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Oh No - Not Tires

Is it just me, or are the factory Dunlops noisy? I apologize in advance if I'm late to the party on this one.

If I'm riding on less than smooth pavement, the tires seem to generate a lot of noise. Transitioning to recently paved roads seems to noticeably reduce the noise.

I've had a lot of different bike/tire combinations, but I can't remember any combinations where I noted tire noise. Your comments are greatly appreciated.
 
roadventure said:
I thought they were noisy too. They seem to "growl" when cornering and just seen to rumble when on the straight. But, they are gone off my California. Got a new set of AVON tires. Very smooth (well, they're new) and QUIET.
Click to expand...

I'm glad to hear your comments on the Avons. I put them on my last two bikes (looks like this will be my third one) and have always found them to be a vast improvement.
 
I hope someone here will try the Michelin Commander II in a 180/65-16 along with the matching front, since Dave Gale now owns the RentAGuzzi 1400. He put on a 020 Bridgestone rear with a Exedra Max front.
 
GT-Rx® said:
I hope someone here will try the Michelin Commander II in a 180/65-16 along with the matching front, since Dave Gale now owns the RentAGuzzi 1400. He put on a 020 Bridgestone rear with a Exedra Max front.
Click to expand...

I had considered going to a 180 width, but was unsure about the narrower tire sealing to the rim. If we can run a 180 width then that opens up opportunities for GoldWing specific(multi compound/high mileage) rear tires
 
I thought I had a lot of driveline noise. Then I decided a lot of the noise might be the tires. The slightest lean on the freeway would elicit a whine not there when upright. I switched the rear tire to a Metzler and the whine went away.
 
roadventure said:
I had considered going to a 180 width, but was unsure about the narrower tire sealing to the rim. If we can run a 180 width then that opens up opportunities for GoldWing specific(multi compound/high mileage) rear tires
Click to expand...

Usually, you can get away with one size change on the original rim. I believe this would be two sizes in change (200/190/180).

The BT-020 is dual compound, I got over 9,000 miles out of my first one (my second ended prematurely with a puncture.)

What I really like about them is how much the steering lightens up -feels like a sports bike!
 
GT-Rx® said:
I hope someone here will try the Michelin Commander II in a 180/65-16 along with the matching front, since Dave Gale now owns the RentAGuzzi 1400. He put on a 020 Bridgestone rear with a Exedra Max front.
Click to expand...

Before I installed the Exedra with the Bridgstone rear, I was running a Michelin Commander II on the front. I was happy with the combination, but found out that the Michelin is a bias tyre, and the Bridgestone BT-020 is a radial.

Not that I'm superstitious or anything, I just wondered if the radial Exedra would be better. I have to confess I can't tell the difference.

BTW, this is on my NZ Cali 1400 Custom, not the ex RentaGuzzi one.
 
Bridgestone Rear Battlax BT-020 200/60VR-16 Blackwall Tire - 034485
$144.88 + $5 tire fee at Dennis kirk.


?..why go to a 180 when a stock size available?
 
Wish I could. It was hard enough finding a Cali 1400, but I have no problem scraping the floor boards with the Dunlops!
I'm not impressed with the mileage though. I'll be changing around 5000 miles I reckon.
I've been following some here about the Avons and have been pricing them out.
My ST1300 originally came with Bridgestone BT-020fs. Handled well. Decent mileage but a common complaint with that bike was a high speed weave. The 020s have a sine wave center groove on the front. I went to the Metzler Z6 Roadtecs and it was gone.

I always liked matching front and rear tires but I will consider the Excedra front and Battlax 020 rear now.
Watching this thread carefully.
 
sir fred said:
My ST1300 originally came with Bridgestone BT-020fs. Handled well. Decent mileage but a common complaint with that bike was a high speed weave. The 020s have a sine wave center groove on the front. I went to the Metzler Z6 Roadtecs and it was gone.

I always liked matching front and rear tires but I will consider the Excedra front and Battlax 020 rear now.
Click to expand...

The Excedras have a "zig-zag" centre groove (straight portions of 45mm connected by 5mm portions @ 45°). You may reject them for this reason.

But I doubt these or the BT-020 fronts (which are not available in 130/70 x 18) would cause any high speed weave. This is often a characteristic of too large a rear tyre in my experience.
 
kiwi dave said:
The Excedras have a "zig-zag" centre groove (straight portions of 45mm connected by 5mm portions @ 45°). You may reject them for this reason.

But I doubt these or the BT-020 fronts (which are not available in 130/70 x 18) would cause any high speed weave. This is often a characteristic of too large a rear tyre in my experience.
Click to expand...
I am fitting a Michelin pilot Road 4 GT 120/18 front next week with the existing Excedra max [which has been better than the Dunlop] then fitting Avon Cobra to rear before the Burt. What do ya reckon??????
 
Smartleynz said:
I am fitting a Michelin pilot Road 4 GT 120/18 front next week with the existing Excedra max [which has been better than the Dunlop] then fitting Avon Cobra to rear before the Burt. What do ya reckon??????
Click to expand...

I replaced the OEM Dunlop 251 tires with Avon Cobra tires. So far, the Avons feel better (well, they ARE new) and I think they will continue to perform better than the stock tires. This is my eighth set of Avons so far and the previous seven (on different bikes) all gave very good feel and mileage.
 
Just installed the Avon Cobras. Never used Avons before, on any bike. They feel REAL good - hope they last longer than the Dunlops (5400 miles - RIDICULOUS!).
 
Also installed the Avon Cobra's last week on my recently acquired Cali 1400. I fit a good number of these on Harley's in my shop, and our customers like 'em. Good handling wet or dry, smooth riding and quiet.
 
I love the feel and grip of my Avons in both the dry and wet. I have about 4,000 miles on them and while the front looks like it is doing ok I am thinking 6,000 is going to be about it for the rear. Can't tell for sure though. Maybe they will do better. It sucks how short the life is with a 200 series tire on a low power cruiser. When I ran sport tires on my sport bikes and got 6,000 to 8,000 miles out of them while abusing them I understood. Yes the bike is heavier and spends more time straight up and down but this is terrible. Harley guys I know get 10k to 15k out of tires.
I put Metzler Karoo3's on my V-Strom and they will make almost 5k and they are basically a knobby.
 
I've had a few Harleys and concur that the factory tires are capable of delivering fairly decent mileage. However, I've never kept them on long enough to find out personally.

I've never found a factory Harley tire that I liked well enough to keep until it was done. I always felt that the factory tires were designed for long distance, but not great handling, or good performance in bad weather.

My go to tire has been Avon and I've never been disappointed. Every time I've made the swap, I've wondered why I waited so long.

While I've not yet made the switch on my 1400 (here we go again!), it will probably happen before the weather gets bad.
 
Just got my first flat (rear tyre). Lucky I'm at home and have a motorcycle tyre shop just round the corner. Have found the screw buried in the tread . So I guess I have 2 choices? New tyre (only 2000km on the original tyre) or plug the tyre and get a tube. I bet the tyre shop will say a new tyre but is that going over the top?
 
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