BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

I checked my rear tire tonight after having ridden 512 miles yesterday up to New Jersey. My rear is a Metzeler Z6 with 12,500 miles on it. There is still enough tread on the rear to last a couple thousand more miles. Wow, this is amazing! I know I do a lot of highway miles and don't ride like a lunatic, but this is serious mileage for a fairly grippy tire. My previous MEZ4 rears "only" lasted about 9k miles.

That's just not fair!

Mine will be lucky to last half of that. With me on the bike it's like 2-up all the time.

DSKYZD

Same experience here with the Z6's. I have almost 11K on my current set and it looks like there's another 2-3K of life in the rear. The front's a little squared but otherwise looks. . . well, almost new. I got 12K out of my last set. Great tire, couldn't be happier with them and they seem to last a lot longer than the Z4's.

I would be overjoyed with 8 or 9K on a tire!

Brian.....next time we see Yomg, you hold him and I'll kick him on the shin.......for the bit of good news.....

Wow! That's remarkable! I got 7,000 miles on the Z4s that came with the bike, and my Z6s have 5,000 miles and still look great. Sounds like you're careful about keeping the proper pressure in them, too. They wouldn't last as long otherwise.

wncbmw wrote:I would be overjoyed with 8 or 9K on a tire!

That's my thinking, too.

My rear Z-6 squared off at 8000 but I think the front would have gone 11 to 12000. I never push tires, and the Z-6's do tend to wear much faster in the second half of their wear life.

-- more a statement to riding/slowing/stopping style than air pressure, or durability of tire --

A rider getting that kind of mileage out of a Z4/6 could get more miles out of "street Sport" compound than I could EVER expect to get out of a "Touring" compound....... even if I tried to ride my MOST conservative!

Pat's right - lots of variables. THe Dunlop 208's on my Yamaha have about 850 miles on them and are heat-blistered all the way over to the edge. I ride that bike a bit differently than the big old BMW....

I'll agree that riding style probably has the most to do with tire wear, that and also the weight of the payload (rider, passenger, gear). I check pressure about once a week and keep the pressure in accordance with the manufacturer's recommended pressures for that tire, 38/41. By the way, I am training myself to be a more conservative rider, mental conditioning so to speak.

yj:
How much do you weigh?

Are you fanatical about tire pressure, and what pressure do you keep them at?



That's my next tire and I NEED that sort of mileage!


P.S. What do you consider worn out?? When cord shows?? (I do)

Lance - I have yet to wear a tire down to where I see the wear bars. So I tend to change tires while they have a wee bit of tread left. My rear Z6 still has plenty.

I weight 205 lbs. I spent much of last year and the first half of this year weighing 225 lbs., so this tire has carried a 225 lbs. load most of its life.

And no, I'm not fanatical about tire pressure at all. I usually pump them up to 38 psi front and 40 psi rear and leave it that way until they get down to 34 psi front and 36 psi rear, which in my experience takes a few months.

Wow - where do you buy your tires? Maybe that dealer is getting the "high mileage" Z6's! I'm lucky to get 8k on my rear. I usually keep my pressure around 40, and this year I've been able to run my commute without the cases on. I get a feeling that the standard system cases cause a good amount of drag. I'd have to check the log book to see how many miles I have on the current Z6 but it currently doesn't show any obvious signs of squaring off yet.

On another note, the last time at my dealer for service they noticed my rear tire tread as being low (I think it was right before the East Bash in the spring). While talking with the service writer he said I should be able to get more miles out of the Z6. One thing he said was a large source of tire wear (on the R bikes) was letting off the gas. Chopping the throttle closed would actually cause the rear tire to 'slow' a little too fast, essentially a slight skid, and causes most of the wear on the rear. So far this tire I've been trying to 'roll' off the throttle more, but when aggressively riding (which will most likely be happening at Hungry Mother this weekend) I tend to 'sacrifice' the tire.

Now, out to the garage to start checking the bike over, and packing.

I currently have about 6500 miles on my Z6's and they show very little wear. I got about 8K out of my Z4's and they were beginning to show considerable wear at 6500, so I can honestly say that I will get a heck of a lot more miles out of the Z6's! How much more? It's hard to tell at this point, but I'm pretty certain I'll get over 10K. That said, I just can't understand how some of you are getting such low mileage out of your tires? I don't use the bike as a primary form of transportation, so most of mileage is spent in the evenings and weekends, riding the way I want to ride. In other words, theres a lot of twisties and hard riding in what Pat would coin the "party zone". About the only thing I don't do is a ton of highway mileage. Are most of you low mileage, tire eaters, doing a lot of highway miles?

I have managd to get great milage out of my Z4's (supplied from the factory upon picking it up new last season).

Weighing in @ 150 lbs, my wife is a light weight as well (105). I will have 20k kms (12k miles) on the original set by this weekend. I've had the bike a little over 1 year. Being aware of the milage I check the tread depth once/week when I check the pressure. During the week I ride solo. On weekends it's usually 2-up, and a number of weekends this year were 2-3 day trips with luggage and my wife as passenger. Lot's of (secondary) highway riding, but have also a lot of milage on twisties as well. Average HWy cruising speed is ~ 120 kms/h (75 mph).
All on Ontario roads, which have deteriorated nicely over the last 15 years!!

I use BMW's suggested pressures (36/39), keeping them at the 2-up settings always, and increasing the rear to 42 with luggage and passenger.

I still have between 3-4 mm left on the tread (down the centre of the tire) and expect to replace them with Z6's very soon. They are a little squared off, however I can't complain about the milage.

I have been following the tire threads a lot lately, as I'll need new ones soon. Looks like Z6's are a favourite among most of the members.

Uh, make that 16,000 miles!!!

Hey gang;

My Z4 front has 14,550 miles on it and the rear Z6 has a little ove 7K miles, looks like it may go for a couple of K miles more. I keep 42lbs in rear an 40 lbs in front. I tend to ride fast and smooth. Don't like to abuse my equipment. Goint to change the front to another Z4 and have another Z4 for the rear when that gets worn. Don't realy care for the Z6 on the rear. no wear bars so can't realy tell when it is getting badly worn. My brother wore his Z6 down to the threads in just a bit over 5,800 miles on his R1100RT last year on our yearly summer ride (did just under 4,500 miles in two weeks). He had about 1300 miles on it when we met up in Logan, UT for the start of our ride.

10000 on a z6 isn't too hard in Illinois, but there are some states I've ridden in that have real abrasive pavement that I'll bet half that life is realistic. Then there's the issue of how hard you ride and how mean you are to your tires. The rear tire on my VMax could be rated in hours under some conditions.

geo

Geo;

Never gave that a thought about surface conditions affecting tire wear. My brother lives in MT and rides his 96 R1100RT mostly MT, ID and WA.
Thanks for the tip.