For what it's worth I'll give you my tire wear experiencefor no other reason thanyou can compare it to your experience. I bought my05 1200 Clast April with 1300 miles on it. At 10,000 I replaced the front and now with 15,000 I'm having the rear replaced this coming Tuesday.

 

Wow, that is SUPER goodmileage. I still have my orginal front, but my back was worn out at 7500 miles.

 

I replace both the front and rear Dunlop's on my bikes at around the 10,000 to 11,000 mile mark.

Usually there is still quite a bit of tread left on them (especially the rear), but I put a lot of higher speed interstate miles on my bikes and like to have 'fresh tires'.

 

I replaced my rear just after 17k and still have my front...though it's due.

 

Just noticed the rear is to the wear indicators at around 8500 on my 06 1200C. Front is still good.

 

You would think the rear would wear out before the front. What gives?

 

I replaced both at 15,300 miles. The rear was almost down to the wear indicator, but still had some tread left, the front was in great shape, but since I changed brand of tires, I wanted a matched set on the bike.

 

I know. That has been my experience in the past with bikes I've owned. The best I can figure out it is two things. One, the tire on the front is extremely narrow compared to the rear and, two,most of the miles I put on my bike are in the twisties and because of the counter steering involved with the front wheel in cornering that is the reason for the faster wear on the front.

 

I would agree with that accessment. From what I've seen, for the twisty roads the smaller and wider front tire on the standard and low Sportsters last longer. Oh, and I guess the Roadster and Nightster also have the same size front tire. I do both highway riding and a lot of twisty riding, I think my front tire would probably have lasted for 25,000 miles.

 

That and also it depends a lot on your riding style.

If you use the front brake more than the rear (which most do), it will accelerate the slight scuffing/tread wear on the front tire.

And as was already mentioned, the narrower front tire has a smaller footprint to distribute the weight of the bike and rider.

Also, look at the initial new tires tread depth of a tire.

For example;

A new Dunlop D401 16" rear tire has a tread depth of 10/32", while a new Dunlop D402 21" front tire has a tread depth of only 5/32".

Normally a tire with a tread depth of 5/32" will wear out quicker than a tire with a tread depth of 10/32".