[hannibal]

Hi bross,
9.5oo km j think to change the front tire at 12.ooo. ( around 7.ooo miles)

please post which tires you installed . only tires different from the orginal equiment.

j would appreciate also your coments.

j examined with the tire man and he is telling me that the original equiment should be as sport tires.

j found some posts about tires but a database about the total experience should be of interest for all.

Ciao from italy.
Hannibal

 

[KenCrawleySC]

I am on my 3rd front tire. This one is the same as the Goldwing. It works great too.

 

[Rich Oas]

Goldwing Front Tire on Rune

Ken
I didn't think anything would fit the front of a Rune except OEM tire aka Dunlop.... so what is the tire size? Do you notice a difference? Price? I replaced my original at 8600 ...should have done it at 7500... Now have 11500 and it appears I am getting much better wear... Don't know if I have enough miles on it yet to prove anything but I am doing 2 things different. I am maintaining 40psi Front and Rear and I quit scalloping the highway. The Rune carves so nicely, I was constantly carving sssss's while riding ... as well as carving turns between the white stripes at every opportunity. Maybe the combo of low tire pressure and all the turning got me on the first tire....we'll see.
Rich

 

[KenCrawleySC]

The new front tire is the Dunlop 130 size that is the OEM for the Gold Wing.
I cant recall right now what it is. I just rode from Charleston SC to Denver Colorado (1,650 miles). So I now have 2,000 miles on this front tire. Wear pattern is perfect. I run 40psi in my tires, and I have stopped doing all those peg-dragging S-turns for fun's sake.

 

[hannibal]

tires

Hi Ken,
tks for the news
the look of the tire is also very important.
Difficult here to find rune oem tires. as j have to change in 1/1.500 miles j suppose to order some pieces to Hall. Tomorrow j will be at a GW meeting and j check their tires.
Ciao

 

[Runerod]

Hi Ken, does the 130 look noticeably smaller than the 150 on the bike. I've seen smaller diameter tires fitted on Valks and I thought they looked a bit odd. I'd hate to mess up the looks of the Rune even a little bit. So what's your HO.

 

[KenCrawleySC]

The Gold Wing 130 front tire looks fine re. my Harley Buddy

My buddy John (drives a Road King Classic) told me before I left for Colorado that the Goldwing 130 tire looks much better than the 120 tire. The GW tire looks just fine. I am still running the 200 rear tire that is the D220 mate to the 120 tire that was on the front.

Oh, as to a passenger here in the mountains: I cant even tell she is on the back. The Rune makes molehills out of the mountain roads out here in coloroado. Gee, we dont have squat for hills in the LowCountry of South Carolina. I am spoiled.

 

[Runerod]

Looks better than the 120? Do you mean 150 or did you fit a 120 on your bike at some time?

 

[KenCrawleySC]

The 120 front tire was my tire #2. It lasted 7,500 miles.
The GW front tire is a 130 and is my current tire #3.
This pic is with the GW tire on:

 

[chaseman]

Front Tire

I had only 7000 miles on the front tire and it was trashed. I did a lot of research and found out that Bridgestone makes a tire in a 150/60/18 and they also make the rear tire size in a 180/55/17. They are great looking tires and I love them so much better than the dunlops. You can go on the web www.tiresunlimited.com , they are called Bridgestone Battlax BT014. 8)

 

[RedValk]

two things about this post (next one above)

...one, i took the liberty to edit it and change the URL. You put a comma right after the URL, and the comma became part of the URL. Therefore, if you clicked on the URL link, it took you to an error message....as the URL did not exist (with the comma stuck in it). I just added an extra space before the comma (note you can also post URL info by clicking on the URL button up on the top of of your post when creating it....click on URL...then copy or type the URL...then click on URL*. That way this problem with the comma wouldn't happen.

second, i was interested in the tires....but when i went to the web site....just as some one else commented on these tires on another thread, the tire you listed for the front (150/60/18 ) is actually a REAR tire. that's a no go......so these tires won't work (not the 'front' one anyway).


I've done exhaustive (or should that be extensive? :wink: ) research on that front tire....and right now....NO ONE makes a front tire in THE size of our front tire. PERIOD. You can go smaller....but you can't get the size we have. And i won't go smaller. It's not manly to go smaller :twisted:

i want to go a little bigger in the rear tire too....but i want a matched pair. So i'm waiting to find someone....ANY VENDER...that makes a front tire IN OUR SIZE....and....a 190 or 200 for the rear. So far, NONE do.

 

[KenCrawleySC]

I have long since forgotten what it is like to have the big front tire. The 130 Gold Wing tire seems to be just fine. Did you read that my Metzeler 210 rear tire is "rubbing" some? It did not start until either it was I increased the pressure to 43 or, was it the fat chick I hauled around the area? Dont know. I will go back to a 200 rear next time.

The wear pattern on the GW front tire is strange. It is like the center tread is brand new, and on both sides it is getting eaten away. I mean, gee, I ride 500 miles/week on the interstate to/from work. Straight line driving.

