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Cruiser
Posts: 296
Central Florida | Clock says 9400 miles and wear bars are about 10 00 miles from all out showing. I have not done any burnouts or ridiculous braking. I have kept rear tire pressure at 40PSI cold and check it every time I get on the bike.
I am doing a 1100 mile trip next weekend and probably another 1000 for the week.
I am replacing with E3 because they are good tires and are easy to find in any Honda Dealer.
(exact same fitment as Goldwing GL1800)
So if you are approaching the 10K Mark take a good look at your tires and get ready to replace them. |
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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | Devilboy I'm going to take a closer look but I've got some good meat on my tires. I'll take pix and see what you think. I've got 9,250 on my so far and I was guessing around 15,000 before reshoeing. Maybe the colder climate made the difference. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 296
Central Florida | Chris, take a look at wear bars they are fairly close to center of tire. I was suprised myself but it seems for other Vics(TCs etc) 10-12 K is about all you can expect.
a couple of hundred $$ for new tires and labor aint worth risking your life over.
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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | I'm with you on the life thing, I checked again and I would expect at least 13-14k out of them, they look good but I could use some more where on the edge. I could put on another 10K alone on the twisties if that is all I had to ride, but I got to go up the stinkin' I-road everyday. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 721
| You guys really need to talk to some of the GL1800 Goldwing riders over at GL1800riders.com, they have the most experience with the choices available for the tire sizes that are used on both the Goldwing and the Vision. In my own experience I've been getting between 15K to 18K miles on the Dunlop E3s riding 2-up mostly (on a side note me and my fiancee are bigger people, more than maxing out the Goldwing's carrying capacity) with tires set to a max cold pressure of 41 psi front and rear. The guys that want even better handling with only slightly less milage run the Metzler ME880s and usually get between 13K to 17K miles. Avon also makes tires in these sizes but from my own experience I can't recommend, mine cupped terribly at just shy of 9K miles and their traction in the wet was just plain scary. The tires that originally came on the 2001 GL1800 were the Bridgestone Excedras and back then people were only getting 8K to 9K miles but Bridgestone reformulated the compound used and from what I hear people are getting similar milage as those using the Metzlers. The best tire by far for wet conditions is the Dunlop, I've put on almost almost 40K miles on my Goldwing on the Dunlop E3s riding in all sorts of weather and they simply have the best all weather performance for the dollar.
JMHO  |
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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | T-man I'm with you, I stand by D E3 as I had them on my GL1200 and the GL1500 (for sale) and they are a great tire. But miles are miles when it come to wear. I checked my pressure and I had 41psi in both front and rear and I'll check again in the morning when it is cooler to see where they are. I have a lot of concrete highway and for some reason I would think that concrete would wear a tire quicker than asphalt. I'm cheap so I would want more miles then the slight improvement in handling a Metz would provide. So I looking at getting D E3 from the internet and then see if my dealer will mount them for me. Thought I might try to do them myself with the stock rims. Any tips by anyone. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 721
| varyder - 2008-04-04 8:56 PM
T-man I'm with you, I stand by D E3 as I had them on my GL1200 and the GL1500 (for sale) and they are a great tire. But miles are miles when it come to wear. I checked my pressure and I had 41psi in both front and rear and I'll check again in the morning when it is cooler to see where they are. I have a lot of concrete highway and for some reason I would think that concrete would wear a tire quicker than asphalt. I'm cheap so I would want more miles then the slight improvement in handling a Metz would provide. So I looking at getting D E3 from the internet and then see if my dealer will mount them for me. Thought I might try to do them myself with the stock rims. Any tips by anyone.
One of my VTX friends does tire changes on a No-Mar manual tire changer and he tells me that changing the rear tire on a GL1800 is a real PITA and has one of the hardest beads to unseat, in fact he has to use "helper bars" to get the bead over the rim for the change. Since the Vision and the GL1800 have the same tires, I think we could safely presume that the same would apply to a tire change on a Vision. Properly balancing the tires will also greatly improve tire life. |
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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | I've got a friend who has a nomar as well and he said I could use it when I had the wing, I hope the invite is still open with the vision. He rides a GL1800. I think that the rim on the wing makes it difficult, and I hope the Vision doesn't make it harder than it has to be. We'll see. My dealer though is the cheapest around when it comes to changing tires so I just might take it to them if I wimp out. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 721
| varyder - 2008-04-04 9:17 PM
I've got a friend who has a nomar as well and he said I could use it when I had the wing, I hope the invite is still open with the vision. He rides a GL1800. I think that the rim on the wing makes it difficult, and I hope the Vision doesn't make it harder than it has to be. We'll see. My dealer though is the cheapest around when it comes to changing tires so I just might take it to them if I wimp out.
I talked to my Honda dealer, who is only about 8 miles from my house, today and since he used to be a Victory dealer (he's a very large multiline dealer who got fed up with Victory's policies back when the first came out with the Vegas) he told me that he would have no problem doing routine work such as oil changes and tire changes on the Vision. His service department charges $160 for labor to do a tire change on my GL1800, $100 for a tire change on my VTX or if you bring him the wheels he only charges $35 each for mounting and balancing. I usually buy my tires online (http://www.hondadirectlineusa.com/stores/index.asp?str=4 for GL1800 specific tire, best prices by far and they guarantee it by 10%) and then take the wheels to him to get them mounted. HDL charges $270 for a set of Dunlop E3s and includes free shipping.
I have the benefit of having a full table lift in my garage so it makes doing things such as tire and oil changes myself fairly easy. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 721
| Oops! 
Edited by Travelin' Man 2008-04-04 10:37 PM
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Cruiser
Posts: 296
Central Florida | Independent MC shop quoted me 2.5 hrs labor front and rear, including a check of all specs as I have been doing all my service myself. Rear doesnt need bags to come off, just looks like a PITA.
$280 for front and rear tires..
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Repacing the tires Next week