There’s an old joke about a building with a broken elevator. The building owner calls an elevator repairman, who arrives and inspects the elevator carefully. He then reaches into his toolbox, pulls out a hammer, and gently raps on a panel inside the elevator. He turns to the owner and says, “It’s fixed. That’ll be $5,000.” The owner is stunned and stammers, “All you did was rap on that panel with a hammer. Can I have an itemized bill?” The repairman says, “Sure. Service visit, $100. Knowing where to rap with the hammer, $4,900.”

Tires are like that. The raw materials in a tire are pretty cheap, especially when purchased in bulk. The equipment and manufacturing process is fairly simple, especially when production volume is high. The reason tires are expensive is the design, engineering and testing required to produce a tire that does what a modern tire does. Think about it. An automobile tire is exposed to all kinds of weather and temperatures, potholes, various kinds of pavement, etc. It may get rubbed against curbs. It’s driven at speeds from zero to maybe as much as 100 mph or more. It may not always have the proper air pressure. It has to handle curves, wet and greasy roads, gravel, you name it. Its tiny contact patch is all that’s between you and the road and when you slam on the brakes, it needs to grip really well. Oh, and it should do all those things flawlessly every day, every time, and last for 40,000 miles. It’s a miracle anything can do that.

Motorcycle tires are designed differently than car tires because motorcycles steer differently than cars. Motorcycles counter steer to turn and use the full circumference of the tire. In addition the tires are designed to work as a set depending on the brand and model tire. Some give great traction while others give great mileage. When buying motorcycle tires you buy then as a complete set. Usually you wear out the rear before the front. I usually go through 2 rears for every front tire and I run Pirelli Diablo Corsa III tires on all my sport bikes because they provide great traction in wet and dry. I usually get about 4k - 5k out of a front and about 3k miles from the rear. Never skimp on tires because they are your life on the road!

Not sure they are particularly, at least if you're comparing a similar level of product. I bought some top quality tyres for my Saab, a mid-level "executive" car and they were about £500 and something for the set (of 4). I also bought a couple of tyres for my 1000cc sports tourer motorcycle and they were around £140 or so each, I guess the front a bit less and back a bit dearer. So overall, tyres for a large and powerful motorbike similarly priced to a mid range car. Obviously Ferrari tyres are likely a lot more, and my own bike's tyres are a lot more than tyres for a small runabout car, especially if buying a dodgy cheap brand

It depends on the motorcycle and how you’re planning on using it.

If we’re talking a restored, vintage motorcycle (or for that matter, blinged-out custom motorcycle) who’s normal use is going to be trailered to shows, and ridden very occasionally on nice, sunny, dry days, those cheap tires will do fine. After all, you’re never going to put high mileage on the bike, never going to ride it in adverse conditions like wet roads, and never stretch it’s performance capabilities. Of course, this does question why, having spent a great deal of money restoring/building a bike, you’d cheap out on what is probably the last part you install. And especially a part that is painfully obvious to the person judging your work in competition.

Conversely, if you actually plan to seriously ride that motorcycle . . . . in all possible conditions like driving rainstorms, your priorities change. No biker willingly rides in those conditions, they ride through them because the only have the choice of doing so to arrive at that day’s destination, or pulling over and parking until the storm passes. And being parked under a bridge on I-79 with semi’s rolling by at 70mph less than three feet from you is not fun. I was back on the road, in the storm, as soon as the center of it was past my location.

I knew what I had on my bike (Metzlers, my preferred touring tire of choice for twenty five years now, I have no doubt someone reading this feels the same way about Dunlops, Avons, Michelins, etc. with every bit as much justification), I knew how they’d behave in such conditions, most importantly if they started to break loose in the wet I know they’d give me enough warning to correct before I start going down. Which is not a fun feeling on a Triumph Sprint with a three bag setup . . . much less a Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Ultra Classic.

Also, those good, expensive tires are probably going to keep going a lot better if I pick up a puncture fifty miles in the middle of nowhere. Cheap tires have nowhere near the puncture resistance. Welcome to why I ride Metzlers rather than Dunlops.

In the end, you get what you pay for. If all I’m planning on doing is buzzing a Honda CB350 around town at posted residential area speeds, I’m comfortable with Cheng Shins under me. They’ll hold up just fine under those conditions and demands. However, riding from Richmond to Daytona Beach, I want something a lot better. I want to be sure I get there, safely, without incident, no matter what the road and weather throws at me.

