Its been 2 days since a "tire" thread, so...

here goes:

Front Pilot Road has developed a decidedly geometric profile. From sidewall to sidewall:
Chicken (virginal tire)
Fun (still approximately roundish)
Turn (flat, angled from center)
Commute (centter of tire, flat, horizontal)
Turn
Fun
Chicken

This has led to some umm, interesting handling characteristics. There's about 7k miles on it, so I'm not upset about replacing it, but the tire has at least 5/8" inch of tread left at the most worn area, so I hate to "waste" that much tire. The current situation is verging towards downright dangerous to ride though. Here's (finally) my questions:

Is there anyway to "rehab" the tire to a more normal profile?
What causes it (besides rigors of straight-line commuting)?
How to prevent it?
Anything bad gonna happen if I mix sport front (Pilot Power, I think) and reasonably new sport touring rear (Pilot Road)? I think this setup should work good, and possibly solve my "leapfrogging" replacement schedule (one tire needing replacement when t'other is 1/2 gone).

Thanks for the help-

I've read of some other guys with VFR's that have successfully used the sport tire front with the sport-touring tire rear (specifically with the Michelins).

The big thing is you want consistent tire profiles. If the front has a pointy profile (like many Dunlops) you generally want to stick with a matching profile for the rear. The Pilot Road has a round neutral profile and it works very well with the Metzler M1-Sporttec on the front.

Only once have I used a front tire long enough to reach the wear bars at 16K miles. The headshake from the cupping finally got to me. Generally, on the VFR's I would get 6-8K before the cupping got so bad I would replace the tire regardless of the amount of tread remaining.

Adios,

Thanks guys. Next question--

Besides the handling gremlins, is there any danger (ie. catastrophic failure) to running with the sufficient tread depth but geometrically complex tire?

Riding will be mostly commuting, spirited riding will be at a minimum.

with the sufficient tread depth but geometrically complex tire?

Click to expand...

Yes. If the front tire is squared off, when you lean the bike and the tire rolls over onto that edge, the size of your contact patch will decrease suddenly. Depending on the circumstances, this could cause a loss of traction. I have had this happen on the back tires and it usually only results in a little scare, some sliding, and a quick recovery. I don't know if you would be so lucky with the front. So the tire might not come apart catastrophically, but the end result might be catastrophic

Adios,

STrider said:

Is there anyway to "rehab" the tire to a more normal profile?
What causes it (besides rigors of straight-line commuting)?
How to prevent it?
Anything bad gonna happen if I mix sport front (Pilot Power, I think) and reasonably new sport touring rear (Pilot Road)? I think this setup should work good, and possibly solve my "leapfrogging" replacement schedule (one tire needing replacement when t'other is 1/2 gone).

Click to expand...

Yes, you can re-shape the tire. Simply determine at what angle the least used portions will have contact, find a large parking lot and ride at that angle (in circles of course) for approximately 5k miles each side, or until round. You may want to vary the angle slightly to help blend...

What Scott said. And ditto on the pilot r/ M1 f combo, that's what I'm using right now, works well. I've always seen 2 rears to 1 front for wear mileage (just about any street tire, but more like 3:1 for dirt).