Front tire question

[Guest]

I need a new front tire on my 80 Gs1000G, Does the front tire need to be the same brand/model or anything as the rear? is there a brand you'd recommend? This bike had the Vetter windjammer, luggage, and trunk if that makes a difference. Thanks in advance for the help on the subject. Moneys kind of tight right now, but I still want it to be safe. I live in the mid ohio valley and we have some pretty twisty roads around here, and a good bit of interstate travel as well.
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[Brendan W]

No. Unless you push the bike real hard and like scraping the road or track ride and are down to measuring tenths of a second on times are are tricking your suspension to the last.
What's important is that it's the right size, not a rear only tire and is fitted the right way around and inflated properly and not old hard and dry.
Obviously you don't want to mix a knobbly mud tire with a dual compound cruiser tyre but that's not going to happen.
What have you got on each end at the moment ?
I run Continental Tk11 & 12 front and back and last time out changed the back to a Conti-Go (actually the tyre shop fitted it by mistake). No issues.
When I had the R100 the prevailing opinion was that if you didn't use matched pairs of Metzlers, bad things would happen. Guess what the sky did not fall.

[Steve]

How do you ride? How MUCH do you ride? Many of us ride on a surprising bargain, Shinko. Until a few days ago, all three of the GSes in our stable were wearing Shinko 230 TourMaster tires. Absolutely no problems with them. Severral other forum members that ride considerably more and considerably harder than we do have tried them and found them to be decent tires, with the only apparent limitation of limited life.

As Brendan mentioned, riding style has something to do with your choice, but since you are on a 1000 shafty with full touring equipment, we can guess that your primary concern is not racetrack use, but the Shinkos do happen to handle quite well, and they do that during their entire life.

You say that finances are a bit tight. A pair of Shinko 230s can be sent to your door for about $135, and it doesn't take much to spoon them on yourself. If you have to take the bike somewhere to have it done for you, expect to pay a bit more. The tire shop where I used to go would charge $25 per tire, if you bought the tires there, $35 per tire if you didn't. And that is if you brought in the wheels. They were not equipped to remove wheels from bikes, but I have heard that there are shops that will charge anywhere from $50-100 per wheel if they have to remove the wheel from the bike. Yeah, that takes it out of the "bargain" category, but those costs would still be there with more-expensive tires.

.

[Gorminrider]

The thing about "sets" is the difficulty of getting a set on these older bikes...
Your rims are probably not tubeless in 1980 but it's ok to put a tube in a tubeless tire except tubeless tires are harder to install at home especially without wrecking the tube in the process. either pay someone with the equipment or Practise on an old rim if you have one.
Shinkos are ok and I THINK the 230s steve mentioned have a harder center that wears longer on the rear...not sure about the front...Also look at Duros. They have a lot of older styles and fit a lot of bikes. They are inexpensive, have been making tires for many years and I quite like mine though I have smaller bikes than yours.

That said, don't feel that you're "budgetting" on tires- If you want Bridgestones or Contis or Metzler or Dunlop, stop eating and drinking for a month and get them.

[shameless]

The tire that was on the front is a CS Marquis, the rear is a Dunlop I think I payed about $85 for it last summer, havent been riding this summer due to the dry rotted front tire so it is a low mileage tire if that matters. Mostly I just cruise, I don't ride that hard anymore, but occasionally I like to crack the throttle in the turns, (not often) I think mine might be tubeless.

[shameless]

I do have a local shop that has a "never been used or mounted" Continental that was mistakenly ordered for a BMW, but he said he's had the tire for a year or two and would mount/bal. for $100. I worry about dry rot, is this an issue? Also, a local honda shop has a Dunlop for $130 includes mount/balance. Thoughts?

[mmattockx]

I do have a local shop that has a "never been used or mounted" Continental that was mistakenly ordered for a BMW, but he said he's had the tire for a year or two and would mount/bal. for $100. I worry about dry rot, is this an issue? Also, a local honda shop has a Dunlop for $130 includes mount/balance. Thoughts?

You can check the manufactured date on the Conti, but if you don't ride much it will get old long before it gets used up. $130 mounted and balanced for a skinny bias ply motorcycle tire is highway robbery.


Mark

[alke46]

I'll cast my vote for the Shinko 230 also. It's a very good, yet inexpensive option for you. You will get somewhere around 5-7K miles out of it and therefore, it doesn't have a chance to get "too old" before it's time for replacement. Nothing beats new shoes every year.

[DRB166]

I just got back into riding, so I'm trying to catch up. An auto tire has a lifespan of about 6 years due to off-gassing and road exposure to oil, water, sunlight, etc. If the tire was warehoused, out of sunlight, and wrapped, 8 years is considered maximum life (for an auto tire). Do motorcycle tires deteriorate at the same rate as auto tires?

[cowboyup3371]

I just got back into riding, so I'm trying to catch up. An auto tire has a lifespan of about 6 years due to off-gassing and road exposure to oil, water, sunlight, etc. If the tire was warehoused, out of sunlight, and wrapped, 8 years is considered maximum life (for an auto tire). Do motorcycle tires deteriorate at the same rate as auto tires?

The generally recommended life span for a motorcycle tire is 5 years

[Gorminrider]

$100 or a $130 is a good deal mounted. about the only thing to choose between these would be the age and maybe have a look at pictures of "pairs" on a website Try to find one with a tread pattern that looks like your rear tire and see what they have on the front as a pattern... failing a good rough match, then consider your rear pattern and reverse it for the front...this is what Avons do and I think it's common practise on tires that are used on both front and rear.
It's a bit nebulous but if you start with Not having a racing slick on the back with a knobby on the front...or mixing radials with bias and so forth...again, I'd expect you'll want to add the cost of a tube for a 1980 bike but that's because none of my 81s have tubeless rims. Not til 1982.

I just got back into riding, so I'm trying to catch up. An auto tire has a lifespan of about 6 years due to off-gassing and road exposure to oil, water, sunlight, etc. If the tire was warehoused, out of sunlight, and wrapped, 8 years is considered maximum life (for an auto tire). Do motorcycle tires deteriorate at the same rate as auto tires?

read this
Tread Carefully With Older Tires but dont sweat