Sport touring tires

[leonardlloyd]

I am looking for opinions on sport touring tires. I have been running Metzler Z6's on my BMW. More to the point I am looking for suggestions on tires for two-up touring. I got around 4500 miles on the last Z6 rear. I have heard a lot of good comments about Michelen Pilots and also Avon Storms. All comments are welcome.

I replaced the Z6 front and rear with the new Z8 on my Yamaha FJR1300 before riding to STAR in Avon and I am very pleased with the ease of handling and stability over a wide range of surfaces. The new tread pattern appears to provide a better indication of tread wear than on the Z6.

[roginoz]

I've had Bridgestone 020s (OEM and one replacement set,) Dunlop RoadSmarts (two sets; front tire on second set delaminated a big chunk at 4K miles,) Bridgestone 023s (one set,) and Michelin Pilot Road 2s on my ST1300. I got 10K out of everything (except the RoadSmart that came apart...) I'm running Michelin PR3s right now. They handle well, and are wearing very well - I'll get well over 10K out of them. In order of preference: PR3, PR2, 023, 020, RoadSmart (great handling tires, but the chunking thing and Dunlop's lack of concern when I reported the incident have caused me to swear off RoadSmarts and all other Dunlop tires.)

[Downs]

I've been a big fan of Shinko Raven 009 tires. I ran them on lots of bikes and loved them. They gripped well, and wore well (usually 10k+ miles). I tried out a newer offering of theirs on the FZ. The Shinko Verge 011 and have put over 5k miles on them so far. They look like they will last around 10k miles also but I feel that they grip bigger than the Ravens.

[NinjaBob]

I've been a big fan of Shinko Raven 009 tires. I ran them on lots of bikes and loved them. They gripped well, and wore well (usually 10k+ miles). I tried out a newer offering of theirs on the FZ. The Shinko Verge 011 and have put over 5k miles on them so far. They look like they will last around 10k miles also but I feel that they grip bigger than the Ravens.

You should get more miles out of the 011. The Verge is listed as a ST tire and the Raven is a sport tire. I get only about 4500 with the rear Raven on my Concours 14 but got 6800 with the Verge. I can't tell any difference in grip but the Verge keeps its shape and handles better for longer.

[Downs]

Before the Verge came out the Raven was their Sport Touring tire. At least it used to be advertised as such when I first started using it years ago. Either way both are good tires especially for the pice you can find them for.

[Brick]

I've been a big fan of Shinko Raven 009 tires. I ran them on lots of bikes and loved them. They gripped well, and wore well (usually 10k+ miles). I tried out a newer offering of theirs on the FZ. The Shinko Verge 011 and have put over 5k miles on them so far. They look like they will last around 10k miles also but I feel that they grip bigger than the Ravens.

Hmmm... I too used to run the Ravens on my FJR (rear only) and I liked them but since the price has come up to almost the same as others I just went back to the more well known tires.
I do have one question... How do they "grip bigger"??? 😊

[Downs]

Better


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[OldSport]

Thanks for the input. Other peoples opinions always help.