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Longevity of C/T??

931 views 13 replies 11 participants last post by  Dan 
#1 ·
I am intrigued on this whole MT vs. CT thing. I keep hearing about getting great mileage with these tires but I would like to hear some testimonials from some of you guys that have run CTs for more than a couple of years. Anyone run them for say 5 or more years? And are you still running them? How many miles have you gotten before you change them out? I know some of you running them ride a lot of miles every year, how about some of you that don't ride a lot of miles every year? We do not get to put a lot of miles on our bike every year but the trips we take tend to be fairly long ones. We ride 2 up and pull a trailer. We are getting close to putting on a new rear and would like to have as much info as possible to make an informed decision. We have tried 3 different brands of MTs and really have not had good luck with any of them! Very frustrating! We did install Centramatic wheel balancers this past WingDing. Do they work with the CTs as well? Thanks in advance for your advice! :?
 
#2 ·
Slimhowdy - I feel your pain on the longevity you have experienced with traditional MTs. I was in the same boat as is everyone who rieds on a strditional MT. But, I did not decied to go to the Darkside because of the prospect of extended tire ware. That just happens to be a fringe benefit for many. For me personally I came to the Darkside more for the safety aspect (using a ROF tire) and I have already experienced the benefit of a ROF after a massive and total air loss at highway speeds and guess what I did not crash and burn - imagine that.

As for mileage, I currently have a little over 10K miles on my current CT and I am at about 50% tire ware. So I am guessing I will get between 18-20K miles out of it. I ride fairly agressive and I ride 60% 2-up and 40% 1-up. I also pull a triler which account for about 4,400 miles of the 10K miles I hove on my current CT.

I was talking to one of my buddies just today and we were on the subject of CTs. He stated that he currently has 28K miles on his current CT and has about 2/32" before reaching ware bars. He is a less agressive rider, riding mostly on the super slab and at or slightly below posted speed limit.

So, in a nut shell it all depends on your riding style and habits. I would venture to say that you will see increased mileage over the life of the tire and will most definetly experience a smoother more comfortable ride. As for a safer ride I will leave that conclusion up to you. Once more thing - your Centramatics will work with a CT.

Best of luck and if you do decide to come to the Darkside let me be once of the first to say Welcome!

Ride On!

Smitty
 
#3 ·
:agree:Yep, same here. It was more of a safety factor for me too. After very poor luck with MC tires and the last one delaminating way before tire wear was up, that is why I did it and love it. As said above, I too am a very aggressive rider and I find that I am much more confident on the CT and ride like I never would on the MC tire. It is very stabile and Rides like it is on rails in the twisties…..
 
#4 ·
I have run 4 different C/Ts the past 2 years. Of the 2 that I wore out, I got between 14-15,000 miles out of each. For my riding style and the air pressure I felt most comfortable with I would wear the centers out before the edges. Yes, Centramatics work great with them!:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
#6 ·
over 110k miles ago, I went dark. I am now on my fourth CT . I have worn each tire to within 2/32" of the wear bars. My last one lasted over 40k miles, mostly 2 up and with a trailer. This one is already over 12k and haven't used even 2/32" of tread off the tire. Better comfort (my wife has strenuously resisted me even thinking about going back to the hard rubber tire as she calls it) Excellent traction, no tire caused flats (one OEM stem went out and dropped all the air.. Would have been catastrophic on a MT) and great rain tire make these the cat's meow....:thumbup:

Welcome!
 
#7 ·
Welcome to the forum slimhowdy. I personally get horrible milage. But I got worse on bike tires. My experience in I lost track of how many tires is 20-25% more milage out of car tires. Some get the same milage, but many ,many get way more . This is all due to where you ride ,how you ride, and tire pressure:thumbup: What works well for me does not work in the deep south where it's hot.
 
#8 ·
Thank you guys! This is what I wanted to hear! Now I know There are different ROFs out there, does any one of them perform better? Revrunt, you seem to ride the same style we do, what are you using? 40k! that's what I like to hear! It not just the mileage for us either but when you're putting on a new set every year, it's kind of depressing! I'm looking at the safety factor now too. I'm the co-rider and I just kinda cringe at the thought of a blowout running the superslabs! :eek:
Keep that good advice coming!
 
#9 ·
Thank you guys! This is what I wanted to hear! Now I know There are different ROFs out there, does any one of them perform better? Revrunt, you seem to ride the same style we do, what are you using? 40k! that's what I like to hear! It not just the mileage for us either but when you're putting on a new set every year, it's kind of depressing! I'm looking at the safety factor now too. I'm the co-rider and I just kinda cringe at the thought of a blowout running the superslabs!
Keep that good advice coming!
Something to consider when you see these extraordinary mileage numbers...only a small number of folks actually get mileage rating like this. The other big contributor is just the roads you normally ride on; here in the West, many are like a cheese grater, so a tire that lasts 13k-15k is pretty good for us around these parts.
 
#10 ·
Goodyear Assurance Triple Tread
seems to be the tire that users get the highest mileage on. Several users claim 40,000 miles of use out of this tire.

The most popular tire right now on this forum seems to be the Kuhmo Ecsta runflat. It tends to deliver 13k to 25k depending on road surface you ride on and your personal riding habits.
 
G
#11 ·
I run the Kumho Solis K21 NRF tires only and for the most part 45k seems to be about average.
On the wing I do 10k per year and half of that is mountain style trips and the rest just normal commuting miles in the country.
I have never run an RF tire and probably never will so I can't say much about them except the average longevity seems to be lower. Tire pressure is the key from what I have seen here and in my own testing.
That's a sticky subject so I will not comment any further.
All I will say is I have CT's on both my trikes and on the wing and all of them go 40-50k.
 
#12 ·
Put a Dunlop RF on at the beginning of the summer and I have 9000 on it so far..Thinking a can get another 2 or 3 thousand out of it...Just my 2 cents but I think as long as you are going to a C/T it may as well be a runflat..Now I only have to worry about one tire...
 
#13 ·
I am about to wear out my third Kumho runflat with over 25k. I got about the same for the other 2 also.
 
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