How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

Seriously, I don't get it.

I've seen in numerous threads people talking about getting 8-9000 miles out of a set of Road Attacks. When I had those tyres fitted (and when I had the SV) I barely got 4500.

Admittadly I don't run my tyres to the canvas as to me that is just plain dumb, my tyres get changed when they're well worn and probably just into illegal territory.

So can someone explain, I could understand it if people were running a set of Cheng Shins or such that barely wear out when you do burnouts, but :confused: Or is it that there are loads of people that tootle around on their bike and I ride like a erm... silly person. :-k Didn't think I thraped my machine that much.

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

I only got about 4500 miles from my Road Attack rear.

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

They must use that 5mm band at the edge

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

I have had 5k ish out of my Road Attack. I am restricted though so I guess that might have something to do with my tyre longevity.

I would change them now tbh as I want something else but there seems to be lots of lift left in them!

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

I was talking to a guy on a triple who reckons he gets 1000 out of a rear if he's lucky. I got 5k out of my old d208r but it was a bit naughty worn. was ****ed off thouigh as it only equated to like a couple months of riding when it hit illegal territory.

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

use the middle bit , then one side , then the other.....

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

I got about 10k miles out of my last Conti RA rear. I do a lot of motorways, a fair bit of motorway filtering, and only a small amount of town riding.

I spose the most stress on the rear is hard acceleration, and the most stress on the front is hard braking. As my bike is used mostly for commuting, i don't do that much of either.

I spose weight must play a part too - to achieve similar acceleration, a heavier bloke will wear more of his tyre than a light bloke, cos he's pushing more force through it. I'm not saying i'm light here tho cos i'm not.

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

Its all about your riding style. I ride though london which is all on/off throttle, accelertae/brake etc and much like you get around 5-6k per rear tyre. When i dated a girl in essex (yes its true what they say) i rode a fiar distance on the 'motorway' part of the A13 and that year i was averaging around 7-8k per tyre. Constant throttle is the key and being smooth, no harsh acceleration etc. My mate Tron (His forum name) actually got just over 12k on a Bridgestone 020 rear of his Triumph Trophy. That was commuting up and down the A20 every day.

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

i used to get about 10000 out of my 020s but Im an old woman and ride like such. Not ridden raptor enough to guage tyre wear but its unlikely that I will get as many miles

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

I'd have to say riding style. I used to get almost half my present mileage when the bike was just ridden for pleasure and I was locking and spinning up the rear wheel reasonably regularly. Now I can't remember locking or spinning up the rear for the past 2 years and hardly ever ride for pleasure. I presently commute reasonably swiftly, but with vastly less harsh braking and less full throttle acceleration from low speeds.

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

i use ALL the tyre and they seem to last me ages :)

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

Rode my triumph fastish and smooth 50 mpg av,an still tyres had,had it at 5000, not had glady's long enough to guess

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

Ride like an **** and ride your bike hard, tyre life won't last long.

Ride like Miss/Mr Daisy.....get miles and miles and miles and miles :-)

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

It must be down to riding styles as fuel seems to be the same, people chase the elusive 200 miles per tank, I tend to do 180+ miles between fuelling and based on whats left I should top 200 at least 75% of the time!

but that is reflected in my tyres, I'm at 9k on a set of PR2s and I'd say they have quite a bit of life left in them but my riding consists of a 30 mile commute and weekend/pleasure rides, totalling 13k/year.

So my only conclusion is I ride like an old woman :confused: :)

216 miles between fuellings with an estimated 262 total for the remaining was my personal best, most boring week of my life LOL

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

Glad to see there's a few people getting similar mileage to me, although still bemused how you can achieve twice that. I commute on my bike daily and use the bike for pleasure when I get chance, riding style may be I suppose, but it's boring to commute at grandad pace!

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

And then you can save weight by removing sidestand :-P

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

I'd guess 6000 from my RA rear... got about 2.8m on the front left which is lovely and "well used". Commute 3 or 4 times a week and do some lovely twisties at the weekend. :)

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

262miles on a tank of fuel! Crikey, you must walk round! The most i ever got was 201 to conking out and that was in the 1st week of owning the bike and i was running it in!

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

Heh I was just experimenting, seeing what I could get, I've never actually ran it dry but working from 17l capacity and what I put in its pretty close
I was barely out accelerating cars, it was painful, but once I'd started doing it for that tankful I couldn't stop otherwise I'd have wasted my time up to that point.

seems to be a big discrepancy between the K4 and K6 as Admin was saying he doesn't get many before the light is on, maybe thats just the light though?

Ah well, sorry for the derail, tyres! if we all reported when we changed tyres I bet we could build up quite an accurate picture of usage, especially averaged across the different riding styles demonstrated by this thread :)

Too geeky? eh sorry, It's what I do :D

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

Thought he had one of those 'light' bikes with blue tyres....

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

I'll make sure they don't last that long.

Longest I've had a tyre was about 6k for a rear and that was a Metzler Z4 have also destroyed a rear tyre in less than 3k

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

I only got 5300 to the original dunlops on mine :cool: now those babys are supposed to be everlasting tyres!

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

It's not about speed, it's about smooth - learn to ride right and you'll get the best out of the bike, and the consumables. I got 8000 from a Road Attack rear on an SV1000.

Also bear in mind suspension - a knackered shock will kill a tyre extra quick

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

Or an adjustable one set up badly...

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

Longest lasting to date have been Pilot Roads with 4500 miles.
Now have PR2's but not expecting a lot more miles.

My fuel warning light comes on anywhere between 125 and 165 miles (the furthest to date) .

But I ride in the mountains mostly and am not what one would call paticularly gentle with the throttle.