I got my Amber LED clusters for my "upper" turnsignal lights, finally.
http://www.customdynamics.com
They are bright! At $95 for the pair, they better be! I will post a digi pic of my Rune's lights "ON" now that I found my digicam.
Ken (23,325 miles)

 

[RedValk]

yea....i'm into that 'big is better' thing. big front tire....even bigger rear. Saw where your rear tire is rubbing. i won't go bigger than 190...200 tops. might even just put a 180 on again. i'm hearing that taking a 200....and putting it on our rim...while it will fit, makes it bow more and makes the profile such that the center will wear out prematurely. If that's true, your 200 rear tire should not have lasted as long as your 180 did...of course...assuming similar material/rubber/design. put another way, it might cause premature wear for the center of the tire...as the profile will not be as flat?

On the front tire wear, that is exactly the same wear i get on my OEM Dunflop'. center never wore out....sides....ESPECIALLY right side (facing the bike) wore WELL BEYOND the wear bars...to almost nothing! Only got 9000 out of my front...and it was way past when i should have replaced it. It was really toast by about 7500-8000.

Nope, i want a MINIMUM of 150 on front and minimum of 180 on back. Prefer to go to a 190 or 200 on back...if it fits proper.....

 

[chaseman]

Front Tire

I really beleive that even though this Bridgestone tire is a rear tire the way the tread design is should not cause any problems. A lot of tires out there have the same tread pattern for the front and rear tire. You put the same tires on front of your car as you do on the back. If you pull up this tire you will see that the way the tread pattern is you shouldnt have any problems in turning and I think I will have better turning now than I did with those terrible Dunlops. 8)

 

[KenCrawleySC]

Yo RedValk

Your explaination about the rear tire wearing prematurely makes sense. I had plenty of tread before heading out to Colorado, then, on the return in Paducah KY the CENTER of my 200 tire was down to the cord! Surely my habitual high speed has nothing at all to do with the center of the tire wearing out.
ken

 

[KenCrawleySC]

My rear Metzeler is the "ME 880 Marathon" size 210 The rubbing has not gotten worse. I guess the extra rubber wore off. If it continues to behave, I may get another one. Meanwhile _ I will check the info on the ME4s.

Update: look at my website: the 210 size just burned itself up waay too soon.

Kenhttp://ken.crawley.org/18.html

 

[KenCrawleySC]

210 Metzeler Tire Rubbing - NOT ! And Rear End Gear Oil Chg

When I took my cover off to put Tom's Pointed Bolts on I saw that what had happened was a tarry-rock-glob must have gotten caught between the tire and the swingarm. That is why it did not happen the first 3,000 miles and has not gotten worse. The remnants of some tar and gravel were on top of the swingarm.

I have to stop doing burnouts in the tarpits I guess :wink:


Oh, another note: since I am almost at 24,000 miles, while I had the rearend accessible, I drained it and replaced it with my mixture of Amsoil 80W gear oil and 1oz of Dow Corning Gearguard M (a mixture of molybdenumdisulfide for EP enhancement. Since I did this at 3,000 miles and noticed a "pencil eraser" amount of metallic goo on the drain plug magnet I was interested to see how much wear has happened in 20,000 miles of hard riding with lots of downshifting (my brake pads are still new)... and I found about 1/4 of a "pencil eraser" amount of metal goo.
Edit 1July08: just a remineder....I put tungsten disulfide 0.6 micron powder, 2 Tablespoons in the rear end and at 47,000 miles there was practically NO metal goo on the drain plug magnet with about 23,000 miles on the rear end oil.
Ken (23,400 miles)

 

[JakesBoss]

Tim, been reading some old posts...

Would be nice if we could sticky this. Is it possible to combine a couple of posts into one...cutn'paste? There is a pile of good tire info from past threads... it would be nice to have them all under one roof. Ken seems to have the most experience with mileage, lots of good (actual) info.

Kevin

the only probelm i have with stickies....is....one has to be careful to not get TOO many ....or....you kind of defeat the point in my mind. IE...you want to have a LIMITED number of stickies...so they are up top....easy to find. If you start putting TOO MANY sticky posts....next thing you know, a WHOLE BUNCH of stuff is up top...and it's no longer THAT easy to find the post you want. Granted, we aren't to THAT point yet. but just for example, this is the SECOND topic someone has asked me to sticky.....JUST TODAY. So, do the math. if i get one or two every few days.....and if i actually did them all....it wouldn't take long to have a whole bunch of pages of stickies. and in that case, it would still be somewhat hard to find the info you wanted (though slightly easier than searching, i suppose)....and....now, when a NEW post was made in that section...it wouldn't show up on the first page! you'd have to start wading thru a page or two of sticky posts...to get to a new post just made! that would suck........Tim

 

[stewie]

"mmmmm pictures....."

 

[3putt]

Today I changed my OEM front tire for one just like it. I got 10,295 miles on it and it still had some tread remaining. With the rain season just around the corner, I wanted lots of tread. The rear tire is starting to show some wear-its difficult to estimate whats remaining.