seems to be
common experience for the tyre.

 

I can't see if that's a question or not.