Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Sport Touring Tires - any other choices??????

I know these tire discussions gets tiring BUT here's the deal...

I live in the Denver area and besides my commuting mileage do most of my riding in the foothills, running up and down and around those wonderful twisty canyon roads. I currently have Metz me880s on the bike and while they're a good tire and have barely worn after 6k on them I want something with more grip. They do alright on dry pavement but I don't feel confident at all with them in wet conditions and they scare the p*ss our of me when it's wet in the canyons.

I'm looking for a mid-priced Sport Touring tire with much better grip and will gladly sacrifice longevity to a point.

I know everyone's first word is Venom - Are there any other choices?!? Was at the dealer the other day and they liked the Dunlop 404s but after looking around I'm not sure they're classified as a sport/touring tire.

Thanks for looking and for any observations/comparisons you can give.

you can't get sport touring tyre in 15 inch size on the back

Well that sucks.

Seems our choices are limited to:
Avon Venom (guess this is #1 for gription)
Metz ME880 (point of this thread - don't fit my riding)
Dunlop 404 ???
IRC Flame

michelin, Bridgestone, Maxxis, etc. which all look like cruiser tires for touring, none with any performance capability

You sure are right about Metz being slippery. I have only owned one Metz that I ran for less than 3000 miles, because it had no grabbing power at all even in dry conditions.
I will never buy another.

My 880's feel hard to me. There are several high traffic concrete roads that I can do power slides on (fun , yes), but I have little confidence of them on blind/wet roads. I'm a fan of Michelin (Pilots, specifically), but then were right back to where we started on this thread (not available in our sizes). Of what is available, the Avons seem to be the stickiest.

In reality, we ride a fairly low HP cruiser. Other bikes in our class are underpowered as well but they don't handle like ours seees to, either. The tire mfg's don't expect that we have the skills or the desire to push these bikes past anything that scrapes, so your basic cruiser tire is all that is offered. If you want some real stickum, you need to move to a different wheel diameter and get ready for 3500 miles from a tire. Like I said- I'm a BIG fan of Michelin Pilots. When I rode sportbikes (up to last year) I used to get 3200-3500 miles from a rear before the threads poked through ($240 2 x year + plus 1 front at $160).

I'll get 10k from the 880 on my SM at the rate I'm going. My SM will never handle like a sport bike, and I don't ride as such. It does, however, scrape pegs and kick stands when asked to... on the stock 880's.

I guess it must be relative. Compared to the original Bridgestones that were trashed at about 4,000 miles my ME880's are great on dry, wet, cold, and hot roads; mountain roads, desert roads, gravel roads, sanded roads (not really THAT grat), grooved roads, straight roads, and in the twisty's; crawling speeds, speed limit, and at the century mark. I love these things. If the Avon's are stickier I can hardly wait to give them a try.

My second Metz on the rear is due now but it still rolled 15k and handles nicely.

Not so much luck with the Metz lazertech front. The second tire wore much faster than the now discontinued OEM front Metz that came with the bike.

it's not about wear, it's about handling and TRACTION.

Ima (The_Dog33) uses the IRC Wild Flare tires. If I remember right, he said that they have pretty good wear and are "stickier" than the Metz. I may give them a go in the Spring.

Soren

I think the Metzelers are a nice blend of traction, handling and wear.

If you ride year round and average 25K a year... going through tires gets to be an expensive proposition

I have Michelin Pilots on my bike. Great sticking power! Oops-I have a Tiger with 17 " Rims. Sorry.

For traction you can not beat Avon Venoms,case closed.