I'm @ approx 7800 miles and there's plenty of rubber left on my OEM tires.
It think Mike is spot on. Also twisties are real hard on the tires. Some of you run the dragon. What is that something like 300 turns in 11 miles??? or something like that. I probably don't do that all summer. My fronts would all have gotten at least 18-20K on them, but I changed them out with the backs. Anyway the fronts all start to scallop after about 2-3K anyway and you can feel the difference dramatically from a new balanced set of tires. Hard takeoffs are tough on tires as well. Brake pads are cheaper than tires and way easier to replace. If you get off the throttle and use less or no engine braking you will see your milages jump.I did a 48+ on a new set of 020s and they were toast by the end of the ride - ~12000 miles and I expected that - lots of interstate miles. Rear was pretty well flat spotted, front didn't look too bad and I could have gotten some more miles out of it, but I changed it out anyway.
I think tire wear is dictated by how you drive, temps and how much you depend upon engine braking to slow you down. If you think about it, engine braking does about the same thing as hard acceleration except in reverse and its equally as hard on tires. After I kinda figured this out, I stopped engine braking and used the brakes alone and saw a decent increase in tire life - 15-16K.
My 48+ ride is NOT an indicator of normal tire life because it was mostly I-state driving and unless that's all you do, that's all you're gonna get...
Love the Battleax 020 - they've been great tires for me - and looking forward to trying the 021s.
Heck Dennis, I may as well ride the public bus then :crackupAlso twisties are real hard on the tires. If you get off the throttle --- you will see your milages jump.