Originally Posted by
Kojak
I'm not quite so skeptical on the 23,000 claim, considering that it's stated in NashComm's post that it was a front tire (not a rear), and that in the same period of time he's gone through 3 rear tires, which stacks up pretty well with the feedback that we get from our customers who often claim that at 10k+ miles, their SMPs are still going strong. 23,000 would certainly be on the extreme end of the expected useful life but quite possible under ideal circumstances. I would expect that by this point that some of the blue puncture protection belt rubber (Smart Guard) would be starting to show.
If this were my bike, I'd be inclined to move the front to the rear when the rear wears out and put the fresh one on the front, but given how difficult these tires can be to mount I could certainly understand passing on this protocol and just replacing the worn out tire.
I do understand that my chiming in on this aspect may seem biased. One can believe what they want to believe.
How's that being bias? Your just stating an opinion.
I understand this business about replacing 3 tires to one front, problem is your still 7,666 miles, on average, on the rear, and even for a rear tire that's a lot. I've never heard of anyone going that long on a single tire on the rear. I knew a guy who did tour on those Marathons but he only got 5,000 mile on them (only? that's better then other touring tires!), but he was hauling 75 pounds of gear plus his 200 pound body weight, he did tell me they lasted longer then the Continental Touring Plus tire he had before that only lasted 2,000 miles with the same load factors. He does rotate the tires so he always has a newer tire on the front, but even if he hadn't and you use the 1/3rd rule he would have gotten about 3,334 miles on the rear and about 8,334 on the front (I hope I did the math right); take off the 75 pounds of touring weight and drop 50 pounds of body weight still will not push that tire to almost 3 times that mileage, you might get an additional 2,000 miles and that's being more then very generous.
But, just to make peace on this subject, I will give him the benefit of the doubt. But I hope you understand others and my reasoning for doubting this.