removed for your own safety most likely.

the last guy to try it nearly killed himself.

overpressurized the tire and it blew up shredding a nice set of bags.

could've been him.

why not go metzlers?

I get dunlop D404's and I get 10k out of them.  $100 installed balanced and tubed.

I will give my impressions as a European...

My last Guzzi's rear tire lasted close to 40K Km... 25K miles... but was so worn it was "square", it looked like a car tire and cornered like sh!t

Really, it was a dangerous ride...

The issue with MC tires is that the compound is quite soft compared to car tires. Paladin's right. But the traction is what keeps you alive.

If you have an issue with your tire wearing out too quickly, consider you might be "thrashing" it, i.e. you are much too throttle-happy.
Slow down. Don't accellerate WOT, do it more gradually.
SAVE GAS !!!
I fit an AVON VENOM 140/90 and commute at a leisurely 50-55mph... 70+mpg... and after two years the tread's still all there.

If you really want a hard compound tire, consider a dual-purpose rear, like they fit on road-going enduros:
Kawasaki Versys, Honda Transalp, Suzuki Freewind etc.
They have a much harder compound... it'll last longer...

I've been out of the loop here for a bit, but now I'm back.

I think I'm probably the latest on here to go to the dark side with a car tire on the back of my 650. I've got to say that it's got a grip on the road that's every bit as good or better than my previous two Dunlop 404's. I don't take many risks and am sure not a peg dragger, but I feel like I could with this tire back there. I also noticed that when I lock the rear brake it doesn't seem to be as prone to wanting to come around and talk to the front as the 404 did in a panic stop situation involving a turn signal and brake light disadvantaged NC car last year.

And, I just got to ride for a couple hours through a Noah like downpour in a hefty wind and felt as solid as a rock the whole time. By the way, you do want decent rain gear.

My tire is a B. F. Goodrich 145 TA radial as suggested by an "oldfeller" on here. I think they're out of production at BFG but there's a place who owns the molds and still makes them if you're interest.

If you use a new tube, take plenty of time, use lots of soapy water and common sense you shouldn't have any trouble doing the job. My Dunlops got about 8k miles each, but I didn't run them bald. It just didn't seem like the thing to do, what with the cost of a lifetime in traction and all. I'm in hopes of getting 30k or better out of this puppy.

Jack

Socal40,  putting a car tire on a bike rim isn't for a beginner -- getting the bead to slip around and over the rim takes time and patience and several repeated on/off the rim tries with pressures not going over 90 psi.

The rewards of mounting the car tire are greater grip and multiple bike tire lives worth of NO MAINTENANCE riding.  Seriously, other than keeping air in it you won't have to mess with the back of your bike for like 5 years.

No body is interested in pushing the idea any more because of one fellow who got his bead stuck due to insufficent lube and very low air pressure.  He left it stuck on sideways over night then mounted the tire on his bike and rode it to some sort of truckstop where they had 125-175 psi air pressure available to end users -- and he then proceeded to stick air in it without breaking the bead free and relubing everything -- and eventually the extreme air pressure levels just plain flat exploded his tire (right up in his face) when the pressure got high enough.

(I find the long series of absolutely dumb things that he did to be absolutely totally amazing, btw)

In describing what he did, he mentioned he had sprayed the inside of his rim with truck bed liner and "some had gotten involved with the rim".  So, not only did he leave his bead stuck sideways overnight he let the glue he had sprayed on the rim area set up on the rubber overnight as well.

So, now car tires get rated by all concerned as too dangerous to recommend any more.   Personally, my estimation of the level of mechanical and common sense understanding of the general run of new list members has gone so low that I simply can't talk about anything remotely challenging because I can't trust folks not to be screwing up their bikes or hurting themselves.  This was not true in years past -- this list used to be mostly populated by strong technically skilled mechanical types who loved to experiment on their bikes.  Hell, we even discussed and spec'd a new cam chain design that we had built in Japan.

Well, that was then and this is now  ....

If anyone wishes to claim that their automotive tires are as good in the twisties as motorcycle tires I am quite willing to meet them halfway for a run through the twisties.

No, they don't use the bottom of the tire more than I would expect:

Darkside figure 8's in a parking lot]   Car Tire on a Goldwing

Both videos show the car tire lifting most of it's tread when cornering.  Yeah, people ride on car tires and drag pegs while doing so.  But you are giving up some of your margin of safety.  Your choice of tires is a matter of personal priorities.  If I was putting on several tens of thousands of mile a year commuting or touring I would likely be riding on the darkside.  But I'm not, I'm riding city streets and I prefer to stack my odds toward avoiding accidents.

Nice videos.  How about we show one of a bike running at real road speeds instead of ones cutting figure "8"s at floor board scraping lean angles at a fast walking pace?   Just for the fun of it, let's show a radial tire functioning properly -- doing what radial tires actually do at mountain turn speeds?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQtlt-HFFoo

Point here is that this is all been done before, exhaustively by the touring people.  Final result is that open minded folks try it out and then stick with it and the closed minded folks continue to buy expensive motorcycle tires and complain about the big $$$ cost and hassles every other summer.

You are not going to change closed minds, so don't bother trying.