| Author | Message | ||
     Roadrailer |
I already posted this in another forum, but I wanted to get an answer from The Collective  . Sorry if you're reading this for the second time... I keep reading about the very low life span of the stock tires. For those of you who have had your Ulys for a while, how's your tire wear? And what pressures are you running? As a side question, is your HD/Buell dealership willing to mount tires you bring in yourself? There's no way I'm putting the OEM tires back on if I get fewer than 5,000 miles out of them, and I get the impression that the HD dealership only has the OEM tire available to them. I could be wrong about that, though. I don't have the facilities available to do my own tires. | ||
| Lowflyer |
My rear tire has 3/32 remaining and my front has 5/32 remaining at 3200 miles. Tire pressures stay around 32-36psi for both. | ||
| M2nc |
My rear is smooth and needs to be replaced, I just got the replacement in. The bike is between 3200-3300 miles. In comparison, I usually get between 5200 to 5700 miles on the D205s on the M2. I will keep D616 until the front wears out then I'm going to the Pirelli Sync tires which are OEM from the CityX | ||
| Stevem123 |
My rear was gone at 3800 miles....Front was about 50% used up. I run my pressures near the maximum rating on the tire for two reasons: 1. I'm a heavy guy and sometimes ride two-up. 2. I've been told that running higher pressures results in faster heating and cooler running with more even tire temps throughout the carcass. I'm also going to try the Pirelli syncs next but I sure wish that a more offroad tire would become available. BC Steve | ||
| Speedstar |
2800 miles and my rear is just about gone. I too am going to Scorpion Syncs next. They are sitting in the garage just waiting for me to pull the wheels and get them in. | ||
| Roadrailer |
Don't forget to post your pressure. I want to see if there's any correlation between pressure and wear. | ||
| Eor |
At 4800 miles I am finishing off my SECOND D616 rear. The front tire was replaced early by the dealership/Buell trying to diagnose a handling issue. Looks like it would have made it 4000-5000 miles. Always... 36 Front 38 Rear Checked before each ride, by the book. Also switching to Scorpion Syncs at 5K service. | ||
| Stevenknapp |
Curious, why are the scorpion syncs so popular? I was thinking about Pilot Roads if the 616s don't work out. | ||
| Brad1445 |
I'm the skinny guy every one hates because he can eat anything and never get fat, well not really but my bike is. If Buell knew how I rode my bike they would void the warranty. I never check oil or tire pressure, drive the •••• out of it and at 5,000 miles fronts still looks 75% new back 40% | ||
| Eor |
I had the Scorpion Syncs on the CityX and got more wear out of them on the same roads. I'm also curious to see what effect, if any, the Syncs have on the handling of the Ulysses. I'm not sure there are that many options available right now for the Ulysses. I'd like to try something like the Michelin Anakees, but they currently don't offer it in the correct size. | ||
| Wasions |
The Tiger comes with Anakees. I'll let you know how they work out, but from what I've read, they're pretty well worn by 3K or so (per RoadBike Magazine - Oct. '05). Steve Gear up! | ||
| Roadrailer |
I'm not sure there are that many options available right now for the Ulysses. I'd like to try something like the Michelin Anakees, but they currently don't offer it in the correct size. The Uly wears standard size street tires, so there are lots and lots of options available. Don't hold your breath for dual sports in that size, it ain't gonna happen. | ||
| M2nc |
Sorry about the Tire Pressures 35 front 38 rear. I left the tires are factory recommendations to see if I could optimise tire life, but so far I not impressed. The Uly pushes a bit in the curves and one racer (Tripp Nobles) told me that you can't make a brick grip, so I will lower pressures to what I have the M2 set at. 32 front 36 rear. Why the Sync? Well if you look at the Pirelli website at the description of the Sync, it mimics what I read about the D616. It speaks of a Multi-Surface tire with great rain capability and aggressive tread pattern. Most guys that I talk to on CityXs are getting better mileage out of their Syncs than I was getting out of even the D205. I figure somewhere in the 6000-7000 mile range. Twice what the D616 are getting on average. Also I have to agree with EOR. I am impressed on how well the D616s do off pavement, but they leave something to be desired on pavement. The bikes wonders around when I'm going straight, even if only slightly, and I thing that is the front tire. The seem to stick okay, but they did fail me that one time, even if ICE - Frost covered Sand is suspected as the cause. I've ridden that route at those temperatures before and even my Bias-ply K505s on the Nighthawk never lost grip. So time for something new. So the switch to the Syncs will be a bit of a trade off, a little better grip on pavement, probably not as good off pavement, allot better mileage. | ||