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

On the SV I got through a rear Metzeler M1 in 2800 miles of reasonably quick commuting on country roads and quite a bit off weekend riding.

As people have said it depends mainly on how you ride.

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

The people that get low mileage from their tyres: where is it being worn? Centre/sides/all over?

I seem to be able to get quite a bit of mileage out of my tyres, strangely...from memory I changed the OE Dunlops on the SV at around 6-7k, the BT-014s on my GSX-R600 were on 3200 before it got stolen and they weren't dead by any means (noticeable wear but also noticeable room till the markers). The CBR had Avons on when I got it so I don't know how long those had been on there, but I changed it around 4k (?) or so ago to D208RRs and so far they are holding up reasonably well (front actually seems a bit more worn than the front, I probably need to get the suspension set up). The BT-016s on my GSX-R750 have now done just over 3800, it's more worn than the BT-014s were at 3200, I think I'll get to 5000 from these, but that still seems high.

Most of my riding is commuting, and I definitely don't commute slowly judging by other bikes, mind you it is London traffic so very stop-start. I think I manage to keep the pace flowing quite well though, to minimize the stop-start, so maybe that helps.
When I ride for fun I don't think I am slow, but I don't really know tbh.

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

I got about 500kms out of my last set. :cool:

Comes with the territory when you're a riding god! :p:-dd

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

V-twins apparently preserve them well? Depends on what sort of riding you do too. If you rag it everywhere like you are in a rush then they will wear pretty quick. :(

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

I think it depends on how you ride, the kind of riding but also where you ride. If you are lucky enough to live in an area full of good bike roads, you may well wear your tyres faster in mileage terms than someone who has to ride 50 miles to find a decent road. YMMV :D

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

Erm, I'm smooth and I got 750 miles out of a Pilot Sport rear and 1300 out of a Viper Sport rear. The Viper sport front was also on its way at 1300 miles.

Tyres wear through contact with the roads. The *quicker* you put power through the rear tyre, the faster it wears. You can be smooth and use lots of power or you can be smooth and take several minutes to reach cruising speed and nurse the tyre through it's life.

Fronts wear out due to cornering friction. The faster you ride through the corners and the further the tyre is over, the more quickly it wears. The scrubbing forces are greater.

So, if you accelerate slowly and take it easy in the bends, your tyres will last. The more you wind it on and the further you lean, the faster they will wear. Of course, those that are abtupt will be adding the power through the tyre even more quickly

Steady Eddies will get longer out of their hoops than those who go for it. smooth or not.

I never take any heed of what others claim for their tyres until I've seen them ride and their size. And then I can extrapolate how many miles I'd get based on how I ride in comparison.

C

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

Well I don't know what I'm doing wrong / right but I get loads of miles out of tyres.

7000 out of the original BT014's on my GSX-R600 and I'm now on Pilot Power 2ct's that have done around 5000 miles including 4 laps of the Nurburgring and a trackday - they're certainly worn but I'll get another couple of thousand out of them.

Am I really that slow? :smt017 How people can go through a rear in 1500 miles on the road is beyond me, unless it's a stupidly soft tyre only ridden in hot weather.

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

Blimey.. I didnt even get that out of a front 014 on my 750...

Best I got from a rear was 1800 miles and that included the period of running the bike in.

I'm not a very smooth rider and I messed up the rear profile with a few trips on the A303 on days. The front also cupped quite badly and the profile got messed up.

I really think as Sid says its about being super smooth, especially on the transition from braking to throttle and also with lines. Rider weight I suspect has alot to do with it as well.

I'm not really bothered I enjoy my riding and thats all thats important to me.

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

No-one's mentioned local road surfaces yet? That's gotta have a huge impact on tyre life. The vast majority of my miles are on smooth motorways.

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

Most of mine are on rural roads, bits of everything, super grippy corner stuff, usual sharp top layer stuff and some smooth negative surface tarmac

After the revelation that I seem to be getting much less wear on my bike even though I don't think I ride that serenely I wondered if engine braking was a factor? I am quite heavy on that, maybe with the engine speed relative action of the braking its less harsh on the tyres perhaps?

I use the brakes infrequently, usually only for the slow speed stopping as scrubbing off speed is mainly engine braking.

Anyone else the same? or do most make big use of the brakes?

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

I tend to get about 4 - 4500 miles out of a rear. Front would probably do a few thousand more, but with special offers on tyres as they are, I end up buying a pair.
I'm running a pair of Mez3 atm which I bought off a mate for £50. They are 10 years old & a bit scary handling wise, but they did me over winter. The old SV will be getting treated to some new boots very shortly :)
Mine are mainly used on fast A roads with a lot of sweeping corners.

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

I engine brake a lot, dropping a gear or 2 to scrub off speed when i'm slowing down rather than needing to stop in a hurry, when obviously i'd use the brakes. Also with doing lots of motorways, some days I do the whole 55 miles to work without touching the brakes at all. My pads tend to last :cool:

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

My tyres are still legal though getting close, possibly another months (450 miles) wear and they are the originals, 7.5K miles commuting 30 miles on potholes.

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

Ive got 021's and my front at 2000 - 2300 miles was close to wear bars im now at just under 3000 miles on them and the front has started to point a bit in the middle and still close to wear bars but rear looks like its just left the shop! I mainly fun ride i take a trip to college via a ten mile trip through back roads rather than 2 miles from my house

Re: How do people get so many miles out of their tyres?
 

When you say 'best you got from a rear' do you mean the whole tread was knacked or was it just the middle was down to the wear markers? You must have been going seriously quick in a straight line to wear them out that fast mate :king: As I say I just can't understand it :confused: