Shinko Radials

[mouthfulloflake]

thanks for that update.

may I ask what bike, and what ride/ready weight?

I ask because this shinko wont last me 6000

Originally Posted by Rock712

UPDATE:

Just got home from a road trip. Started the trip with 3k miles on the Shinkos running 36 front 42 rear. At about 4500 miles cracks were visible around the front tread, nothing huge but I did see them. At 6k miles part of the rear tire delaminated. It was noticed at a fuel stop. The rubber seperated from the cords. I made it to a shop and got the rubber replaced wih Tourances.

got 6K out of $150 tires. Not complaining, but would have prefer to write this saying "tires wore out at 6k" vs " tires fell apart at 6K"

Will I get another set? Not sure at this point.

[Rock712]

Bike is an 08 R12GS normally ridden with no bags. On the trip I had saddle bags and a top bag. Maybe 50-70 pounds more than usual.

[Englishmatt]

I started my recent GA to AK run on NEW 705s. 42 rear, 36 front. The rear tire never made it to Whitehorse, YT (about 4K). The Chipseal of the ALCAN destroyed the rear. The front made it to Fairbanks and still had 50%+ less.

I really liked the tires for the price. $150 for the pair, can't beat that. When we reached Dawson Creek (3,500) miles, the rear looked great! Still had plenty of life. The Alcan just ate the rear.

I had 140lbs, so basically 2-up the whole way.

MAtt.

[BobbySands]

Originally Posted by Rock712

UPDATE:

Just got home from a road trip. Started the trip with 3k miles on the Shinkos running 36 front 42 rear. At about 4500 miles cracks were visible around the front tread, nothing huge but I did see them. At 6k miles part of the rear tire delaminated. It was noticed at a fuel stop. The rubber seperated from the cords. I made it to a shop and got the rubber replaced wih Tourances.

got 6K out of $150 tires. Not complaining, but would have prefer to write this saying "tires wore out at 6k" vs " tires fell apart at 6K"

Will I get another set? Not sure at this point.

Just be happy you noticed it at the fuel stop rather than noticing it after you've dragged your smoking hulk of a GS out of the ditch.

There isn't a chance in hell I'd mount these after all these reliable reports of failures. No matter how cheap they sell.

[MizzouRider]

Well, mine are mounted as of yesterday. I got in 80 miles of a bit of everything. Gravel, interstate, tight twisties, and some higher speed curves.
My first thought was these really do drop into turns.. Especially at low speeds. They also felt pretty loose, unstable, the first time I was on the pegs, in gravel..
FYI, the outside temp showed 105 when I went through a small town about half way into the ride.. Whew.. I checked the front pressure and it was 42 at that point, dropped it to just under 40, figured the heat had inflated it.
However, by the end of the run, after I let that few pounds of air out of the front, they felt pretty good. Better in fact than the old Tourances (worn out) had felt.
I leave soon for 4000+ mile trip.. I don't mind wearing a tire out in that many miles, but I don't want one falling apart.
I'll post a recap here, with some pics, if they are still on when I get back..

[Luma46]

I have 12k kms on the front, still about 80% of thread left. My first rear lasted 10k kms, so I am on my second rear with 2k now. My local shop that installed the original set of tires (I live in a small town) doesn't have the proper gear to balance BMW wheels, so they did not balance the tires, telling me that they are "probably" OK.
I replaced the second rear tire myself and what got my attention when inspecting the worn out rear tire was that part of the tire had no thread at all and opposing part had about 1 mm or even more left.
So I decided to purchase the wheel balancer from Marc Parnes (BG13 kit) and I am glad that I did. First, this balancer is a great piece of workmanship, very well/precisely made. Second, both my wheels were terribly out of balance, each requiring five 1/4 ounce weights! I can imagine that such an unbalance must be mechanically affecting the bike suspension and causing the uneven wear that I have seen on the rear tire. I would not be even surprised if it had an effect on the FD. Not sure if all Shinko tires are so much out of balance, but mine for sure were...

[Paul Mihalka]

Five 1/4 ounce weights is not a outrageous amount. Also keep in mind that the wheels are not perfect. So if the heavy spot of the wheel coincides with the heavy spot of the tire, it needs more weight. Some say balancing is not needed, but I do balance mine.

[WOLVERINE]

Originally Posted by Paul Mihalka

Five 1/4 ounce weights is not a outrageous amount. Also keep in mind that the wheels are not perfect. So if the heavy spot of the wheel coincides with the heavy spot of the tire, it needs more weight. Some say balancing is not needed, but I do balance mine.

If you have TPS in the wheels they take more, much more...
Mine takes 11 and came from the factory that way to get them balanced! I use Marc Parnes also...Great piece of kit! Seems like every tire I've used on the rear takes the same # whether it be Distanzia's, Trail Attacks, Anakees or the Shinko, so it tells me the rim is out most of it and the tires are really close...

