Tire opinions please

[Idaho]

I bought a set of ME880's this spring and the rear tire is completely worn out after 11,000 miles. I hoped to take the bike this weekend to a meeting but it is a 250 round trip. Unless I can find a new tire tomorrow and get it installed Friday I'm cagin it. Probably will not find a ME880 in captivity anywhere close so I'm thinking about looking for a Dunlop. The question is does anyone have an opinion on mixing a front ME880 with 11,000 miles with a new Dunlop rear tire? The front ME880 is a radial tire. Thanks, Idaho

[dkdixie]

If your rear is a radial, and I assume it is since you have radial front, I would not be afraid to do it.
The experts do not recommend radial front and bias rear.

I've been riding with a ME880 Metz radial rear and stone bias front.
Actually tracks better than the two bias Bridgestones.

[kawgirl]

I had the same set up as dk before I ended up with the Elite 3's. I changed the rear first to the Elite because it needed to be changed before my trip to the mountains. I now have Elite's on both tires and really like them.

[Idaho]

Thank you both for your replies. I had a feeling that this was the case but another member of my local riding group claimed that mixing tire brands was a no-no. I will see what I can find locally.

[macmac]

You can mix brands fine.. If the bike is a 1600 Nomad, and or it has the 4.5 ID rear wheel you might consider the Dunlop Sp Sport 5000 in 195/60/R16 on the rear. These run apx 113 bucks, and you won't wear it out in no 11,000 miles either.

Of course this means another one bite the dust going to the "Dark Side", but it made my 1600 Nomad predictable, and I ain't never lookin' back.

I did use Dyna beads and like them too. No more wheel weights for me, which is going to hurt my re-loading bench, but I don't care. I will use other peoples old wheel weights.

If you to decide to go this way, I used 51 psi to set the beads and that took 3 tries letting the air out each time and working spoons where the tire fought back a little.

I found for my bike 36 psi works over all ranges of speeds and is my best psi. Wet grass, dirt roads, doing 100, all work fine... I have more traction, tar snakes went south, Some one stole all the painted lines, and I need to think about hangin' on to my teeth when I stop..

I like the slight bit more hold countersteering, because it makes everything so stable. No more pinging rocks into the woods on the 1/2 mile driveway, No more shimmy on cracks in the road runing the same way i am going.

No more shimmy on wore bridges and none on the figure 8 road grind when a main road is fixed..

I still have the junk brick up front unfortunately, but believe the Dunlops E III will jusy make what is very good better, when I can drop that dime.

Ok so now everyone can start yelling at me..

[Idaho]

Hey Mac, thanks for the advice. I will look for that tire next summer when I wear out the Dunlop D251 that I bought today for 240 bux. Ouch. Can't believe how bad that Metzler was when I got it off the bike. It was actually starting to scrub rubber off the center of the tire. Good thing I looked.

[macmac]

Here is the old brick I was on... I hope yours wasn't worse than this junk.

[macmac]

Just check that out. The wear at the botton against the white plywood shows the tire isn't worn symetrical. That is no camera trick...

[Idaho]

That looks a lot like the 880 that I just threw away. Mine was flat on the top with sides angling away at sharp angles. Actually started to scrub rubber off the flat surface in the center of the tire. Dyna beads were transfered to the new tire. Inside of the 880 was covered with a fine powder so fine that it looked and felt liquid. Have a feeling that the dyna beads scrubbed down the inside of the tire. Did not appear to compromise the integrity of the tire and the beads are doing their job inside the new Dunlop.

[dogdoc]

So mac you like that car tire on the 1600?? if it works so well why do people pay higher prices for motorcycle tire that wears out in 11,000 miles or less?? why did you find it? and of course a person would have to put it on themselves because no dealer is getting involved in Nico-madness. :-)

Originally Posted by Doc (Lonewolf)

So mac you like that car tire on the 1600?? if it works so well why do people pay higher prices for motorcycle tire that wears out in 11,000 miles or less?? why did you find it? and of course a person would have to put it on themselves because no dealer is getting involved in Nico-madness. :-)

It works amazingly well, Doc. Visit "Riding the Darkside" for objective info!


