Sport touring tire for 1250 Bandit?

[icemakk]

My stock Dunlop tires that came on my 2008 Suzuki Bandit 1250 SA are crap. The rear is already down to the wear bar after only only 6000km (3700 mi. for those of you who still use the old Harley measurement system)
I have done No burn-outs and used the bike mostly for mountain touring.
The stock tires are Dunlop SportMax D218's
Has anyone else had a pair of these pieces of crap wear that fast?


I am searching for a good sport touring tire that has more life  such as these dual compound ones that are harder in the middle of the tread. Dunlop makes the Roadsmart touring tire that claims to be like that
http://www.dunlopmotorcycle.com/tirecatalog_tire.asp?id=101 but after this last pair of nerf rubber donuts I am reluctant to buy another Dunlop.
Anyone have luck with this Roadsmart one or other tire make? Please give me your feedback.

[Ray Mooney]

I burned through my rear stocker in about 4,000 miles and switched over to the Roadsmart. I like it, but I don't push my tires hard. I only just this weekend finally rid myself of all the chicken strips on my rear Roadsmart after a thousand miles. So maybe I'm not the best guy to give tired advice. I'm sure one of the knee draggers can help. By the way, after 1000 miles, the Roadsmart still looks new.

[dhcolesj]

I just put on a set of Pilot Road 2's from Michelin.  I've run them a couple of hundred miles at the little strips are still on the tire!  what's up with that.  I've wore them off the center, finally.  Anyway, I think these will be great tires.  I'm like you I do more High way miles than curves, but I think I've finally found a route to work that's quite twisty.

[skyrider]

At Cycle Gear, they showed me five different tires.  The sales guy said I'd probably get more miles on the Roadsmart than the others...his opinion.  And, it was the cheapest, $160 mounted/balanced.   I can't imagine your tire choice is going to matter much unless you are really dragging knee in the twisties or doing track days.

[Ray Mooney]

I've read that today's street tires, even the touring models, are much stickier than even the race tires they used in the '70s and '80s. That's good enough for me. I'm never pushing the envelope that much.

[mademiriam]

much stickier than even the race tires they used in the '70s and '80s.

I totally agree, but I think there is something to note. How many bike in the 70's ran easily in to the 200kph? I know it depends on riding style and truthfully most of us would probably not note a difference but despite it's 'styling' our dear bandits can be a very powerful machine, yes they don't cross over 260kph without some modification however take a turn at 220 and imagine the amount of load that 'heavy' bike and rider is putting on the tires. That said for mostly highway it seems to make most sense to go with a long lasting tire as you have.

[Red01]

How many bike in the 70's ran easily in to the 200kph?

Just about anything 750 or larger... stock. 
I'm sure race bikes even smaller wouldn't have any trouble reaching 200 kph. My old RD350 could have hit that, but it was not stock and that kind of speed was more like "top" than "easy."

[mademiriam]

lol yes well the little RD is a bit special no? And to be honest with you I never thought hitting 200kph on a GS, CB, or KZ750 was what you could call 'easy', at least not in comparison to the bandit. Perhaps everything I've ever ridden is very much worn out, considering its all older than me. Or perhaps I've ridden the wrong bikes a quick look at www.bikez.com shows top speeds of-
1979 GS750 E 198kph
1979 XS750 E 198kph
1979 Z 750 176kph
1979 CB750K 200kph
Of course everything but the Yamaha is considered not 'sport' but sport touring and the Z750 is simply touring.
Top speed on the bandit isn't 'easy' to get to either, but 200 on the other hand truly is. All I can say for the older bikes is thank god for bridgestone spitfires.

[Red01]

I was going by my fond memories or hauling across the SoCal desert on my way to Havasu City back in '77 on my 77 GS750 and it was topping out at 134 mph, the CB750 in our little 3 bike group was good for ~125 and the KZ900 was 1-2 mph faster than me.  While 200kph (~124 mph) may not have been effortless for the CB, it was do-able.  Of course, all this was "Indicated" speeds - and we all know how trustworthy those speedos are. 

Still, racing superbikes, and top roadracers of the era that would have been wearing the racing slicks of the day shouldn't have had any troubles with 200 klicks.

Think TZ700/750: 

[mademiriam]

drool indeed!!!!!!!  some awesome exhaust work on that!
man i love old bikes. I still say someday I'm getting myself a nice little cafe racer project. sorry for hijacking the thread by the way, guess I sort of strayed off the sport touring tire concept. 

[andrewsw]

wow that thing is gorgeous...

[BanditoNova]

To answer the original question regarding tires, I have a set of Metzler Roadtec z6's on my B12 and I personally think they are great tires. I bought the bike last May and 1 week later got a nail in the rear (tire) I replaced it with the same 180/55/17 and after 10K km it still looks barely worn. If I had to guess I'd say it still has over 2/3 of the tread. Nice and sticky too. I paid 260.00 cdn for it (installed) but I imagine they are cheaper this year.

[ippo]

+1 "I have a set of Metzler Roadtec z6's on my B12,5 and I personally think they are great tires."

[Bandit1250]

My stock Dunlop tires that came on my 2008 Suzuki Bandit 1250 SA are crap. The rear is already down to the wear bar after only only 6000km (3700 mi. for those of you who still use the old Harley measurement system)
I have done No burn-outs and used the bike mostly for mountain touring.
The stock tires are Dunlop SportMax D218's
Has anyone else had a pair of these pieces of crap wear that fast?

You got 3,700 miles out of the stock rear tire??  I'd kill for 3,700 miles on ANY rear tire!
I wore out the stock DUNLOP at 1,800!

[dhcolesj]

Well, I posted back in August that I had about 200 miles on my Michelin's.  I now have about 3,000 on them.  They're showing wear, but not even close to being worn, they look about a third worn, with a little flatness in the center.  They've stuck with me in the rain quite well.  Took the wife to Murfreesboro for a Patriot Guard Rider's Gathering, with the side and top case loaded up and they handled that quite well.

Over all I'm quite pleased and will probably buy them again when the time comes.