Stock tires Wear at Only 3100 miles?

[Man]

Hey guys so I read around about tire wear and saw people getting around 6-8 thousand miles on their stock tires. I was inspecting my tires today and saw the front tire was ripped on the sides. The rear however was fine. I dont know if I should replace them or keep using untill this riding season is over? I only have about 3100 miles on them so should I wait untill the end of the season to get them replaced.

 

[MattEnTheHat]

My front tire is like that too. I just asked the dealer about it today and he said it was nothing to worry about. Not entirely sure I believe that, but the tire is pretty much bald anyways, so it is kind of a moot point in my case because I need a new tire nonetheless.

 

[dart1963]

That's normal, you are looking for the tread depth wear.
Motorcycle tires take more stress and get bits of rubber like that as you use them.

Check out how bad they look after a track day, just the way the tires heat/cool down and leave bits of rubber...

 

[RoadTrip]

I actually trust the grip more out of a scrubbed tire than a nice slick looking one, you should be getting good traction, just keep an eye on them - sportbike tires are designed to take a lot of abuse, the carcass inside is keeping you safe, a ratty outside is typically not a big deal

 

[Man]

Thanks, yeah i knew they couldnt be that bad with only a few miles of commuting. That track day tire looks badass...

 

[adamo3957]

Tyres in general have a golden rule, heck this rule applies to everything.

Shiney = Slippery

So metal grates, painted marks on the road, etc, all slippery.

You'll notice the tiny little tears are where you are wearing the rubber.

So when you get confident in them you'll see less shiney bits, as you start to lean more.

Tyre wear occurs in different ways depending on the riding.

Light road riding - little tears (these tears are actually from the tyre biting into the asphalt).

Hard road riding - little knurling starts to appear. (You'll see the rubber has been starting to melt and form little bobbles)

Light Track riding, road tyres - as per hard road riding.

Hard track riding, road tyres - again light knurling appearing, also you'll notice a blueish tinge/band appear on the edges of the tyre, this is where heat cycling is taking effect.

Light track, track tyre - as per hard track road tyres, take note of that blue band appear. track tyres also wear in heat cycles, this is the real reason for tyre warmers. 6 heat cycles are the normal before considering disposal or selling for road... (this is monitored with tread wear and each rider makes his own decision.)

Hard track, Track tyre - This is wear they look awesome. tyres ripple and are left with imprints of the tarmac. At this level your running slicks and replacing tyres after 2-3 track days at best, you're eating rubber, and running lower tyre pressures for bigger contact patches, I'm talking 22-24 psi, you can't run this gear on the road. This is dedicated track/race level gear.


A note on heat cycle's.

What is a heat cycle?

Well as rubber is heated and cooled repeatedly, it hardens. To hard and no grip.

If you go out for a session, and come back in without using tyre warmers, consider that one heat cycle. The tyre will now be cold when you next go out, and once it's warmed up your on the next heat cycle.

If you come in, and put the tyre warmers back on, you keep the tyre's hot, so they are still on the same cycle, and they are grippy on that first lap out, even better .

Tyre tech is moving fast, in a few years this will be out of date and there will be new trends and equipment required.

And that folks is everything I can be bothered to write...

 

[mrollings53]

I just got more than 12000 out of my stock Bridgestones, and the rear tire still had a couple thousand miles on them. I only replaced them because the front tire looked like a trapezoid instead of a circle. By the way, keep your tires properly inflated to avoid that.

 

[Bert-Aus]

I just got more than 12000 out of my stock Bridgestones, and the rear tire still had a couple thousand miles on them. I only replaced them because the front tire looked like a trapezoid instead of a circle. By the way, keep your tires properly inflated to avoid that.

They wear "trapezoid" like due to the side edges being softer compound rubber than the central wear strip.
Cornering more equals greater wear on the edges than the centre harder compounds.

 

[linkgt]

From my experience, the stock tires ended up being pretty crap(09 bike). The rear tire didnt last too long, and the front tire started growing bubbles...

 

[Man]

Thanks for the tips... hope to get a few thousand more miles before replacing....

 

[Maadi]

I don't do much hard cornering, my tires wear out in the middle first due to highway commuting. My (2011 bike) rear stock tire lasted about 8800 miles, my front tire is still looking good (worn, but OK) at 10600.

 

[zcypher]

9000km on mine so far and they look fine to me. Curious to see how long they'll last!