'misbalanced' front and rear tyres?

i get quite a lot more distance out of my front tires than the rears, and i've heard of a couple people who run softer, grippier fronts than rears (i.e. Power Pilot front / Pilot Road rear; Diablo Rosso front / Diablo Strada rear; etc).

the advantage purportedly is to get better front grip while balancing rear wear.

any comments? (front grip certainly seems more of a limiting factor than rear...)

cheers,

You can run any combo you want.

[Spanner Man]

Good morning.


It's a common practise to mix tyres in that fashion, & it usually does no harm. However don't get fooled by the popular misconception that a more sporty tyre is necessarily more 'grippy'. It's quite the reverse in cold & wet weather infact. As a more sporty tyre may not get hot enough to work effectively.


Cheers.

[jambo]

If it makes you happy by all means, but the advice above is correct. You have different tyres on each end. They will react differently, that doesn't always mean that the one with the shorter life will grip best.

FWIW I find when running touring tyres such as Diablo Strada / Z6 / Pilot Road 2, I tend to get about equal life (~10,000miles on my ZX6R) to front and rear. Sports tyres do seem to wear at about 2 rears to a front.

Jambo

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by doser

any comments? (front grip certainly seems more of a limiting factor than rear...)

cheers,

Most of the time the rear will let go first when cornering rapidly etc.
If I had to I'd run a stickier front and just take it easy in the bad weather.

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

However don't get fooled by the popular misconception that a more sporty tyre is necessarily more 'grippy'. It's quite the reverse in cold & wet weather infact. As a more sporty tyre may not get hot enough to work effectively.

ahh, wise words, hadn't been thinking about that aspect, thanks.

and Jambo, what specifically brought this inquiry about was burning thru a rear Pilot Road 2 in 8500kms, with the front still good to go at least another 30% - made me wonder if I should just accept the 8500km limit, and try to 'improve' front grip (i.e. go with Pilot Power), at the cost of lower the lifetime, hopefully to match the rear.

on the other hand, the profiles probably vary too (V or U), and I don't reckon you'd want the front end and back end of the bike transitioning in different ways...

cheers,

Originally Posted by doser

on the other hand, the profiles probably vary too (V or U), and I don't reckon you'd want the front end and back end of the bike transitioning in different ways...

cheers,

They never do. It is not really relevant. It is personal preference, do you want more stable on brakes or quick transition?

[Taipan]

When I had supermotos I used to run a "wet" front tyre and a BT090 on teh rear. Worked out very well and was very popular with road going supermotos. I wouldn't mind a wet front on the SV during the winter.

Another notably popular combo on bikes was with Bridgestones. 010f and 020r.

So yes it can be done and quite safely too. I've run all manner of mixed manufacturers tyres on bikes but I'm not one to really push a bike as such.