[Daryl_Stamp]

Ordered the Hiedi K60 from the No-Mar guy's tire store. The Shinko's I put on Jul 2 have to come off; rear is showing Almost no depth left; i like the front more than I did the Anakee 2's, but bought a set of 60's anyway. Maybe I'm too fat or ride too rough / fast down the dirt roads, interstates, back roads, twisties etc. We go 2-up at 'highly entertaining' rates on pretty much all surfaces so maybe I shouldn't be too disappointed in 3k miles, but really hoping for more than 6k out the K60's

[AviatorTroy]

Why do you guys ride $15k motorcycles and obsess over $150 tires? What is wrong with that picture? Yea I ran these on my three thousand dollar, 38 horsepower KLR, and I thought they were just barely OK then. On a 105 HP Beemer, really, I just don't get it.

Besides, I can barely get 6000 miles out of a set of Anakees on my 1200GS, which would translate to what, 1500 miles out of the Shinkos?

[wjherrick]

Originally Posted by AviatorTroy

Why do you guys ride $15k motorcycles and obsess over $150 tires? What is wrong with that picture? Yea I ran these on my three thousand dollar, 38 horsepower KLR, and I thought they were just barely OK then. On a 105 HP Beemer, really, I just don't get it.

Besides, I can barely get 6000 miles out of a set of Anakees on my 1200GS, which would translate to what, 1500 miles out of the Shinkos?

...does the price of the bike make when discussing a particular bike part and someones application of it. For you they may not be a perfect fit, for me they might be. I've had both the bias and the radials. They have both been good for me. Sounds like you are obsessed with status and may not appreciate a good value or are concerned with your friends might think (Oh my!). I may have only 10 - 12,000mi (and still going) on the two sets of Shinko's I've had, but that sounds like more experience then you've had. Buy a set and get back to us.

Bill in OR

[Daryl_Stamp]

Originally Posted by AviatorTroy

Why do you guys ride $15k motorcycles and obsess over $150 tires? What is wrong with that picture? Yea I ran these on my three thousand dollar, 38 horsepower KLR, and I thought they were just barely OK then. On a 105 HP Beemer, really, I just don't get it.

Besides, I can barely get 6000 miles out of a set of Anakees on my 1200GS, which would translate to what, 1500 miles out of the Shinkos?

$15k? .... That would have been a smokin hot deal
Obsess? .... Didnt realize that i was, but if i am it's because i can; dogs do some things for the same reason
Cheap? .... Sure,
Cheap & BMW? .... Yup, That's me

'Sharing the collective experience .... That's it mostly

On a related note reg cheap & BMWCa friend asked WTF I would get the expensive to replace ESA on my GSA; ... Answer; because I can, it works great & I use it all the time. The $ I save on washing / polishing will go toward the Wilbers from Ted.

[koenig]

Now don't start cussin at each other. Me? I have used Tourances, Anakees, TKC's, Karoo T's and Shinko Radials and now Heidi Scouts on my 1200GSA. Verdict? For a start they each lasted about 10,000ks, that at 80% road and 20% dirt of all different types. The Shinko lasted the best, 12k rear, front half worn and not badly scalloped. Off road, TKC's of course, but the Heidi's are only new and I will know more in a weeks time (going bush). The Shinko, Tourance and Anakee all handle about the same off road, that is not very good. On road the Shinko is probably the best handling road tyre I have used, and this includes some of the big names (Metzeler, Michellin etc) on sport bikes.
Karoo T's well, best enough said, and I'm a long time Metzeler fan.
So far the Heidi impresses me but I have only done about 2000ks on them, mostly sealed road as well. They are a little squirmy, but that is understandable given their enormous tread depth. I also think the front is very noisy at 100kmh, but what the heck, just about deaf anyway..
But to each their own. Everyone should do enough miles to wear out their own sets of tyres and do their own tyre reports.
Tyre pressures, if anyones interested. 30psi front and 35psi rear. I am going to drop this 5psi each when off road, and see how that goes. I recently ran the Shinko's at 20F and 25R off road and they were just fine.

[AviatorTroy]

I'm certainly the last person to care about status, just sayin'. I've ran 3 different types of Shinkos, 244, 705, and a street tire. The 244 on a KLR lasted about 300 miles before the back tire spit all it's knobs off. The 705 wasn't as bad but it did not have a very long life and had major cracking around the grooves, almost looked like dry rot. The street tires, on my CB550 cafe racer have been OK, because I ride it about 3 times a year.

On the GS, which I use, abuse, travel with and depend on to get me in and out of places that I don't have the judgement or common sense to stay away from, I need to have a set of tires I can rely on. And I'm not concerned in the least if I have to spend an extra hundred bucks every six months to have decent tires that give me that peace of mind. To each their own.

I've certainly experimented with cheap tires, but in the long run it's just not worth it. Even if I have a 1 in 50 chance of getting a bad tire, that's way too much. I think I stand a 1 in 1000 chance of getting a bad Michelin.

[unlawfulsm]

I dont know what you guys are doing to get the miles out of the 705's. I have about 1700 miles on this tire and it look as though it might make the next 1700, but its questionable. I ride a GS about 60/40 pavement to dirt and try hard to not slide the tire around on the gravel, when its pure dirt or sand its game on. Here is a crappy pic of me on the street, havent ordered the original from the photographer yet.



I run 42 psi in the rear and 38 in the front. The front is holding up fine, just wish the rear did the same.


Guess I need to start looking for another tire manufacturer to cover that type of riding. I would run the TKC's but they cost nearly $300/set and probably wouldnt last 3500 miles.