ST1300 Double Dark Side

ST-V4ever said:

16,000 miles and not quite down to the wear indicators. I plan to run it past the wear indicator point, since it still has plenty of tread on the sides, where most of the cornering traction comes from. Should have another 4k to 5k miles on this tire. [emoji1]

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Do you ride in the rain? If so, let me know how the water evacuation works when you do not have any sipes in the middle? I'd like to know.

ST-V4ever said:

16,000 miles and not quite down to the wear indicators. I plan to run it past the wear indicator point, since it still has plenty of tread on the sides, where most of the cornering traction comes from. Should have another 4k to 5k miles on this tire. [emoji1]

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I see you got the V rated tire. The H would have lasted longer.

20,000 miles and I'm into the wear bars in the center. Think I can get a couple more thousand on it.

Also got my next CT today - Goodyear TripleTred It looks like a beast!

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I had to sand off the furthest width sides ( of the decorations ) on my GYTT because it rubbed both sides of the inner fender plastic , put it in 2nd gear on roped centerstand , 120 grit HD. sandpaper . The about 1 1/2 inch part closest to the side tread . But it's either worthless decorations or your fender ............If you clear the fender , you will clear the Rt. swingarm/ driveshaft tube , although I had flattened the swingarm a bit there before I saw the fender rubs ; now I have plenty of clearance to the swingarm. ( just checked - about 5/32" )

ST-V4ever said:

20,000 miles and I'm into the wear bars in the center. Think I can get a couple more thousand on it.

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I would replace at wear bars! and check the corners (sides..) carefully! I was showing chords and didn't even realize it till the tire was off the bike!! very hard to see...(this was on my wing...)

forgitaboutut said:

I would replace at wear bars! and check the corners (sides..) carefully! I was showing chords and didn't even realize it till the tire was off the bike!! very hard to see...(this was on my wing...)

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Dude! You're running​ with some serious lean in the corners to get that wear pattern! Or, a lot of weight and low pressure. What pressure were you running on that tire? And did you ride heavily loaded?

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ST-V4ever said:

Dude! You're running​ with some serious lean in the corners to get that wear pattern! Or, a lot of weight and low pressure. What pressure were you running on that tire? And did you ride heavily loaded?

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Yeah!...guilty on both counts! when I checked it before my last trip is was around 20 PSI! and I'm guilty of not checking as much as I should....tire retired a couple thousand miles early of what I usually get!...as far as heavily loaded...it's a goldwing! it's heavily loaded dry weight! lol..

I'm fairly new to DD but I feel the BT-45 is buzzy, a bit vibration inducing. Haven't tried any others yet..Hmmmmmm

T_C said:

I tried one too.. didn't like the buzz feeling, prefer the BT-45. Have you tried the Bridegstone?

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I ran a 205 car tire on the back of my Valkyrie for 18k miles. I liked it just fine, not hard to get used to. I never felt it was unsafe. In fact I rode that tire from Maine to San Diego in 3.5 days. I demo rode a goofy Victory whatever with one of those super wide mc tires and it handled just like the car tire. I changed mine back to see if I could get better mpg and when I got the mc tire back on I was surprised how much better it felt than the car tire. I never wanted to go back to the darkside, but if I was planning a 100k trip I would seriously consider it. I have no desire to put one on my ST, but then I haven't even worn my first set tires out yet and I don't know how many miles to expect. But its got to be better than the Valkyrie.

OK, finally wore this General Altimax tire down (dark band in the center is the base rubber, under the tread, starting to show). It lasted 22,000+ miles which seems very good for riding on the chip-seal roads around here. It also had a nail in it (second picture) and I never knew it or felt the unbalance which would have resulted from the weight of the nail out at the outer edge of the tire.

This validates the "insurance" of the RideOn sealant/dynamic balance "goo" that I put in the tire after mounting. It sealed the leak and balanced the tire with the nail in it. [emoji16]

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Got the Goodyear TripleTred mounted on the rim - now to install it on the bike - it is definitely wider than the General Altimax. The General tire came right out no problem, after I let the air out, but I had to put soap on the sides of the Goodyear to squeeze it in there.

