New Tire Time

Just wore out the rear tire (Metzler Z6) on my '07 1200RT. It looked fine before my 200 mile ride yesterday and when I got home I noticed steel braids showing down the center of the tire. The front still looks like it could go several K before replacement. I got over 10, 000 miles on the original set of tires, (also Metzler Z6's), and about 9500 this time around.
After doing some forum research, a lot of folks seem to like the Pilot Road 2s, and and I'm thinking of giving them a try. The question is, do I replace the set or just the rear tire for now?

For me, unless I can get double the life out of my front vs. the rear, I just go ahead and replace them both at the same time. I do this strictly as a matter of convenience since I'm taking the bike into the shop. If I were setup to do my own mounting, that would be another story.

Go ahead and do both of them. 2nd reason (besides convenience) is that now you've got fresh rubber and don't have to worry about checking for wear (just damage) for the next 8-10K. Gives you great piece of mind...

BTW, we've had great luck w/PR2s. Wife had them on her VFR, 2 sets, and got about 15k out of each set, without running them down below the treads. She reports good wet weather performance as well...

I'd also second the both at the same time. And the PR2's (just put my second set on the R12R).

I got 12k miles from my first set - but they weren't worn out, just the front was getting lumpy and noisy, and the back lumpy. My PR2's get a funky wear pattern where the transition from hard to soft rubber happens - about 1.25" out from the center of the treads. Part of that is undoubtably the rather straight flat roads in my section of NJ - and the commuter use of the bike on these straight flat roads..

I have taken a belt-sander to the lumps more than once and made the tires round again, but decided to just put on new rubber for the beginning of the season (even though I ride all year - miles pile on faster from April-November.)

Great tires - and great to have new round ones - made me remember why I love this bike (it is so stable and tossable..)

I am very impressed with the wear on My Metzlers. The original set were Batlax (Bridgestone I think) I got about 6k out of them. I have already got more than 6 and the front has very little cupping and they both have quite a bit more tread. Thumbs up for Metzler.

No more Metzlers

For me I just dumped my second set and put on a pair of Shinko Podium 006s. I've got about a thousand miles on them so far and they are great. I leave this Saturday for a six thousand mile two up vacation and will let y'all know how the Shinkos do for me on mileage. Wed and dry grip is fantastic so far. My Metzlers gave me about 8500 miles on average so if the Shinkos go half that far I break even on cost per mile.