News from Tire Xpert

More from your trusted source on many things. Today I will tell you about
the Avon Venom for the Valkyrie. It is widely known that the Avon is the
high mileage tire from the group currently available. I was curious, as I'm
sure many of you were, just how many miles I could get out of my set, and
knew to be completely accurate I would need to run the tire to air. If you
recall I spent Saturday Valkyrizing Big D's course. Sunday I (we, 2up)
settled in for a relaxing country ride out west. Just north of Graford, Palo
Pinto County, on Hwy 16. I noticed the rear end floating a little and I
became excited as I knew I had struck air. I quickly noted the odometer
reading, pulled over and sure enough a spot about 5" long had worn through
to and into the last set of threads. 17444.7 miles, rear tire, not bad, huh.
Perfect, none of this 'Well I think I could have gone another 1,000 miles'
for me. Bad thing was, no peanut fields out west.
Within 2 minutes a car stopped and offered help. Living right, like I do,
sure makes one lucky. How lucky was I?
Well -
1. Tire could have blown out rather than just leak down to squirrelliness
1a. Tire could have blown out the day before in Big D.
2. I had a truck and a trailer stashed about 10 miles from the tire problem
location
3. That Mexican family stopped instead of joining the march and gave me a
ride to the truck/trailer.

I know some non-riders will think what I did was stupid. But envelope
pushers like me is what got us out of the dark ages..thank you very much.

I noticed the engine was putting off a lot of heat on that Valk, so for my
next test I told the dealership to install some of that engine coolant I
hear so much about. I'll see how that goes and report back.

New Dunlop Elite III's, HondaWest, be ready Thursday.

,,,,louie

 

I got 10,000 miles, rear, on a previous set of Dunlops. I don't remember the
model of the old Dunlops but pretty sure they were not elite 3's. The 3's
are rated pretty good on the various Valk bullshit groups. Price was also a
factor, at least 100 bucks cheaper than Avon.
With the Avons I went for total mileage. I now think that shouldn't be as
high a priority. A tire can wear out without wearing through. Handling and
noise slowly became bothersome with the Avon. You don't realize to what
extent handling is affected until getting the new ones. I probably should
have replaced them 3 or 4 thousand ago. Also it seems like the rubber was
becoming hard as the rear would sometimes break loose from downshifting or
braking. I know I won't go the distance on this next set. The local Honda
West had a sale on the Dunlops, might be one going on around your area. I
didn't see it advertised, so call around your dealers and see what they got.
Another thing is I have to try different types to maintain my 'expert
status'.

 

that's pretty typical of most every street bike i've run across, 2 rear
tires for every front. considering the rear is doing most of the work,
it's no real surprise.

front tires can also wear more irregularly than the rear, with cupping
of the tread or one side wearing faster than the other on the front.
rear tires tend to wear out the middle first and leave lots of valid
tread on the sides. pity to see wear bars flush up in the center and
nice grooves still available an inch away but don't trust it like that.
last rear tire on the RT i pressed to the tread limit for grins and then
found the steel belts visible one day. guess the wear bar wasn't
kidding after all... <g>

 

mebbe, but damn those Z6 stick the best in all conditions. if it's
going to be a long trip, i'm not leaving without fresh tires anyway.
sustained high speeds on hot pavement really eats up a tire, but i
wouldn't know anything about that. <coff>

 

I guess I'm not very familiar with the fjr tire consumption,
but 7.5K + 1.5K doesn't sound too amazing to me.

Is there some throttle acrobatics goin' on here? I can get
9K out of my Valk without even trying, and that bike is
notorious for consuming tires. Understand, this is not a
slam, I'm just trying to understand....

Gary

 

everything i've ever heard about the avons is they stick real well in
dry conditions and wear out really quickly. fine for sporting, not so
great for touring. never had any issues taking the z6 to the limits so
i have had no reason to change on the RT. been thru various dunlops and
michelins on the /5 and just replaced a michelin on the rear with a
metzler lasertec, which is supposed to be similar to the z series in an
old skool rim size. that old bike takes 4.00-18 on the rear, so the
choices these days aren't huge and correct tire size is very important
to the handling on the bike; "close enough" in metric doesn't do it.
just put the lasertec on this weekend and haven't had a chance to really
scrub the tire in yet, but the tread pattern is very similar to the z6
and the compound is supposed to be similar.

 

Thx...