07 R12R - Anyone using a non touring rear tire?

[deilenberger]

I thought they did a good job on the article.
Don should have read the article before bashing the magazine.

Lee, sorry if it seemed like I was bashing the magazine. I wasn't.. what I was trying to point out is why I don't pay a lot of attention to these sort of articles when it comes time to spend my money. My priorities are undoubtedly different from the factors the magazine article evaluates. One of my top three priorities is tire longevity, and how it feels as it wears. Without doing some really extended testing I rather doubt if any magazine test is going to include this factor. Some tires are known to get annoyingly loud when they wear (including Pilot-Road-II and III's), that's another factor that I might find someone in a forum commenting on, but in a magazine review? Doubtful. I've been known to replace tires that look perfectly good to most riders because as they wore I didn't like the tire feel (uneven wear side to side on some tires) and/or couldn't stand the noise coming from the tire.

That's me. If the article gives you enough info to choose a tire - good for it. I'd prefer to keep an eye on forum posts by people who I know have some of the same concerns I do about how a tire performs long-term. Are the tires they picked good tires? I'm sure they are - there are very few bad tires around, the internet and rapid spread of experience by riders has brought that to us. Bad tires are quickly flushed from the marketplace when people don't buy them based on other riders experience.

[AZ-J]

Wrong again, Don. The magazine article considers wear and feel on each tire. It even lists them for each!

You need to read this article, in order to post. You are not coming off knowledgeable here.

[nytrashman]

You know, it's really easy to go to NAPA and get some REAL tire mounting lube.

much to the dismay of my wife, Ru-Glyde is my lube of choice.

[FLETCHDUDE]

I used the white tire lube that the dealer uses. Its in a gallon tub with soft applicator brush. Seem to work just fine. I now have fresh PR3's.

Interesting lesson learned. The bike is five years old with original tires. The front tire came off fairly easy, the rear was a real PITA. I kept breaking the bead and then it would re-seat before I could get it off the rim, and this was using a professional tire changing machine. The shop mechanic and service manager had the same trouble with it. We assumed its because the tire was at least five yeas old, most likely older since tires are manufactured earlier than the day the bike is sold. The bike is an '07 and only had 5800 miles on it when I bought it last summer. This tells me it had a lot of time sitting around dry rotting, probably under inflated. I'm guessing these are indications of what happens to neglected tires, i.e improper inflation and leaving them on the bike for too long a period. Not that it matters but the tire was a Continental. According to the staff Connie's and Bridgestone's tend to be more difficult to remove.

[deilenberger]

I used the white tire lube that the dealer uses. Its in a gallon tub with soft applicator brush. Seem to work just fine. I now have fresh PR3's.

Interesting lesson learned. The bike is five years old with original tires. The front tire came off fairly easy, the rear was a real PITA. I kept breaking the bead and then it would re-seat before I could get it off the rim, and this was using a professional tire changing machine. The shop mechanic and service manager had the same trouble with it. We assumed its because the tire was at least five yeas old, most likely older since tires are manufactured earlier than the day the bike is sold. The bike is an '07 and only had 5800 miles on it when I bought it last summer. This tells me it had a lot of time sitting around dry rotting, probably under inflated. I'm guessing these are indications of what happens to neglected tires, i.e improper inflation and leaving them on the bike for too long a period. Not that it matters but the tire was a Continental. According to the staff Connie's and Bridgestone's tend to be more difficult to remove.

Jim

The rear rim on an R12R has very little drop in the center. My tire guy was cursing a storm up whenever we had to swap out a Continental on it... apparently the bead on them is really strong and tends to snap back into position. On a rim with more drop in the center, once the bead is broken you can push one side of it down into the dropped center of the rim, making the other side easy to get over the lip. Once it's over the lip it's easy to get it off. Just isn't easy at all with Continentals on the R12R rims. The PR2 and PR3 are much easier to get off and on the rear rim.

As far as how old the tire was - look for the DOT date - a 4 digit code inside an oval embossed into the tire. The first two digits are the week of the year, the second two are the year. IE - a tire marked 0101 was made in January of 2001. One marked 1207 - December of 2007. Etc.. I always check the date on new tires I'm installing. I greatly prefer that they be less then 12 months old when put on the bike. Rubber hardening up starts as soon as they come out of the mold (plasticizer evaporates from the rubber.) Having them sit vs riding them doesn't change the rate a lot, but storing them in an area with a high amount of ozone in the air does.. (ozone can come from the brushes on brush type motors sparking..)

Bet it feels like a completely different bike with good rubber and suspension on it finally.

[FLETCHDUDE]

Jim

Bet it feels like a completely different bike with good rubber and suspension on it finally.

Don, I got out between weather fronts for about an hour last week to test the new shocks but did not have the tires then. I couldn't get too far because they salted the main roads so much I really didn't want to take my bike there. Fortunately the farm was not salted so I was able to get a partial test in. A definite improvement even without adjustments. I'm looking forward to taking a few hours and doing some loop rides that includes uneven surface, turns and high speed and making adjustments after each loop for comparison. I'm following your shock set up procedure. All I need is some decent weather and time. I just got my Ilmberger hugger in from Morton's this afternoon. At least I can crank up the heat in the garage and mount that for now.

Thanks again for all your help! I'm up to owing you a steak dinner by now.