| Chadhargis |
I don't ride off pavement (unless I blow a corner!  ), so I'll be going with a street tire when the Dunlops have melted away. Most likely the Pirelli Diablo Strada. | ||
| Eor |
Perhaps if the Uly continues to do well, we will see an Anakee, Sirac, or Tourrance for it. Orientation wise, any of them would seem appropriate for the Uly. Sadly, the market may be too small to justify the cost of tooling up for such an odd-sized dual purpose type tire. Dunlop was probably the only company willing to do it for Buell, given the close relationship between them and H-D. | ||
| Stevenknapp |
The Anakees on my GS still had plenty of life left at 6k. I'd buy them again in a heartbeat. | ||
| Chadhargis |
I got exceptional life out of the Metzler Tourances on my GS. 9000 miles out of the front and about 6000 out of the rear. Of course, I rode a lot more conservative back then. | ||
| Stevenknapp |
From what I've heard, the Anakees give up some mileage for a lot more grip. The Sync's are looking appealing, might give the pilotroads a chance too. We'll see. | ||
| Windaddiction |
I heard at a bike show recently that buell is devoloping another ULY tire that is more on road orriented | ||
| Chadhargis |
I also heard through a reliable source that Dunlop may not be the tire of choice for HD/Buell in the future. This is unconfirmed, but interesting. | ||
| Lowflyer |
So, am I the only geek with a tire gauge or what? This is not a very scientific thread.  Blake, Your spell checker is wrong. It is 'gauge' not 'gage.'  | ||
| Eor |
Okay, for Lowflyer's Inner geek... I have 2/32" or less tread depth on my rear tire after approx. 2000 miles. The front has 5/32." | ||
| Bent |
Only 3800 miles before I had to replace the rear. The front seems to wear a little better but not much. I wanted to replace the Dunlops with the Pirelli Syncs, but my H-D Dealer would not install because of liability reasons. Guess I'll be buying my tires elsewhere next time. | ||
| Biker_bob |
I measured my tires and they had just under 6/32 after 1400 miles on the rear. New ones have just under 8/32. | ||
| Eor |
...I wanted to replace the Dunlops with the Pirelli Syncs, but my H-D Dealer would not install because of liability reasons. Guess I'll be buying my tires elsewhere next time. WTF?  Anyone else run into this? | ||
| Roadrailer |
...I wanted to replace the Dunlops with the Pirelli Syncs, but my H-D Dealer would not install because of liability reasons. Guess I'll be buying my tires elsewhere next time. WTF? Anyone else run into this? I was a little concerned about this. Seemed to me that the HD dealerships might not be too used to customers coming in and requesting non-OEM tires. Although -- up until now -- all I had was a hunch. | ||
| Eor |
I've had H-D dealerships mount Metzlers on a couple of Harley's I've owned...no problem. If I run into a problem with this, I'm not sure what I'll do. No one around here [including me] has any experience removing and replacing wheels on a bike like the Buell. | ||
| Hotrodsportster |
We have had non-OEM tires mounted by at least three (3) HD dealers in the Charlotte area. They wanted a bit more than the local Yamaha/Honda/Kawasiki dealers, but no issues other than cost. ride Safe | ||
| Larryboy |
i'm at 1,000 miles and run 38 front and 40 rear. haven't put a depth gauge on the tires yet. i'm happy with the wear so far. those that are eating tires fast should go to a local tire shop and ask them if they will compare you're gauge to the shop master gauge. it's pretty easy to have a gauge 10 lbs off one way or the other. | ||
| Rkc00 |
I have 7/32" left on the front and 3/16" on the back. The bike has 4400 miles on it. 36 Front 38 Rear My weight 245# Mostly one up riding 1500 highway miles 2900 local miles No burnouts I would typically get 4500-5000 miles out of a stock 207 rear and 7500 front on my XB9S. Mike Long Island, NY 06 XB12X Black of course | ||
| Dave |