Motorcycle helmets are the opposite of expensive.

UPDATE: The average Car has 4 side curtain airbags for $300-$700 each, Main bags up front for $800 to $2000 each, knee bags, up front, Seatbelts for every seat, and a roll cage that can catch a rolling car and prevent it from crushing us.
You know they added those $5,000 to $15,000 or more in the cost of the car before adding their percentage profit. All the gear for most MC riders on the same roads is $700 to $1500 depending on latest styles, comfort, options. This includes two jackets with removable liners for Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, two sets of gloves/boots, etc. I’m comfortable commuting to work from 10° F up to 90° F. This is a great bargain compared to car safety gear, but that’s not the right way to compare it.
- Back to the original -

One of the more common issues for new riders is to lose balance while coming to a stop where the road is not as level as where you practiced, right around 5 MPH or slower. You could just step off and let the bike fall, but this is all new to you and you’ll overwork muscles and believe you can catch it. Sometimes it takes you down. Your leg is trapped you’re rolling slowly. With With a cheap helmet you might tap lightly on the concrete without knowing it.
This is no big deal, later on you notice a scratch on a $100 to $600 helmet. Maybe leave it, buff it out, if you hit hard enough to know it and fear one of the three multiple hardness layers inside was compromised, you could lose the helmet.
Or, the same tap on a bare head can be a $1200 ride to the hospital, stitches, $800 for a CAT scan, add towing for the bike you probably could have ridden away if you had the helmet (You’d want to do a full T-CLOCKS inspection first.).

The point is you may ruin your day or a week, and compound the cost of a nothing event by trying to save $200 by not buying a good low-price helmet.

Helmet, jacket, pants or chaps, boots, and gloves are all part of the price of your first motorcycle. Bonus: most of these will outlast your first motorcycle, or work fine with two or three motorcycles you switch between for different rides.
For your first motorcycle, work out your budget and find a motorcycle for $800 less than that. When you go for financing, tell the bank you need to borrow $800 more than the bike cost so you can get safety gear. It’s a normal request, and it helps protect their investment on the whole loan. They do this all the time. Your gear in the future can be separate purchases, but not for the first bulk of safety gear.

My best helmet cost me $125 on sale, would have been $189 at full price. A good textile jacket for $150 with padding and removable quilted liner can be comfortable and protect you in Spring, Summer, and Autumn. Chaps with a liner, or Motorcycle pants for $150 to $400 mostly differ in style. I’m fine slipping my chaps off when I get there so I can wear whatever I want under those. Good gloves that protect you well can be near $100, every autumn they go on clearance sale.

Don’t scrimp on boots, they should be sturdy leather or bracing around the ankles and other motorcycle specific features (grip, mole strap for laces, special padding at the weakest point of the ankles, medium soles not too thick to get under the shift lever, not too thin to support pressing hard on the ground while lifting off the side-stand. the list goes on) Expect $60 to $150.
Get a model that covers above your ankles. Trust me on this, when your 400 pound bike starts to go down, at an angle with leverage you’ll only be trying to hold about 90 pounds of bike, PLUS your own weight, with one foot trying to plant flat on the ground while being pushed sideways. This can snap a bone, tear ankle tendons, or with the right boots it could be no big deal weather you catch it or go down with it.

Again, after the first few months of riding, these low speed problems melt away with experience, but you will still want good equipment for other unplanned mishaps.

+ Shiny side up,

Motorcycle tires wear out more quickly than automobile tires and are more expensive to replace. All tires are a compromise between grip and tire life, a racing tire may not last for a full afternoon on the track! Maintaining your tire pressure (check tires when cold about once per week) is critical to maintaining tire life - and your life. On the plus side, new tires “feel” great on a bike once you have ridden them conservatively for 50 miles or so.

Most motorcycle tires have small wear bars inside some of the treads that give you a visual indicator of when the tire is getting worn out. When the small bars come in contact with the road due to tire wear, it is time to replace the tire. In the U.S., some people assess wear levels by inserting a Lincoln cent into the tread (if the tread isn’t deep enough the reach the top of his head - time to replace).

Tires will “age out” and should not used when the tire is too old to provide adequate grip or strength. All tires have a manufacturing date stamped into the side of the tire. Personally, I would never use a motorcycle tire that was older than three years (often I replace every year).

