Been shopping for some front tires .....
Was struck by the strong difference between what front end tread designs have become over the years. Was also struck by how much more expensive the modern high performance designs have become.
I have a thought or general theory to accomodate this long term change in tire designs.
Motorcycles did not have 100 hp engines in years past. Rubber tire comounds used to be a good bit harder in years past. The old hard rubber tread designs with the little hair-fine sub-grooves were intended to increase tread flex and provide conformance to the changing road conditions when using a harder rubber.
Front tires were intended to grip and steer, not to carry very heavy braking loads as their primary duty. This falls in line with old style front brakes not being as super strong as they are today.
A rib style front tire is the dead worst tire for a modern machine. It may not be the worst thing out there for a Savage (but we do brake fairly hard and rib styles can't handle that sort of braking action without cupping).
There is a generation in between rib tires and the soft grippy tires that might be optimum for our Savages -- these would be the all weather touring front tire designs as developed by Michelin and Metzler.
Dunlop 404 was the start of the soft grippy compound tires -- you lost all your sub-grooves and began the march of the wide simple groove styles. I remember when these were new and were all the rage for the street rocket crowd. I wore them front and back on my Yamahas and I wore them out every two years. In my experience they worked very well but tended to wear the centers out too quickly due to their sharp apex form. Good gripping tires though.
Now they are listed as "classics" and are getting phased out by the newer grippy designs.
Modern tire compounds are very soft and grippy -- they are not mechanically strong enough to allow (or need) the fine sub-grooves detailed tread designs of years past.
They wear out FAST, too.
We don't require a high speed carcass construction -- we can't break the ton without a lot of work and modifications. 130 mph ratings are totally wasted on us. Most of us don't even lean our bikes over very much (well, are your pegs ground up very much? Mine aren't, really -- just a little bit.)
If you want to see the older hard rubber designs -- look at the old Dunlop designs and wince at the high cost. Or look at Dunlop's most dedicated copier of their older designs -- Cheng Shen. BTW, this Cheng Shen name brand is only used for the old Dunlop and Michelin/Metzler design copies any more, if you want a rip-off copy of a new design you may have to upgrade to Maxxis (Cheng Shen's upscale new brand name).
I was torn between a Dunlop 404 clone and a touring type Michelin/Metzler clone for my front tire. I finally picked the higher priced touring clone because of the good all weather rating. Dunlop 404s sometimes didn't care for heavy rain (lacked all the rain grooving and fine conformance sub-grooves that the touring tires have).
Now, I am assuming the tire compound will match the groove design -- if they screwed up and pressed the tire using soft modern comounds it will wear out just as fast as any other modern tire would. If they stuck with the old harder rubber compounds I may get a tire that will last more than a single season or two.
I bought my 2002 LS last year with 400 miles on the odometer. The IRCs were new looking and still had nibs once you left the straight up position. Now my front tire is about at the legal wear limit and my rear is somewhat past that -- all in 5,350 miles.
This sucks for tire life.
I had bikes that kept front tires for 3 years or more -- this level of 1-2 year tire wear that you guys simply accept as "normal" gives me the hives. I dont' like changing tires all that much, really it isn't my favorite thing to do by a long shot.
Let's see if an old hard rubber "fine detail thread" designed front tire can give decent wet performance characteristics and still manage to live a good bit longer while doing so.
www.bikebandit.com/product/3412<grin>
Oldfeller