My rear original stocker is finally spent at abut 5000 mi. I run stock tire pressures. I ran the Tourance on my Tiger and was happy with it and I see it is available for the Uly as well. Considering how I ride, I went with the Scorpion Sync. DAve | ||
| Eor |
In fairness to the D616's... I have very little Interstate / asphalt paved highway time on them. The routes I typically ride are predominately chip/seal surface in which gravel is spread and rolled onto a layer of asphalt. The surface is generally uniform, but "rough as a cob" as they say around here....sort of like riding on course grit sandpaper. The sparse traffic and low population density here just don't justify the expense of asphalting the backroads. It's a trade off for being able to ride on some really fun roads for 50 or 60 miles with out meeting or passing a SINGLE vehicle. I kill tires as a secondary hobby. Dunlop D207's on my XB9SL were toast at 1400 miles. Dunlop 402's on the FXDI had to replaced much earlier than most. I think I got 3K out of the Scorpion Syncs on the XB9SX...and was pretty tickled they lasted THAT long. With apologies to Robert Oppenheimer and the Baghavad Gita... I am become death...the shatterer of tires.   I shudder to think how quickly they would go if I started popping wheelies or doing burnouts...never done either....seriously. (Message edited by eor on February 11, 2006) | ||
| M2nc |
I think that rural southern roads are like sandpaper. Up until last November, I never lost grip through a curve on the front tire, not even on my Nighthawk with K505 Bias-Ply tires. I wore a small hole in my blue jeans through one curve on the Nighthawk, tire stuck like glue. I have spun the back tire coming out of a few curves on the M2, but never the front. I do allot of back road attacks. That means allot of stop signs and jack rabbit starts. Though I started to settle down on the M2 after about a year, the Uly is just not ridden hard in my book. Yes, I get on it, but rarely WOT. The tires have no chicken strips on either side, the left side doesn't count for obvious reasons. I have popped several wheelies, and have taken a few runs down my favorite back road drag strip. Overall, I ride the bike harder than the average rider, but am calm in comparison to many squids. I have always rode on Dunlops. I thought about Metzlers once, but a friend had M1s (it think that is right), had a hard time staying on his line in front of me one day in the rain. When, we stopped, he commented on how slick the road was wet. On the M2 with the D207/D205 combination, I never noticed a loss in traction, that concerned me about Metzlers. To boot, we ride together allot and though he got better mileage out of the Metzlers than the Dunlop on his Lightning, and the fact that he likes the way the bike handles better with the Metzlers, he was still getting 2,000 miles less per rear tire than the D205 on the M2. So at that time, I stayed with the Dunlops. Even though I am a novice at off-roading, I have loved the few adventures I've taken off road so far. I would like to hook up with Jlnance on his Uly and start looking for good places to go off the pavement. As he stated his "Meet My Ulysses" tale section thread, the only time we were together, we left all the others in the group at the edge of the black top and road a short distance down a dirt road and into a field to get to our destination. The rest walked down. I am definitely going to explore the fire roads around Suches when we are there for March Badness. That is where I caught the Dual Sport bug anyway. After talking to people that have had the Pirelli Syncs, everyone I've talked to had nothing but good things to say about them. The tread pattern is almost as aggressive as the D616 and I believe would do pretty good off-road. I will try them out and see. The front tire will tell the tale. I read up on them and feel that I am ready to step away from the Dunlops and try these Pirelli. I was considering the Stradas for the M2. | ||
| Stevenknapp |
I asked Dunlop's factory reps at the IMS this weekend what they thought the life of the 616 should be. They said the factory upped it from 3-6k to 6-10k after some field testing.  | ||
| Eor |
They must have tested them at the same "field" where the Uly got 64 mpg. Wait for it..... Here it comes........ Standby................... Yes, The Field of Dreams.  (Message edited by eor on February 11, 2006) | ||
| Lowflyer |
They conducted their tests on grass. I'm not talking about the kind you mow either |