Mad Nico

[hangon702]

240 for a tire- ouch

[macmac]

Originally Posted by Doc (Lonewolf)

So mac you like that car tire on the 1600?? if it works so well why do people pay higher prices for motorcycle tire that wears out in 11,000 miles or less?? why did you find it? and of course a person would have to put it on themselves because no dealer is getting involved in Nico-madness. :-)

That tire cost me 113 bucks and is super great.. I was somewhat reluctant myself to try it, but I recalled in the 60's many mc tires were square... I also still have a 1981 yammi xs850sh with dunlop mc touring tires which have out lasted the sidewalls tread wise with 24,000 on the ft, and 20,000 on the rear, with both still legal tread. Of course these are sun cracked to death, and I will only push the mint bike around untill I can afford new tires and a battery.

So it hasn't been this way 'always'.

Why do people spend for things they know they might not like? I have no idea. Me and money don't usually add up in the same sentace... What little money I come by, comes hard.

I don't like buying 2 tires per season for the rear of any bike and I am not a sport bike rider sliding in corners. If I was I would buy tires that wear out in 4,000 miles.

I can't even understand how you are getting the miles on your rear that you are, but I believe you. I do not consider myself to be a aggressive rider either, but it lends the idea you must be less aggresive than I am. I also see others more like you than me as that tire as shown was just under 8,000 miles.

Cadd says i ride as if I had a bowl of goldfish on pillon.

I was seeking two things... less cost, and more wear. Since I don't expect a great deal in handling on a heavy cruiser, and not nearly the lean abgles the 850 can do, and far from the acceleration the 850 can do, and no darting in and out of twisties like the 850 can do, I was expecting less than the brick could do and much less than the metzlers I had on the stolen 01 could do..

Well I was wrong.... This Dunlop Sp Sport 5000 does it all better than any brick or metzler and I will never ever go back.

Yeah no car tire shop is going to mount it. If you do find one that will, bring him a 12 pack for a tip. To me mounting a tire isn't all that hard since I did it as a living once anyway. I worked on English cars with spoked wheels and built the wheels from parts.

If you tried that on a machine in my day, you were going to bend a lot of spokes at the first get go. The old Coats 10-10 would kill a wheel like that.

With 3 steel spoons and a apple crate made of 1/4" thick for crap wood I lubed the dead tire and pulled it off. I used 2 big C clamps to break the bead. Not exactly hi tech. It took maybe 3 minutes to get the old rubber off the wheel, and a few more moments to clean the wheel. I dried off the wheel as I had used water with dish soap to remove the tire.

Getting the ct on the rim was easier yet, but it didn't want to set upon the bead when I added air. I read the lable on the tire at that point and saw 51 psi was max.. So I let out the air I had and worked the spoons in the sticky spot, misted more silicon on the rubber and the rim and tried again. That failed, and so I tried again, and the 4th try worked. I had about 1/2 hour in it so far.

When it set to the bead i tried installing the wheel with air and could not get it to pass the gear box. So I let the air out again, and then it went in easy.

I had just serviced the entire swingarm and all that goes with it as well. I didn't much like the rust I found on the singarm bolt and or the center spacer, which was rusting inside and out. I got that all wire bushed up as nice as i could, but the rust stains will be there forever.

I don't understand "Why did I find it?"

I wasn't the first one by any means, but I might be the second one to use this particular tire on a 1600 Nomad.

It works and iot works better than any mc tire going that I know of. And it works at all speeds and all surfaces far better to me than any mc tire going..

It tamed the tar snakes, the long cracks, and odd broken surfaces, at highway speeds. It tamed any painted lines.. It tamed the lousey feel in the twisties... with a under steer like feel, making me work about 3 inch pounds harder to hold the bike down in countersteer, but I like that feel.

