FJR1300 tires
My FJR1300 tire history
I bought the bike in August, 2004 with 3,676 miles on it. The Previous
Owner had put on Michelin Pilot radials (Pilot Roads?) at 3500 miles.
According to the P.O., the OEM tires lasted 3500 miles. Or maybe he just
decided he didn't like how they felt.
The Pilot Roads lasted me 5725 miles.
New Avons in January, 2005 at 9225 miles. Avons were on the wear bars at
13,406 miles. Avons lasted 4200 miles.
New Metzeler ME880 "Marathon" rear, Z6 front in August, 2005. I thought
the ME880 "Marathon" would be good for the long highway miles that I put on
getting to the Sierras or Death Valley from San Jose. Metzeler ME880
lasted 6850 miles, maybe a little more before I really replace them.
In August 2006 I was at 20,500 miles, and the rear ME880 is below the
wear bars in the center (but plenty meaty on the sides. The thing is,
there's a lot of highway where you wear down the center before you can get
to the places where you use the sides. Or maybe I'm just a wimp.)
Update: I got a set of Michelin Pilot Powers (not Pilot Roads) basically
by mistake. The Pilot Power is a sticky performance tire with very short
tread life on the FJR. The Pilot Power rear only lasted about 3000 miles.
I had to replace the rear in the middle of a trip, with an unscheduled stop
in Kennewick, Washington. I had the place mount another Pilot Power (for
$250!) to match the fornt, and because I'm an idiot. (I'm sure I could have
mated the Power front with a Pilot Road rear.)
Just a short while later, at 28,000+ miles, the second Pilot Power was
taking tread off the wear bars, and it also went flat. It had three
punctures that needed to be patched just to get me home.
Next up: a set of Michelin Pilot Road 2CTs, the new dual-compound tire
from Michelin. Expensive, but I can see what they're like. I could try the
Bridgestone BT020N which people seem to enjoy, but it's been replaced with
the BT021 and there is no "N" designation for that model that I can find.
(The 'BT020N' had stiffer sidewalls for heavy bikes.)
Misc FJR1300 tire info gathered from the web:
Brands and sizes
Motorcycle Accessory Warehouse (MAW) has Michelin Pilot Roads in "B" and
"K" designations. The "K" is for BMW's heavy K bikes. "Frank Dobias"
at chartermi.net thought those might be good tires for the heavy FJR. "After
a few thousand miles I'm delighted with their performance."
Avon part numbers are Avon Azaro ST-46 rear, ST-45 front. Also listed
as AV45ST (front) and AV46ST (rear).
Vendors
In the SouthWest: Southwest MotoTires
http://www.swmototires.com/
This page was last edited
April 26, 2008. |