If you repaired your tubeless motorcycle tire with a plug after a nail/screw puncture, you need to replace your tire. Note this is different from a car where a plugged tire is no big deal. If you drove your bike on a nearly flat tire for miles to reach a repair location, you might think twice about re-using that same tire as you may have compromised the strength of the tire.

In time —or after a long road trip with a loaded motorcycle— your tires may show visible signs of wear. Most commonly, you may have a flat area in the middle of your tire which you can see if you bend down and examine your tire from the rear 2–3 feet away. This is from driving your bike on the highway for long periods without turning. If you see white cords/threads or any material discontinuity in the “flat spot” (really a band around your tire) you must replace ASAP. If it “just” a flat spot you should still replace it if it is very distinct when looking at the tire in profile or if you can feel it is affecting your ability to initiate the lean needed for a turn.

A parked bike that has not been moved for 2–3 months (or if tires have lost air) can develop a flat spot in one section of the tire. If the flat section doesn’t go away after a short test ride under proper inflation, it must be replaced.

If you have changed your style of riding (e.g. now riding off road 20% of the time) you should purchase a set of tires that fit your new riding habits.

Generally you get what you pay for in a motorcycle tire, and it is a foolish thing to try and save money on a less than quality product.

They're really not.

1. Compared to most adult hobbies and sports, they're pretty cheap. Look at the hobbies your friends might have: photography, cooking, collecting, home brewing, etc, and they're priced pretty well in that context. You can get a LOT of bike for $1500, you can't get a lot of camera gear for that money.

2. Road bikes are racing bikes. That's a pretty specialized niche in the wider context of things. I don't see people sitting around and complaining about the cost of F1 or even F2000 cars. That's the thing, when you buy a $5,000 road bike and stick a $3,000 wheel set onto it, you have a bike equivalent to the bikes the TdF is won on. Hell, spend 3,000GBP at Planet X and you get a bike comes in below the UCI's weight limit. The number of people I see riding around on bike paths in full kit on full carbon bikes is seriously way too high.

Amateurs usually fall into two groups: people with time and little money, and people with money and little time. The latter group tries to buy their way to better results. Fortunately, that rarely works - cheap equipment is already very good, and the law of diminishing returns is very real. How much of an advantage will a $400 Dura Ace cassette give you over a $35 Tiagra? (Not much)

Most amateur road cyclists would do much better to lose weight, get enough sleep, implement and follow a serious HIIT/endurance + strength training program, than to buy a more expensive road bike. Remember what Eddy Merckx said: Don't buy upgrades, ride up grades.

I have ridden motorcycles perhaps 150.000 miles over the last 40+years. Front and rear tyre wear is noticeable and the rear wears much faster.

If your front tyre wear is noticeably more pronounced on one side it's almost certainly either a bent frame, bent fork or one weepy fork seal.

I have a CB 750 with about 3000 miles on the front tyre. There's virtually zero difference in wear on either side. I've had maybe 50 other bikes ranging from 50cc to 1300cc no difference either.

Economy of scale. The same reason motorcycle tires are so expensive. Motorcycle is a recreational vehicle in all but developing countries with mild or tropical climate. Also there is little to no standardization, so production batches are smaller and cost per unit higher.

That said, I converted almost all my motorcycles to dual density UNI foam. It’s a pretty easy retrofit using the OEM filter frame/housing. No more $30+ per filter, just wash in gasoline, re-oil and put back.

Gutted OEM filter:

Filled with UNI foam (top is dirty):

These are the factors that will increase the price of a bicycle tyre:

1. It is from an established brand.
2. The manufacturers have made high investments in research to improve the performance of their tyres.
3. Due to high quality control, it has better overall tyre performance, such as, rolling resistance and wear and traction.
4. It can last significantly longer than cheaper tyres.
5. It can be folded.
6. Instead of steel wire, Kevlar, a synthetic fiber is used in the tyre belts and beads as it is heat-resistant and strong.
7. It is lightweight.
8. It is easier to install as it has more natural rubber content over synthetic rubber polymers.
9. It can handle heavier load due to its higher ply rating.
10. It is locally, not yet a commonly used tyre type or size, example, it is a tubeless tyre or of width wider than 2.1″ or made for fat bikes.

