Bridgestone to Dunlop

[doerbird02]

I'm the third owner of my '07 ST. It still had the original Bridgestones on it, they had some cracking in the fronts, but the rears were alright. My new tires didn't come in in-time for my 1500 mile ride to Deals Gap this weekend, so I just sucked it up. They performed extremely well on the Dragon and I only noticed them sliding by the second and subsequent rides of the Dragon. Since there aren't many corners to ride in the panhandle of FL, the rears had plenty of rubber left on the sides, but the centers were getting close to the wear indicator, the fronts were pretty even wear. By the time I got home, the rears were at the wear indicator and the fronts were pretty much gone. Not the safest and I won't do it again, but thought I'd post and say I got 11400 miles on the set and after being as old as they were, they were decent up to the end. I just got my new Dunlop Roadsmarts put on yesterday and they are obviously a big difference as all new tires are, but they threw a weight on the ride home and I got a pretty noticable bucking from the front end. I'll take it back today, but I wonder home much more fun the new tires would have been on this trip. Basically, I'm giving an endorsement to the Bridgestones, would have gone back to them, but they were $50 a tire more, so went with economy for their replacement.

 

[SteveST1300]

I don't use Dunflops do a search there have been some threads about the Roadsmarts.

 

[st1300r]

+1 what he said on the flops.

 

[thumperjdm]

All of my bikes run on Dunlops, frequently at racetrack speeds. The ST13 front Roadsmart tire issue was addressed and handled by Dunlop.

Enjoy your new ride. I think your trip of the dragon would have been much more fun on new tires.

 

[970mike]

I work for the City of Lompoc and the police here are using the Dunlop Roadsmarts with good results on their Honda ST 1300's. The riders like the way they handle and they are getting more miles out of them then other brands of tires they have used in the past.

 

[George]

Bridgestone over Dunlop for the heavier bikes (such as our STs) seems to be the current concensus. That being said, I've run the Dunlops without problem in earlier versions.

Price should not be a consideration when buying tars (he said as he used up the last of the $40 out-of-date 9-year-old K591!)

Several years ago, I received a very defunct CB-350, low miles, stripped spark plug holes, original tars. It had been stored in a garden shed for 20 years. Passed it on to a friend in Chi-land. He got it running, fresh oil, nothing else; took it on track days with those original 'flops. Said it was fun to power (?) slide around the tight corners among the 125 2-strokes, etc.

11,400 is good mileage for any set of tars. Do you recall the model of the original 'stones? I'm very happy with the ol' bias 020.

 

[doerbird02]

Sorry, didn't quite remember the exact model number, I write down all maintenance in my book, lil OCD maybe, but I like it as a reference for what worked well and for how long. I guess I assumed Bridgestone Battleax was enough, since if they changed their model number, the old one wouldn't be available anyway. Maybe just my own ignorance. I've owned a number of bikes, but honestly, this is the first one I've driven/owned long enough to need to replace the tires on. (prior to this bike, which I've already put about 6000 miles on since I bought it in March, all of my other bikes I sold before they got to 8000 miles and they were all a few years old by then.) Bottom line, I did a little research, maybe not enough, but it seemed like the Dunlops had a problem, solved it and shouldn't be an issue anymore. I don't feel that I "cheaped" on the tires, since there were other options that were less expensive, but I thought it was good bang for the buck. That, and, Dunlops were on sale for 44% off, which made the price difference, otherwise the Bridgestones would have been about the same price. Maybe they were on sale because no one is buying them... well, maybe I'm THAT GUY... Well, thanks for the input. I'll post again when these run out and then I'll have something to compare.

 

[George]

Good on ya for doing the research.

Good info, Mike, hadn't heard an update on the Road Smarts recently.

 

[doerbird02]

UPDATE: Remember how I originally posted that the front threw a weight on the ride home? Well, went back to the shop, the guy rebalanced the tire, but told me, "your tire is out of round." WHAT??? Turns out as he showed me on the tire balancer, the rim is true, but the tire had a noticeable high spot when he placed the guide along the outside of the tire. He said, "I can balance an egg with this thing, but you're still going to feel the front bounce." Sure enough, took a test ride (on a smooth stretch of road) and the front bounced like the road was wavy. Great... I had bought the tires online from Motorcycle Superstore, called them, they quickly sent me a return label, but said it would be 6-8 weeks before Dunlop would get back to me on whether or not they would accept it as a warranty claim. Great, so I can't do without my bike for that long, asked if they could send me a replacement tire. NOPE. So, frustrated, I ordered a tire from the shop, it was $50 more than I originally bought the first tire for, plus I'll have to pay another $45 to have it remounted. So, the savings from going online wasn't so much of a savings at all. The guy told me that if it had happened with a tire I had bought through him, he would have been able to give me the replacement immediately. I guess sometimes its better to pay the couple extra bucks and support the local economy...

 

[970mike]

UPDATE: Remember how I originally posted that the front threw a weight on the ride home? Well, went back to the shop, the guy rebalanced the tire, but told me, "your tire is out of round." WHAT??? Turns out as he showed me on the tire balancer, the rim is true, but the tire had a noticeable high spot when he placed the guide along the outside of the tire. He said, "I can balance an egg with this thing, but you're still going to feel the front bounce." Sure enough, took a test ride (on a smooth stretch of road) and the front bounced like the road was wavy. Great... I had bought the tires online from Motorcycle Superstore, called them, they quickly sent me a return label, but said it would be 6-8 weeks before Dunlop would get back to me on whether or not they would accept it as a warranty claim. Great, so I can't do without my bike for that long, asked if they could send me a replacement tire. NOPE. So, frustrated, I ordered a tire from the shop, it was $50 more than I originally bought the first tire for, plus I'll have to pay another $45 to have it remounted. So, the savings from going online wasn't so much of a savings at all. The guy told me that if it had happened with a tire I had bought through him, he would have been able to give me the replacement immediately. I guess sometimes its better to pay the couple extra bucks and support the local economy...

What is the date stamped on the tire? Just wondering if it is a newer tire or one of the old recalled tires?

 

[doerbird02]

No idea, didn't check it, probably should have, but figured it was a non-issue... The bike's at the shop now, so I can't tell.

 

[st11ray]

Next set of tires, give Tim at TwoBrothersTires a call. He is our resident tire guru here on the forum and has the best service and prices anywhere!