I like reducing pressure and having the bike want to pop up and be straight. I like it on wet grass which I must ride in the field out back sometimes. I like it on the loose sand and packed dirt driveway into this place.

No more do the steep rounded side walls ping rocks into the woods and set the rear end over a inch. I can ride on this dirt faster with less problems than I ever did.

The rear brake really has grip as the tire grabs better than any mc tire.

In the twisties i can go faster, and lean down more, for a little more thrill. There is a set of curves on good paved road nearing Rt 25 and more main rural road, and I can drag my boards there if I want with ease and feel stable doing it. I never had that feeling on the brick..

The whole experience has been positive and I can't find anything bad about it...

I do what I do for myself, because there is no way first of all I can afford 80 bucks an hour shop rates... 2nd of all I haven't ever met the tech that can do better for me than I can for myself.

Cadd is no tech, but he is better than any tech I ever met.. he works on other peoples bikes as if the bike were his. I can find no fault in the mannor he works. He will do the right thing in the right place and techs don't.

Techs are racing the clock and skip things in the details to beat the clock. Sometimes they really beat the clock skipping to many things. That comes from greed to move on to the next job, or the fact they just don't know how.

There are a heck of a lot of techs that can't even ride the Nomad.

In Chadron Nebraska 2 so called techs worked on my 01 Nomad after the crash. They broke more things than the crash did. Pinched the air lines betwwen my shocks which i didn't find for awhile. Some how missed all th wire loom hangars replacing the rear fender, and the owner test drove the bike and missed the fat the harness was rubbing to death on the rear tire..

I found that with broken ribs and was forced to wait 1.5 hours for them to fix it. These 2 so-called techs were all wide eyed at the thought of riding the Nomad..

From that dealer to Cadds place each day i found more flaws in the work. i found so many before I left South Dakota that I refused to sign off on the damaged bike to Progeressive, and took it back up in Cal.

The very day the Progressive folks came to Cadd's house, just as they drove up I found yet another loose bolt getting ready to do in the new saddle bag on the right..

Working at Cadds we found a bad U joint.. The bike was all apart ft end too, and so knowing I was on good times, took the shaft to the dealer to get another.

Well the dealer would have none of that, so Cadd had to put the whole bike back together, and we took it back the next day.

That dealer used a incorrect exhaust gasket.. One correct and the other not! How the heck did they do that?

The bike was all stock then, but not the day after that, as all what the dealer did was un-done and the bike got new rubber around, and Cadd's kit, a used TFI modual, and baggers. So finding the wrong gasket wasn't hard to do.

I don't trust dealers. Most techs don't stay techs long... So they never really get good. A high paid tech will never own a Nomad, or a big Harley, not on what they get paid.

Most techs BUY every tool they use. Only Sears so far as i know supplies the tools. I have well over 50,000 bucks tied up in old Snap On tools and am damnne glad I do.

I am not on the pay for life program, buying a new car each 3 years. I repair anything I have and make do with what I can get.

Some times my stuff is so old I can't get the right parts, so I make them from anything that works. That yammi has parts off the big 5 plus cars RV and more.

My volvo has odd assorted parts as well. I lost the green lenses for the turn sigs when I painted that car, and so made new ones from a green plastic quakerstate oil bottle.

So a ct for me is just better any way i look at it.. It will save me a dime, and be there a long time. When I did the swingarm I found no grease in any meaningful way, but you can bet the grease I put in there will last a long long time. I put in so much grease it came squishing out when I installed steel..

[dogdoc]

Interesting forum Dr. Darkside. Who will put on a car tire on a motorcycle if you dont want to mess with it?

[macmac]

Well Doc, any day you go out fer a loaf of bread, and it pops into yer head that a longer rode feels about right, I can rig it up for ya!

It is a heck of a lot easier for you to ride way up here than it is for me to bring tools all the way down there.