Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyBrad
so your both suggesting i scrap the existing rear?
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For sports rubber I get something like 2 rears to a front. For touring rubber (Diablo Stradas) I was wearing both out roughly evenly.
How much life is left in the rear tyre? I seem to remember the tread on a new 020 rear should be about 7mm deep, and you'll want to swap it out before it's down to 1mm.
If you think the rear's damn-near new, I'd put a front only on it.
You can mix and match tyres at will, but bear in mind the profiles and characteristics will be diferent, this can make a bike feel slightly odd in some circumstances as one tyre warms faster than the other, grips better in a given condition or has a profile that doesn't suit the other tyre. Or it can feel completely fine, there's really no real way to know.
Given this, if I was only replacing the front I'd get a bridgestone as they will have the most similar construction, profile and compound to the rear, this means I'd be putting an 020 front, or, more likely an 021 as this is the replacement and has been specifically stated to work well when combined with it's predecessor, the 020.
If I was replacing the pair I'd pick from:
Diablo Strada / Metzler Z6 (same tyre)
Avon Storm ST
Bridgestone 021
Michelin Pilot Road 2
Dunlop Roadsmart
Reviews in the Tyre section for all of the above. Modern sports-touring rubber is phenominal, I got 10,000 miles to a front & rear Diablo Strada on the ZX6R including a trackday at the end of their life scraping the footpeg through the hairpin at Lydden, and they're not the most recent of the class by any means.
Jambo