ST1100 Tires Again

[Erdoc48]

Every 'universal' bike tire I have seen shows opposite front vs rear rotation. To wit:

VERY interesting as I’ve never seen a ‘universal fit tire’ for front or rear use.

 

[tnbill]

The universal tires i have seen have less tread depth than a rear but more tread depth than a front.

 

[DannoXYZ]

Modern tyres don't have plies with overlapping ends anymore. They are continuously wound around tyre. No fear of delamination regardless of which direction you run them.

BT45s are great! I got over 16K-miles from set on my commuter. Rear tyre is bonus as its dual-compound!

 

[Malks]

What mileage are you seeing from a set?

My last set of T31's had just over 8000 km (~5000 miles) on them when I changed them out. The rear easily had another 2000 km to go, but the front was into the wear bars, so I changed them out together. The replacements are T32's and I'll see what kind of mileage I get out of them.

I've just gone back through my service records and found that of the seven sets of tires I've gone through on my ST1100, the highest mileage I've ever recorded on a single set was 21,000 km (~13,000 miles). The next best was 18,000 km (~11,000 miles). Curiously, both of these times I was using OEM Bridgestone Exedras. My mileage with the last three sets of radials has been generally in the 10,000 km range per set.

I'll accept shorter range with the radials because I really like the improved handling and ride that they offer. It does seem odd that the old biased belted Exedras gave better mileage, but I suppose that was because they had a harder rubber compound that didn't wear out as quickly.

 

[Uncle Phil]

I find bias tires generally give better mileage on my ST1100s.
Running a bias on the back and a radial on the front makes the 'mileages' sort of line up so I can change both at one time.
My 'theory' on the subject is that most of the handling is the front tire anyway - the rear just follows the front.
So by bias on the back I get a good situation - good handling and good mileage.
But then I ride like an old man ....
However, YEMV!

 

[DannoXYZ]

That makes sense since bike's rim-widths were originally designed for bias-ply tyres. Putting radials on narrow rims would pinch them and cause sharp peak at middle of contact-patch that'll wear faster. While they did put on radials in later years, it's not optimum configuration.

 

[Uncle Phil]

That makes sense since bike's rim-widths were originally designed for bias-ply tyres. Putting radials on narrow rims would pinch them and cause sharp peak at middle of contact-patch that'll wear faster. While they did put on radials in later years, it's not optimum configuration.

ABSII front is 120 width rather than a 110 width and they came with radials from Honda.