Can I buy new rear tire only & leave the front for later?

I live in Canada and find that the price of my favourite tires, the Metzler Roadtec Z6s, are great but pricey, closing on $800 Cdn including mounting costs of $50 Cdn per rim.

Can i get away with NOT replacing the front tire every other time when I'm changing the rear, every 20,000km or so? That would mean I would replace the front every 35,000 to 40, 000km OR I could stagger the front replacement, say 10,000km after the rear was replaced.

I do not do any track days but on weekends I like to ride the local sweepers fairly fast.

Any advice?

rontash said:

I live in Canada and find that the price of my favourite tires, the Metzler Roadtec Z6s, are great but pricey, closing on $800 Cdn including mounting costs of $50 Cdn per rim.

Can i get away with NOT replacing the front tire every other time when I'm changing the rear, every 20,000km or so? That would mean I would replace the front every 35,000 to 40, 000km OR I could stagger the front replacement, say 10,000km after the rear was replaced.

I do not do any track days but on weekends I like to ride the local sweepers fairly fast.

Any advice?

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First, GET OUT! $800 CDN for one rear tire? Is that with or without the illegal contraband installed inside? Now, re your question, speaking not as a tire sales dude or degree'd tireologist, I would say that it's fine to separately replace the tires. I mean, if you're wearing down the rear much faster why replace a perfectly still good front every time you replace the rear? I'm sure others are going to chime in about this.

Ok, one part at a time...

rontash said:

I live in Canada and find that the price of my favourite tires, the Metzler Roadtec Z6s, are great but pricey, closing on $800 Cdn including mounting costs of $50 Cdn per rim.

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Get another tire. There are some amazing tires for about $250 US. Anything more than that is ridiculous.
Do a search for tires, you should come up with many great alternatives.

rontash said:

Can i get away with NOT replacing the front tire every other time when I'm changing the rear,

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Yes, you do not need to change them at the same time. Some people (myself included) even run two different brands, though the same intended purpose. eg. touring/touring or aggressive/aggressive.

rontash said:

That would mean I would replace the front every 35,000 to 40, 000km OR I could stagger the front replacement, say 10,000km after the rear was replaced.

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Damn. You're getting some serious mileage from your tires. Most will get about 5K mi or about 8K km for the rear and maybe twice that for the front.

I just put on the "OEM" Bridgstone on my rear today. My bike came with and still has the "OEM" dunlop on the front.

cheers

paul

Please read Killboy's blog here before you buy only one tire. I'd go with a matched set. :thumbup:

killboy.com photos - The Original Photographer from Hwy US129 Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap

FZ6inNH said:

Please read Killboy's blog here before you buy only one tire. I'd go with a matched set. :thumbup:

killboy.com photos - The Original Photographer from Hwy US129 Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap

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It still doesn't make sense since even if one buys a set, one is going to wear faster than the other and, before you know it, it's already "unmatched."

What I took away from that was that the front was nearly done for. When you are getting a new rear and the front is almost cooked, then yeah, you're going to over power the front. If the front has plenty of life in it, I don't see the reason to replace it.

Motorcycle tires in Canada are seriously marked up. I had to buy a new rear tire because of a robertson screw (if it was phillips I would've killed the nearest person).

On SPECIAL sale 50% off, I bought a rear Continental for $150 CAN. Mounting and all that jazz was an additional $50 CAN. Tax on everything NOT included.

My goal was to get a rear tire that will wear out at the exact same time as the front, allowing me to buy a complete new set the next time.

Tailgate said:

It still doesn't make sense since even if one buys a set, one is going to wear faster than the other and, before you know it, it's already "unmatched."

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A quality set driven through twisties all their life, should wear out at the same time. If you're slabbing it or doing burnouts then yes, the rear will wear out first.

Even if I have half the life left on the front tire, do I want a quality new rear pushing that older tire into a deep corner? Not!!!

FZ6inNH said:

A quality set driven through twisties all their life, should wear out at the same time. If you're slabbing it or doing burnouts then yes, the rear will wear out first.

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Afraid I'll have to take exception on this one. The fact that the rear is a drive tire and subjected to throttle application (even if it never slips or does any burn outs) is going to cause increased wear. It's absolutely normal (in my experiences using and selling tires) for a rear to wear at roughly twice the rate of a front tire.

FZ6inNH said:

Even if I have half the life left on the front tire, do I want a quality new rear pushing that older tire into a deep corner? Not!!!

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No argument there. With a contact patch roughly the size of an aluminum can and your a$$ on the line, why fool around or take chances? Personally, I believe in matched sets and have only once replaced a rear only. Every other time I have replaced both at the same time.

But that's me...

Bruce

General rule you use 2 rears to one front.

Mixing tread patterns is ok, most people will say not to but its not going to make any difference, just make sure your stickier tire is up front.

thx but to clarify, that was the price for 2. anyway know any good tire deals eithe in Canada or that deliver to Canada?

thx for the blog reference - yep i have to think about that one.

I personally have the stock Dunlop front and a Metzler Sportec M3 rear...about as mismatched as they come, given reviews of each.

I figure that if I don't ride any harder than I was comfortable with with dual stock tires, the softer rear tire (and it is softer, just dig a fingernail into the rubber) I'm fine.


The question is for you, not us: were you planning on out-riding the limits of traction on your stock front anytime soon?

fz6nick said:

General rule you use 2 rears to one front.

Mixing tread patterns is ok, most people will say not to but its not going to make any difference, just make sure your stickier tire is up front.

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It's not the pattern that has an effect on it, not at all. It's the tires profile, or more specifically it's 'peak'. For clarity, the center hight, or what I'm calling 'peak' varies greatly from tire to tire. Even those in the same basic 'class' are engineered differently. To get an exact idea of what I referring to just look at sport touring tire vs a pure sport tire, or for an even more dramatic view, a cruiser or touring tire vs a sport tire. Mixing tires that are designed differently in this manor can have a huge effect on the way the bike handles. It's easier to see on front tires than rear, but it is still obvious with rears.

For an example I can site a time when (against my advice) a customer put a Conti-Force on the back with a Dunlop D207 on the front (it has been a while back). Within the hour he came back wanting the tire off the bike because in his words the bike was "Evil handling". Per his invitation the tech, service manager and myself all rode the bike and I can attest to the fact that it was indeed scary. The best was I can describe the feel is the back end didn't feel connected to the front, like it had a mind of it's own.

This isn't to say that you can't mix tires, or that you will have the same results I have cited if you do. But consider that when the engineers designed not only the tires but the whole motorcycle it was with a matched set. Every new bike you ever saw on the floor had/has a matched set. That in of itself is good enough for me.

Bruce

I dont wear tires all the way out. Close and they are trash to me.

I do swap on a rear, if I need one and the front is not worn out. I dont mix tires, but I have experinced no problem just putting on a new rear, with a halfway worn front, and a new front with a partially worn rear.

Bruce McCrary said:

This isn't to say that you can't mix tires, or that you will have the same results I have cited if you do. But consider that when the engineers designed not only the tires but the whole motorcycle it was with a matched set. Every new bike you ever saw on the floor had/has a matched set. That in of itself is good enough for me.

Bruce

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Thanks Bruce. This further confirms my opinion for myself that I'd much rather have a new matched set than even a new/worn same set and never a miss-matched set.

Well said! :rockon: