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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> Rear tire mileage (Dunlop Elite 4 only 6000 mi?)
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Message started by Neil on 01/13/22 at 18:05:13

Title: Rear tire mileage (Dunlop Elite 4 only 6000 mi?)
Post by Neil on 01/13/22 at 18:05:13

Who can tell this neophyte if 6000 miles on a rear tire that costs $150 seems low?

I have read around the forum, and I'm not sure I buy that riding style or anything else on a 650 cc bike can make a twofold difference in tire mileage (I've seen some other forms for different bikes that say 10,000 or more miles for the kind of tire I use).

6000 miles, $150, Dunlop Elite 4 140/90

And some bonus advice (for me:) is how often you recommend I replace the tube and the center strip?

Title: Re: Rear tire mileage (Dunlop Elite 4 only 6000 mi
Post by youzguyz on 01/14/22 at 03:00:57

How OLD is that tire that you only got 6000 miles from?
If a tire is very old (over 5 years or so), it will wear much faster than a newer tire. There is a date code on every tire that says when it was made.
The date code will be 4 digits. First two are the WEEK it was made (01 to 52), the last two are the YEAR. 19, 20, 21, etc
So, a tire coded 1218 was made in the 12th week of 2018.

Rule of thumb is if you don't ride much, buy cheaper tires that don't last as long. They will start having age issues before they wear out.
If you ride a lot, buy tires that get better mileage.
Lots of threads on here about tires!

Replace rim strip and tube when you replace tires. They are not expensive, and you are already in there.. so, why not?

Title: Re: Rear tire mileage (Dunlop Elite 4 only 6000 mi
Post by Dave on 01/14/22 at 03:01:10

Tire mileage isn't something that is the same for everyone. I have read that owners can get 12,000 miles out of a tire.....and when I buy one I seem to get 8,000 and it is worn out.

I have come to the following conclusions:

Pavement type makes a huge difference on tire life. On my cars I can get huge mileage and most often there is still tread when I buy new ones....... I often have to replace them because the rubber is getting hard. My car spends the majority of the time on smooth asphalt pavement - either 4 lane commuter roads or interstate highways. This pavement is most often very smooth asphalt.....a small amount of it is concrete. On my motorcycle I tend to ride on the 2 lane back roads. Most of the pavement where I live is asphalt and I can get decent life out of a tire. When we travel away from home and ride in rural areas - it is pretty common to ride on roads that are "tar and chip". This pavement is made by laying down a sticky black binder coarse and then spreading a thin layer of rock "chips" on top.....repeat as necessary to get a new pavement surface. These chips are crushed rock and have very sharp points on the aggregate - and it is very hard on tires. When you ride on smooth asphalt pavement the tire surface will appear smooth and on some tires it will even look "polished". When you ride on a rough pavement the tire surface will become jagged and rough and appear like suede or velour.

Temperature: The air and pavement temperatures make a big difference in how fast your tire wears. The majority of the times that I go riding with MMRanch, StewMills, Verslagen down south in TN/NC/GA the temperatures are up into the 90's. When we go riding for 3-5 days around the mountains I expect some serious tire were to occur, and after 4 or 5 of these trips it is time to replace the tires. On one trip the temperatures were down considerably - and I was amazed how much less tire I scrubbed off! I talked with a bunch of my local riding buddies and they confirmed - temperatures above 90 can have a huge impact on tire wear.

Riding style: My riding style is such that I really don't exceed the posted speed limit - but I don't slow down much for the corners. The result is that I scrub off more rubber than somebody that rides slower/easier. After a ride my tires look "scrubbed" and have a rough looking texture on the tread. A few times I have ridden with fellows who ride much differently - they slow down for each corner, never pass a car, and spend hours "cruising" the back roads. On one ride I was with them I got 67mpg on my Savage....I swear we never broke 40mph the entire day! When I got home my tires surface was smooth and polished.......I have no doubt they can get very high mileage from their tires.

Air Pressure: It is not uncommon for a rider to wear out the center strip of the rear tire. Long rides on the highway wear down the center....and when you accelerate briskly you are wearing the tire right down the center as well. When I first started to ride a Sport Touring bike and was reading the forums I discovered that running a higher pressure in the rear tire helps to extend the tire life in the center. This didn't seem logical at first - but what I discovered is the tire tread deforms and "squirms" each time the tire rotates and the tread comes into contact withe pavement. If you have low tire pressure the contact patch is larger and more squirm occurs......a higher pressure provides less contact patch and less squirm. The down side of a higher pressure is a rougher ride and the potential for a bit less traction as the contact patch is smaller. The fist year I went to Arkansas one of the employees at the motorcycle shop were we stopped to get maps advised us to keep the tire pressure up - as the tar and chip roads were very hard on tires and low tire pressures made it worse.

So.....it really depends on how you ride what kind of tire life you should expect. I have learned that my riding style, where I ride, and the temperatures where I ride....I can expect around 8,000 miles out of a normal set of tires.

I have posted below a photo of what a smooth tire surface looks like....this rider appears to be easy on tires.

Title: Re: Rear tire mileage (Dunlop Elite 4 only 6000 mi
Post by Dave on 01/14/22 at 03:01:52

This is what a tire looks like when you ride more aggressively......or ride on tar and chip pavement.

Title: Re: Rear tire mileage (Dunlop Elite 4 only 6000 mi
Post by Dave on 01/14/22 at 03:04:02

This is what a tire looks like when you ride really aggressive....this is a race tire that has been ridden hard.

Title: Re: Rear tire mileage (Dunlop Elite 4 only 6000 mi
Post by TBR125 on 01/18/22 at 20:26:15

714A4750414D56504B434E51220 wrote:

This is what a tire looks like when you ride more aggressively......or ride on tar and chip pavement.

This is all my motorcycle and car tires on the Tennessee back-roads. I got 4800 miles down to the nylon reinforcement bands on the stock S40 rear. Granted it sat for 8 years before I put the last thousand on it.