I bought a ZZR1100 (C3 back in the day,) with a brand new set of Avon tyres. I took it from the UK to Gibraltar - convinced it was a death trap. Paris’s ring road had me power sliding sideways under fairly moderate acceleration, hard acceleration and it lit the back wheel up. Power sliding was a brand new skill I didn't know I had either. - A useful tip is to bring a change of underwear.

I swapped for a set of Bridgestones BT56 and it literally was night and day. Although the 1800 miles down to Gibraltar hadn't put any noticeable wear on the Avon tyres- the Bridgestone rear was about stuffed in a few 1000miles or so.

So in answer to your question the tyres a manufacturer supplies are likely to be both cheaper, more durable and far more fucking dangerous on any high performance bike and consequently swapping tyres is money well spent.

Are wider tires better on a motorcycle?

It depends. As with so many things in life, wider is better for some things and worse for others. In general a wider tire means a bigger contact patch which means better traction. On the downside wider means slower steering and more lean angle necessary for a given radius turn at a given speed.

However, there is another important aspect of tires besides the width. The profile of the tire, expressed as the aspect ratio of the tire, also has a significant affect on performance. The aspect ratio is the ratio of the tire’s height compared to its width. Typical tire size nomenclature looks like this, 180/55–17, where the first number is the width of the tire in millimeters, the second number is the aspect ratio and the third number is the diameter of the rim in inches (metric and imperial units together?!). In this example the aspect ratio, 55, means that the height is 55% of the width.

The higher the aspect ratio, the taller the tire is compared to its width, or the steeper the profile is. A steeper profile has 2 advantages, faster steering and a larger contact patch when leaned over, i.e. when turning.

In general the heavier and or more powerful a motorcycle is the wider the tire needs to be. However, you can offset the negatives of a wider tire to some degree by giving the tire a steeper profile. An aspect ratio of 50 is typical for rear tires on bigger bikes. Higher performance tires for those same bikes, for example a 1 liter sport bike, have a slightly taller aspect ratio of 55. Track tires for a 1 liter sport bike can have aspect ratios as high as 70, for example 200/70–17.

What does a narrow tire do for a motorcycle?

For street or paved track use, particularly on small displacement machines, a narrow tyre with high inflation pressure and low deflection can offer lower rolling resistance, less unsprung weight, higher speeds, and improved fuel economy. However, such use of narrow tyres can have disadvantages in terms of rough riding and issues with handling and braking performance.

When they show wear. If you can measure tread depth, you can check what’s legal in your state. They can be ridden past that, especially the back tire, but there’s a point where you are taking your own life into your hands if you continue riding on that tire. Blow outs on a motorcycle are dangerous, especially if it’s the front tire.

In the rain you also need good tread or you’ll hydroplane pretty badly.

Most sticky tires are only going to give you 8–12k miles before you have to change them. You can get less sticky tires for most cruisers that can give you as much as 20k out of a tire or more. I ride mine a lot farther than I should and with Michilen Commander IIs on my Heritage I usually get 25–30k out of a set of tires, but they are bald bald by then. Last back tire I had chunks of tire coming off it was so bald. Not safe but I’m poor and ride a lot of miles every year. I had to be somewhere and don’t own a cage so I put miles on I shouldn’t have and pieces of tire were coming off by the time I got home. But I got 34k out of that tire lol. One of these days pushing my tires like that will come back and bite me.

My current front tire still has suggestions of tread on it, but I won’t take it out on a long ride right now due to chances of hitting rain. Nor ride it in the rain until I get a new front tire which has been ordered. Nor will I push it anywhere near as far as I push a back tire.

Your mileage will vary by the bike, what kind of riding you do and how you ride it as well as the type and brand of tire you put on.

I am a shop owner, so I can answer this one.

Now in the spring of 2021 I charge $80/hr for my shop time. Fully synthetic oil I charge $10/qt. Oil filters for motorcycles are $10–16 (some even more, BMW…Moto Guzzi..etc.)

I roll the bike into the shop, put it up on the lift (5 minutes) and get it secured. I then have to remove any body panels covering up oil filter or drain plug locations. Some bikes there is nothing to remove, thus simple, others may take 30–45 minutes just to gain access to the engine.

I perform the oil change, then begin checking other vital components like brake fluids, chain tension/lube, final drive oil, etc. On some bikes it takes 30–45 minutes just to check the air filter requiring fairings and fuel tanks to be removed (more time).

