Wearing in the center of a motorcycle tire is not because of too much pressure, it's because that's where the tire runs 95% of the time. If you run with lower pressure it builds more heat & thus more wear, it's always going to run on the center of the tire no matter how much or how little air you run in it. Ask any of the manufacturers & they will tell you that lower pressure will wear the tire out faster. Just because that's what causes a car tire to wear in the center doesn't mean the same is true on a motorcycle, a car tire is reasonably flat across the tread surface while a bike tire is rounded.

 

Heyyy Ke5rbd, best of luck to you. I didn't think of calling customer service to try and get action when my dealer said no. Should have tried a little harder. Hope it works for you. Cost me a few $ because I wanted to change Front and Rear to match.

 

Thanks for all the information. I went to the dealership today, but being Friday evening they were extremely busy so didn't talk to them about tire cupping. I will catch them next week as I try to visit atleast 2 or 3 or 4 times a week. I tell everyone I am getting even with them by trying to drink as much of there coffee as I can. In fact when I pulled in today the Salesman I bought bike from opened the door and said he was just thinking about me. He had to replace the coffee pot and was brewing the first pot and knew I would be there. Of course I didn't disappoint him and got the first cup. This is my first new post and I am supprised at all the quick responses.

 

Averaged around 11k on the 402,15k on the 407.I'll be changing here shortly.It's worn very well.Quite a few here say they're getting 15-16k out of the 407 with no problems.I'm 235 and ride solo.

 

ok sounds right!

 

At the risk of sounding like the Dealer, its normal, I got 15200 out of mine and still had a few 32nds left.

 

This is exactly what I was getting ready to say as I was reading through the posts. Unless you're carving canyons on your bagger this will always be the case.

As far as getting a tire with 11,000 miles on it replaced under warranty, I tend to feel like that borders on fraudulent. On both the bike owner's part and the replacing dealer's part. Face it - it's worn to the point that it's unreasonable to expect it to perform as well as a brand new tire.

I wouldn't count on a free replacement. Heck, I wouldn't even feel right asking.

 

Why would you consider that fraud? My front 407F had plenty of tread left at 12K. The rear as well. I had been hearing the noise and had some vibration at certain times, but didn't really understand what was going on until I noticed the cupping was getting worse. Some of the forum members started talking about a recall on the 407F on 09's. The Dealer who replaced my tires said they were selling the rest of their 09's with the 407F and offering to replace them then or let the customer ride them as long as they wanted, then come in for new tires under warranty. I've got over 13K on my 2010 RK and both front and rear will probably go another 6K or more.

 

I replaced the original Dunlop rear on my 2010 Limited with an Avon Cobra at around 13K. The Dunlop was cupping badly even though it had some tread left.

I just replaced the Avon rear tire yesterday. I got 15K out of that one. It was starting to cup but it wasn't nearly as bad as the Dunlop.

 

My comment on fraudulent is purely hypothetical. Without seeing the tire this is all speculation based on my own experience. I have never in my life gotten more than 10,000 miles out of a rear tire, but then again I never had a Touring bike until now.

My Limited has 6,000 miles on it and the rear tire is about 1/2 gone. It looks like it might go to 12,000 or 13,000 before I have to replace it.

My comment on getting a tire with 11,000 miles on it replaced under warranty is based on my experience - If it's going to need to be replaced because of wear at 12 or 13K, how could I in good conscience expect to have it replaced under warranty when it's over 90% worn.

Now if I were given the option of taking delivery of a new bike and coming back for a free replacement tire at a future date, heck yeah, I'd jump on that offer and ride the original to the cords.