German rears tires, Chinese front tires

[dohboy]

In June I installed Pirelli Angel GTs on my ST before a western trip. Had heard great reports about handling and longevity. 2,000 miles into the trip I read a post that Angel GTs are now made in China and are not the preferred tire. I quickly checked my tires and find that the rear was made in Germany and the front was made in China. At 3,800 miles I hit a deer in Colorado and total the ST. Both tires look good for that mileage. I now have a 2005 BMW R1200RT. It needed tires so I ordered Metzler Roadtec 01, the newest tire from Metzler. Again front tire made in Germany, rear tire made in China. For the limited miles I had on the Angel GTs they were great but how would they perform with more miles I don't know. The Metzlers I just installed and have zero miles. Having encountered this from two different manufacturers is this where we are going? What will be the performance of the Chinese tires?

 

[Mellow]

I've seen report of Metz tires made in China were not holding up as well as the German made ones.. as much as about a 40% decrease in wear.. most of these are ADV tires but many are 80/20 or 90/10 tires so pretty much street tires.

Hopefully, that's just an initial quality control issue and they will end up being as good... time will tell.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

I have no experience with Chinese motorcycle tires. I put 4 new made in China tires on my truck. They are very poor quality. They are almost impossible to balance and they are wearing down surprisingly quickly. The quick rate at which they are wearing completely negates the cheaper price I paid as I will have to replace them prematurely. Based on this experience I am leary about Chinese motorcycle tires.

 

[v8-7]

It will be interesting to see since you are our guinea pig !
Since it is made under the Metzler name, I would hope that the same production standards are applied , no matter where it is made.

 

[CYYJ]

Since it is made under the Metzler name, I would hope that the same production standards are applied , no matter where it is made.

My past experience with Asian manufacture of "trusted brand-name products" has been that it sometimes takes the Asian plant some time to develop the necessary experience & competency to meet the same product quality standards as the original European or North American plant does, but they eventually do meet the same standards.

Brands with a good reputation - such as Metzeler - have too much to lose if they allow product quality to fall when they set up remote manufacturing plants (be it in Asia, or South America, or even North America). I'm pretty sure that Metzeler is "on this", meaning, they have expat staff on hand at the Asian plant to get things up to an equal footing with their other plants ASAP.

About 10 years ago, I got a 'bad' Metzeler tire from my Swiss dealer - the tire had been manufactured in Europe. The dealer was unsuccessful in balancing the tire despite two attempts. The dealer replaced the tire with a new one, and told me that this 'occasionally' happened, and that the tire manufacturer would give the dealer a replacement tire at no charge and with no challenge being raised.

Michael