Re: [ST] Are "sticky" tires worth it

["Rod Brown" <rodneybrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 10:47:33 -0500, John Petrey, Jr. wrote:
>
> >I realized several years ago that I wasn't really interested in saving
> >a couple hundred bucks a year on 'average-sticky' tires when I have
> >spend all the $ on bike(s), the millions of dollars worth of gear,
> accessories,
David replied
>
> While money is a prime motivator for me to buy longer lasting tires, it is
not
> the only one.
> 1) high end sport tires & trackday tires don't work too well when cold. So
if
> you are riding easy, they are not better then standard sport touring
tires.
> When you are just cruising along the tire is not up to full temperature.
If the
> unexpected shows up you will be lucky if you have as much grip as a
> "average-sticky" sport touring tire.
>
> 2) Many have almost no tread for wet riding.
>
> 3) Just before any longish trip the current tires never have enough
mileage
> left, so they need to be changed early. If a tire only lasts 2k, then look
at the
> odds of having enough tread for a 1000 mile weekend.
>
> 4) I hate changing tires. The "long lasting" sport touring tires don't
last very
> long as it is. Six sets of tires a year is enough already.
>

In my opinion David makes some excellent points.  My stock BT57's got 4.7K
and the replacement rear ME 4 isn't going to get much better, maybe less.  I
ride 500 mile days.  Don't care who you are, the wear for that kind of
riding is in the middle, NOT the edges.  Let me throw in a casual
observation from watching several lists which on the surface looks like a
totally different topic.  The guys who constantly talk about edge wear,
scraping panels, and scraping pegs seem to be the same guys who chime in on
the high side / low side crash experience threads.   My point is that I
believe the more time you spend at extreme angles, the higher the probablity
of wearing out your body parts and I don't mean plastic parts.  To extend
that point, maybe there is some logic in getting tires with better wear and
adequate stick at the edges.  I am going to be looking hard at the new Avons
for those exact reasons.  If there is really some touring in that ST,  I'm
not sure sticky is the way to go.   If you have dropped the T then sticky
probably is the way to fly.

Just my 2 pesos
Rod


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