I'll be finishing the install tomorrow - hopefully I don't have to sand-down the sides of the tire to provide clearance. We shall see...

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I see all these reports of tires with so few miles out of them which surprises me - even with the car tires. I am running Avon Storm 3D XM, and am currently at 14,000 miles and they have many more miles left. I posted a report in the tires section - they are warrantied for 15,000 miles FYI.

dkruitz said:

I see all these reports of tires with so few miles out of them which surprises me - even with the car tires. I am running Avon Storm 3D XM, and am currently at 14,000 miles and they have many more miles left. I posted a report in the tires section - they are warrantied for 15,000 miles FYI.

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How hard do you ride? Curves or straight mostly? Road surface - chip seal or nice smooth concrete?

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dkruitz said:

I see all these reports of tires with so few miles out of them which surprises me - even with the car tires. I am running Avon Storm 3D XM, and am currently at 14,000 miles and they have many more miles left. I posted a report in the tires section - they are warrantied for 15,000 miles FYI.

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ST-V4ever said:

How hard do you ride? Curves or straight mostly? Road surface - chip seal or nice smooth concrete?

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That makes a huge difference in how long any tire will last!

Well, I finally got the Goodyear installed. It was a battle! Just getting it in place took some soap on both sides of the deflated tire. Then it was time to take care if the interference with the swingarm / driveshaft housing.

First, I ground some of the excess aluminum from the casting parting line on the swingarm - that got me maybe 1/16" or so. Then I worked on the tire. When I inflated it to 28psi, it got slightly narrower, having a little less interference. But it still needed to be narrower, so I burned some rubber! I tried 100 grit sandpaper with the bike running in 1st gear, but that was kind of slow, so went back to using the same grinder, as (shown in the picture). It still rubs a little bit, but I think a little riding will take care of that.

So, now it's time to give it a run to see if it handles differently than the General Altimax that I had before.

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ST-V4ever said:

Well, I finally got the Goodyear installed. It was a battle! Just getting it in place took some soap on both sides of the deflated tire. Then it was time to take care if the interference with the swingarm / driveshaft housing.

First, I ground some of the excess aluminum from the casting parting line on the swingarm - that got me maybe 1/16" or so. Then I worked on the tire. When I inflated it to 28psi, it got slightly narrower, having a little less interference. But it still needed to be narrower, so I burned some rubber! I tried 100 grit sandpaper with the bike running in 1st gear, but that was kind of slow, so went back to using the same grinder, as (shown in the picture). It still rubs a little bit, but I think a little riding will take care of that.

So, now it's time to give it a run to see if it handles differently than the General Altimax that I had before.

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That looks like a lot of work, the older Goodyear tires fit in there with no problems.

dkruitz said:

I see all these reports of tires with so few miles out of them which surprises me - even with the car tires. I am running Avon Storm 3D XM, and am currently at 14,000 miles and they have many more miles left. I posted a report in the tires section - they are warrantied for 15,000 miles FYI.

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Id like to know the psi you keep it at.

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Try lowering the pressure a little. I wear out the edges long before the middle at 32PSI, and I live in Florida!
It handled great in NC over the week. I'm sure you noticed the same.

stgolfer said:

Try lowering the pressure a little. I wear out the edges long before the middle at 32PSI, and I live in Florida!
It handled great in NC over the week. I'm sure you noticed the same.

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Yeah. It handled the curves in NC just fine. I started this spring with it at 28 psi but there seemed to be a lot of sidewall flex on the tip-in / tip-out of the throttle with the fuel-injected engine, do I bumped it up to 38-40.
This Goodyear has stiffer sidewalls, so I might be OK with 28 in this one. We shall see.

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This is how much I had to sand down GYTT , both sides equal , to clear the inner fender plastic from scraping - noises . Basically took all the decorative ribs off , only down to the base surface............( 120 grit , 2nd gear , centerstand roped to front wheel for safety )