Tires

I will be needing new tires this year and want to know if i can run radials or stay with bias ply?

 

For the price i hear the bridgestone Spitfire S 11 are good?

 

I don't know yet how they are, but spitfires are what I bought, just need to get em on!

 

According to the Avon rep radials are O.K.

 

I don't know about radials. I do know my bike never came with them installed. I've run Spitfires for the entire time I've had my bike. I've never had a problem with them and I usually get about 6,000 miles out of the rear and about twice that for a front tire.

 

I bought them too, $113 off bike bandit,

use DUCATI123 as a code, its 10% off everything on the bike bandit site.

I also need to put them on the bike

 

Thanks guys, i will be going with the spitfires. I was told you should always change both front and back at same time? Is this true with haveing the front tire wear half as fast?

 

no... theres lots of people running 2 different tires or 2 of the same with the front being older... if your front if fine... I think its ok to just change the rear

 

So should one get on average two rear tires to one front? I have a tread gauge at work and was wondering what the maximum wear limits are front and back to consider replacement?

 

Basically just look at how deep the tread lines are. If they are really shallow, then it is probably time to change them. You will also be able to feel when the tires start to go bad. The bike will get a little squirly around turns.

I rode all last season with the S-11's and i loved them! Great comfort and great performance. The only reason you would need to change teh front at the same time as the rear is if you were really hard on the tires as in going really fast through turns and hard acceleration all teh time.

 

I go through something like four rears for every front on the Norton.

They're the same size yes same size front and rear, 4.10X19 and you're SUPPOSED to rotate them, put the new one on the front and use up the old front on the rear.

Right. Like I said, I use up four rears to every front...

My XJs (550s anyway) are very different. My rear Dunlop D404 is about worn out at ~8000 miles, and the front is thin enough to warrant replacing at the same time. I might go with Bridgestones on that bike, Battlax BT45s.

I'm interested to see how the Avons do on the other bike. They'll do some serious miles next season so we shall see.