Please give me your input on front tire replacement.If you know an approx. cost please include it in your reply.

thanks in advance,
T K

 

I got 20,000 miles out of my front tire. Was very happy with the way it handled so I replaced it in like kind. I probably could have got another 2,000 out of it but changed it because of heading out West. I won't ride on suspect tires.

 

Wife only got around 11,000 out of the stock front tire on her XXX. Maybe could have got another thousand but changed it for a trip. It was at the wear bars anyway. Put an Avon Venom on it and it's starting to cup some and maybe half gone at 12,000 since it went on. I like Venoms as they stick well in rain and are unruffled by rain grooved roads. I bought the Venom at American Moto tire online for I think $115 dollars. $25 to get it mounted and balanced at the dealer.

 

Im running a rear Dunlop on the front of my trike in reverse direction. So far after 5k miles there has been no handling issues both with wet roads or cornering. The advantages of the rear tire are deeper tread for longer wear and a flater profile for more contact patch of the tire on the road.

 

I have seen several post where people have said they use a rear tire mounted backwards to replace a worn out front time. What size and brand rear tire are you using to replace the stock tire? Are you still using the stock rear tires to replace the origional tires?

Thanks

Glenn

 

Dunlop D402 MT90HB16 rear tire mounted in reverse direction is what Im using. I have seen a few other use a Bridgestone Battleax BT45 rear

 

Curious, why would you mount a rear tire reverse its normal rotation? Whether it's on the front or the rear its turning the same direction.

 

I have about 16,000 miles on mt 2010 and have 2/32 of tread left. I've been satisfied with the handling of the stock front tire so I bought a new one yesterday at the Iron Pony in Westerville, Ohio for $125.99. I could have purchased it on line for a few bucks less at Iron Pony or bought on line from the folks in Utah for $107.00. The reason I went to the store location was to pick the tire I wanted based on manufacture date. The newest one I found was made in the 24th week of 2011. On line you get what they pull from the rack. You probably will be fine with a place that sells a lot of tires because their stock should turn over rather quickly and they wouldn't have old stock sitting around.

As a side note; I asked the dealership where I had the 15,000 mile service done what it would cost for a stock tire mounted and balanced. Answer was; $300.00 for the tire and $75.00 to mount and balance plus weights and tax. My answer was; you gotta be sh___en me.

When checking your tread depth keep in mind that a new tire, and the one I just purchased, starts out at 5/32 tread depth. I believe someone posted a while back that their dealer told them they needed a new front tire because the tread was down to 3/32. If there wasn't other problems with the tire I believe the dealer was just rying to sell a high priced tire.

 

When the rubber is laid the layers of the rubber are laid to accept the force from acceleration so it wont pull them apart. The back tire layers are backwards to the front tire and for that reason to run a rear tire on the front it must be reversed in rotation. Forces on a front tire are due to the push the tire gets front riding 2 wheel bikes. Most rear tires have a rotation arrow on the side to tell you the direction its mounted.

Trikes only wear a small strip down the middle of a motorcycle front tire. Additionally motorcycle front tires are crowned higher for handling and the front tires generally only have 8/32" tread depth brand new. If you get the opportunity to compare a stock 130/90 16 rear tire to a 130/90 16 front tire side by side you will see the difference in depth of tread and the flatter profile of the rear tire compared to the front

 

Rubber is not layered. The belts are layered and the rubber is injection molded. As far as reverse rotation is concerned. Some dealers WILL NOT mount a tire against the directional marking but I did see where one manufacturer actually recommmended the reverse mounting due to the directional cut of the tread for rain traction control, not because of direction of the belt layers. I guess very hard braking on the front tire might similate the torque action applied at the rear wheel. But the rear tire gets the HP and TQ action every time we accelerate where the front tire would only get a tiny amount of that under braking. Certainly not enough to shift the belting. Does the rear tire not get that same against the belt directional force action very time we brake? And if you compare that faltter profile then you need to compare both tires when mounted on the same exact rim size because how they compare unmounted or mounted on different size rims is not even close to how they actually shape up when mounted. The difference in contact patch is very slight but you are right in that front tires normally have a 5/32 tread depth where rear tires normally have 8/32. But contact patch for the same size tire on the same rim is very similar, front or rear designated.