Went away with a crowd over the long weekend to Exmoor and Dartmoor. Most of us did about 600 miles except for the organiser. Dedicated chap, does a lot of touring miles in the UK and Europe. Rides a Yamaha Tracer and just come back from a 2000 mile trip around Germany and Austria. Been running Metzeler Roadtech 01s and thought with about 6000 miles on the rear tyre, the weekend would be a breeze. Umm, got to our B&B near Watchet at the end of the first day and there is a lot of tutting and sucking of teeth by the assembled group who came to the conclusion that the tyre was wrecked. Still, we completed a short 130 mile blast the next day but noticed the Tracer’s rear tyre had started to delaminate in the middle Sunday morning, got a 180 mile ride planned and we are starting a book on how far the Tracer will get. Ended up less than 5 miles when you could see the steel wire through what was left of the rubber being polished by the contact with tarmac Monday, the chap is going to risk the 150 mile ride home except you could see tyre sealant oozing out between the steel wires and the tyre eventually went flat. Not a tyre to be had anywhere over the holiday weekend so the RAC turned out to recover him and the bike. The driver took one look and said wear and tear, poor maintenance and drove off. So, conclusions reached, don’t run a Metzeler Roadtech 01 rear at 42psi (to high), don’t expect to get 6000 miles out of the tyre and recovery agents are likely to walk away if your tyre is illegal. Also didn’t realise how funny a chap who had never ridden pillion before looks when he’s trying to get on a fully loaded Triumph 800 Tiger Andy
Self-inflicted stupidity; he should be getting the riot act given to him. But that's what I would of done & told him to fuck off endangering himself & others. With his lackadaisical approach to his own life's worth. Nothing wrong with Roadtec 01's, however doing high heat riding cycles will wreak any tyre. That doesn't have the minimum depth available to dissipate heat. Your conclusion is utter bollocks, the mileage doesn't matter. It's the remaining depth of tread & condition you or anyone sensible should be regularly monitoring.
Only tyres I've ever seen the cord on are supercorsas... And that's only because they have nothing in the centre to gauge against. Anything else is stupid, especially on a tour
A very good friend of mine used to allow his rear tyre always get to the steel wire before he'd change them. 11 years ago this March he pushed his luck a little to far
Mate of mine went to canvas on michelins on sthou. We were on way home after alpine trip. Needless to say we left him, abandoned him would be more accurate on a Sunday nr Troyes. He had to pay thru the teeth for a new tyre the next day on top of staying a less than celubrious hotel. Serves him right.
I think I got a little overzealous with my reaction. I'm sure Andy is man enough not too be offended & take replies with a pinch of salt. The police officer I had (off duty) for my IAM test amusingly stated he'd lull people into false sense of security & ask them "..so what's wrong with your bike..". Which would occasionally gain him some remarkably damning replies. To which he'd give the rider an hour to go & fix the issue or lose their test-fee as it was an unworthy vehicle to be on the road. This would save said officer a minute to briefly eye up the potential steed he (in this case) would be following. My own reply was sod all hows you're bike?
Having once, quite a few years ago, suprised myself thinking a pretty decent looking PR4 front would last for a trip to the Vosges but then having to nurse it home (more shot on the shoulders than centre). Came off the Eurotunnel to be confronted with heavy rain, it had been sun, sun, sun in France, I had and even more gingerly ride back to Herefordshire. I now fit new rubber ahead of any tour. Better safe than sorry, plus a day out of a trip sorting a new tyre is a day's riding missed and more expensive than sourcing best price from home. Having said all that sitting in a Starbucks having a coffee and a toastie whilst my new Road5s cool off ready for a 2nd heat cycle. Off to Italy next week but also have a trip to Ireland in June. These should, I hope last for both trips with negligible mlleage in between. Depends on their condition after Italy and also how abrasive, generally, Irish roads are. Anyone have experience? Scottish Highlands for example chew tyres up in short order.
Coppers know fuck all. Ive had a motorcycle traffic cop try to berate me about a loose chain. I informed him its on its sidestand and Im not sitting on it. He still wouldnt have it. So I sat on bike and demonstrated it. He still wouldnt accept he was wrong and gave me a mot thing. Wanker cop. Sanctimonious cops are pricks and give the decent coppers a bad name. Just do your job and stop trying to be clever. If you were clever, youd be a detective, now fuck off.
I always put a new set of tyres on before a tour, for the same reasons. At the end of the day, the cost of changing a set of tyres early is small compared with the total cost of a tour.
I attempted to ride my dirt bike into London for work for a while and was getting pulled nearly every other time I used it despite having all the road legal stuff. I had one guy pull me over and try to tell me it was dangerous riding standing on the foot pegs filtering through traffic. I'm generally quite submissive and just do the yes sir no sir thing as I know how it is to work in uniform but this one sent me over my patience limit. After twenty minutes of pointless arguing and realising he had no idea what he was on about I told him how the police motorcyclists do a standing ride buy saluting the police statue when they do their training test. He didn't have any further bullshit advice after that. I could see his partner was giggling at him getting berated as well.
I got about 5.5k out of my Metzeler Roadtec 01s on my Multi before I changed them, not because there wasn't plenty of legal tread left but because the front went off. They were run at the Metzeler advised pressures of 36f and 42r.
The tarmac in Ireland is more akin to that of southern Spain on the A road equivalents. There are loads of EU funded smooth black ribbons and because of the regular washing they get from the Irish mist they're cleaner and less greasy than the dusty Spanish Sierra's. The sections of Wild Atlantic Way I've done are much rougher in places but also way slower when they are. I've come home from Scotland with a bald rear before after massively misjudging the wear rate in the north west.
Hi Bumpkin, as stated above the roads over here are mostly quite all right, a lot of work has gone into most of them over the last 30 years or so.... parts of the Wild Atlantic Way are a bit rough, but only very small parts. I travel all over the island at "sprightly" speeds, where appropriate, not a bother at all.....if you like I can PM you my number and if you need anything, info etc you can give me a shout. Either way enjoy your trip over. Alan.
The pressures were from the then current Technical Databook. It seems that the pressures in the 2019 databook have been revised to 2.7/2.7 bar (39 psi). https://d1ykpo4jhzi0cx.cloudfront.net/download/1527582535410/metzeler_tdb_2019_lr.pdf
Yes I’ve seen that so where does that leave us in terms of what to believe otter than whatever feels best?
Yeah, according to the Metzeler Technical Databook for O1’s on the 1200 it’s 39psi front and back. However they say 36psi front and back for the 1260. Hmmm A few years back, not many, I met a Metzeler rep. He put me onto the M7RR’s which I really have been pleased with. I do recall him saying ‘Run them 3psi lower than in the book’. He reckoned they have to over do it a bit in the book.... that’s what he said. So 39 psi or 36 psi, you choose. As I recall in the owners manual Ducati say 42psi for the 1200s when fully loaded with the standard rear tyre. I guess we should compare people’s experience with different pressures. I’d just like to get 01’s on my Multi front and back. The problem isn’t so much the pressures. The problem is I’m in London, the bike’s in Cambridgeshire and the new tyre is in southern Spain.
