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[ST] Tire experience with 6 brands



Absolute mileage depends on a great many things, such as riding
style, road surfaces, and seasonal conditions (cold or hot roads).
I ride kind of hard. I tend to push the front tire. I like the
feel of gassing it out of corners. I also ride a lot of abrasive
bumpy roads. My only plus is I don't do a lot of high speed running,
70 to 80 is usually going fast for me. For all these reasons my
absolute tire mileage is poor.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. This means I don't see any
wet roads except in the winter. I ride all around California, but
mostly in the center part of the state and Sierra foothills. In
the wet winter I spend more time close to home, on roads I know
well. This means I ride a bit faster then when I am on strange
roads. So the winter is hard on tires, for me.

My current thinking about tires is:
	   Bridgestone BT020 - best value
	   Metzeler MEZ4 - best if you want a little better feel
			                      and traction.
	   Avon AV46ST - very close to the MEZ4, but cost a bit more
		                   	and are harder for me to find / buy.

While my absolute mileage figures may not mean anything to you, I
think my relative mileage can be used to compare different tire.
Below I have listed all the tire I have used on my 2000 Sprint ST.
I give a xx% mileage figure by normalizing my longest lasting
set of tires, Bridgestone BT020's.

Tires are listed in the order I used them.
The data is when I bought the tire.

- --- Rear tire, all 180/55 ---
 57% R#1 Metzeler Sportec M-1 went 2287 25-May-02
 	   Great tire, but the bike was new to me and I did not
 	   know much.  This tire was showing cord all the way around.

 66% R#2 Dunlop D220 went 2659 23-Jul-02
 	   Great tire, I though it was as good as the Sportec M1

100% R#3 Bridgestone BT020 went 4006 10-Sep-02
	    Longest lasting tire. The tire would slip a bit when
	   driving hard out of corners, something the M1 & D220
	   did not do. All in all this tire worked well for me.

 91% R#4 Metzeler MEZ4 went 3656 22-Oct-02
    Good tire, better feel and grip then the BT020

 90% R#5 Michilen Macadam 100X went 3625 3-Jan-02
	     (flat, might have gone over 100%)
	     I did not like the feel from this tire. It felt a bit
 	    squirmy. I was almost happy it got a flat.

 92% R#6 Avon AV46ST went 3823 3-Jan-03
 	    Very good tire, but I really thought it would last longer.
 	    However I did make a 1000 mile trip to Death Valley and
     back where I did a lot of high speed running.

 78% R#7 Avon AV46ST 5-Mar-03 at 3117
         (not yet replaced, I might get another 200 = 82%)
         Because the previous tire had worn the center out from
         too much straight line high speed, I tried a second AV46ST.
         This tire did not wear out just the center, wear was
         about normal. But it did not last long enough for me.
         NOTE: I did ride some wet roads with this tire. I think
         the Avon is a good wet tire. But I have limited wet
         riding experience.

- --- Front tire, all 120/70x17 ---

 53% F#1 Metzeler Sportec M-1 went 2563  30-May-02
  	Great tire

 67% F#2 Dunlop D220 went 3242  9-Aug-02
  	Great tire

100% F#3 Bridgestone BT020 went 4809 24-Sep-02
	 		Ok tire. The feel was nothing special, but ok.

 75% F#4 Metzeler MEZ4 went 3618 24-Sep-02
		 	Good tire, better feel then BT020

 ??% F#5 Michilen Macadam 100X went 2311?
							 NOT worn out, a little 
over half gone.
	 		Ok tire, nothing special. But since I did not like the
				         100x on the rear, I may not have noticed.
   	I replaced this tire early to test a matched set of
	          Avon AV45/46's.

 89% F#6 Avon AV45ST went 4301 17-Jan-03
 	         Good tire, about the same as the MEZ4

 ??% F#7 Avon AV45ST 21-Mar-03  ??
        Not replaced, but worn (2329 48%)
         NOTE: I did ride some wet roads with this tire. I think
         the Avon is a good wet tire. But I have limited wet
         riding experience.
- ----------------

David W. Funk
'00 Triumph Sprint ST
Pleasanton, CA






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