If the brake fluid is discolored, or for regular customers older than 2–3 years old, I will do a quick fluid change on brake fluid as well (15–20 minutes). I adjust and lube the chain (15–20 minutes). If the air filter needs changed, I do it ($20–75 for the part alone). I finish up with checking the tire pressures.

A proper oil change service on a simple bike takes me about an hour start to finish. That is $80 in labor, $30–50 in fluids and filter, more if an air filter is needed.

In my shop, oil changes are not just oil changes, I check the entire bike out for safety/maintenance issues. They run between $80 on the low side to almost $200 for some bikes.

Two guys on a lube rack can do an oil change on an F150 pickup truck in 15–20 minutes. All the reservoirs, filters, and things that need to be checked are out in the open and easy to access. A full oil change service can take up to two hours on some bikes depending on how hard it is to access things like the air filter, engine, etc., due to all the plastic fairings. There is the difference in your price.

In the United States, where we drive on the right side of the road, your tires will wear out faster on the left side of the tire due to the crown of the road. The road's crown is subtle, but it's effect on your tire can be dramatic.

What does a wider rear tire do for a motorcycle?

The rear tire on this motorcycle is much bigger than the front tire. On this bike the fat rear tire serves many purposes. It has a bigger footprint so it has better grip on the road. It grabs the road at all times and transfers the torque from the motor to the road.

On the Harley Sportster 1200, the fat rear tire is now part of the aesthetics. In the early days when the rubber compounds were not as “sticky” as they are today a wider rear tire was needed for traction. The light weight and high torque made traction control a problem so a wider tire was needed. Thus the “74” rear tire was born.

On todays sport bike the wider tires do a lot for handling in the turns. The bike can be leaned much farther without losing traction. In a straight line, wider tires really don’t provide much benefit under “normal” conditions. But in hard acceleration, hard braking and hard cornering the wide tires do their job and keep the bike glued to the road.

How much does it cost to get motorcycle tires mounted and balanced?

I can only speak to what it costs in the US. The price varies quite a bit depending on whether you give the shop your entire bike or if you give them just the wheels.

If you remove the wheels yourself and just give the shop your wheels it could be as low as $25 per wheel up to about $40 per wheel.

If you just give them your bike it will cost a lot more because they have to remove and reinstall the wheels. That isn’t really a big job but any shop is likely to charge at least 1 hour for that and that can easily more than double the price. I don’t really know what the cost range is because I always remove and reinstall my wheels myself, but I’d guess somewhere around an additional $80.

There are a few other factors. Big shops, like dealers, tend to be more expensive than smaller shops and less likely to deal. Any shop, large or small, that doesn’t know you is likely to charge you more than if you were a regular that had a relationship with them. As with anything, it’s best to call several shops in your area and compare prices.

Though it should be clear already, all of the prices mentioned here are only for mounting and balancing the tires and do not include the cost of the tires. These prices are what you can expect when you take new tires, that you’ve purchased somewhere else, to a shop to have mounted. You can certainly buy tires from the shop, and most shops would prefer you do, but unless you already have an established relationship with the shop it will likely be much more expensive than sourcing the tires yourself on-line and just having the shop mount them.

If you walk into a shop that doesn’t know you and ask to buy tires and have them mounted you are likely to be quoted a price 50% or more higher than if you bought the tires yourself on-line after a bit of diligent searching. They are going to quote you MSRP. Once you have a relationship with a shop you are more likely to get a much more competitive quote, pretty close to what it would cost if you bought the tires yourself and just had the shop mount them. If the shop is quoting you prices that are competitive, even if a little bit higher, at that point I recommend buying the tires from the shop. They deserve it.

How long a tire last depends on a multitude of items. Different bike use different tires. Sport bikes use tires that have soft rubber compounds that grip the road better. Touring bikes have tires on them that are made of Harder rubber compound which gives a bit less traction but a lot more serviceable miles.

The depth of the tread is the major indicator when it gets thin it’s time to get a new tire.

age is another indicator. I live in the desert and rubber can turn crispy critters on you real quick compared to other climates. Any form of cracking in the rubber no matter how small means the tire is starting to get dry rot and needs replacement.

I don’t ride a sport bike nor do I do long distance tours. Nonetheless, I will always use sport tires made by either Perelli, Metzler, Michelin, Avon or Continental. They may cost a bit more than that also ran brands, but I would rather sacrifice a bit more money so down the road I don’t lose some skin. Never scrimp on tires brakes or suspension. They are what keep you up right. Ride safe!