AM26 Roadrider Tyre Wear

hello there  Well I have two new Dunlop arrow-max  tyres up for sale  front is a 3,25 x19 rear is a 4.00x18  suitable  for tubeless  cast alloy wheels  contact is by email  you find this on old thread I Have made ,  yours   Anna j  

Not sure but car tyres wear like that when the wheels are out of alignment. Never seen it on a bike though, have you checked your wheels are aligned?

dan  

When I raced bikes in my 'yoof', the tread blocks always generated a step like that. Even today the tyres on my Morini wear like that when I'm in having a good thrash. 

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it- the tyre was maybe loaded more than usual and was perhaps a little hotter as well.

George 

What George said – I've never raced, but I've thrashed – that tyre wear looks pretty normal to me, for a tyre that's been thrashed, I wouldn't worry about it. I don't now anyway, because I don't thrash any more …

This is what is known as "saw tooth" wear, more often seen on tyres with fairly large tread blocks as you have. If you often indulge on spirited acceleration, it makes the leading edges wear faster. If on the other hand you brake a lot then it's the trailing edges that suffer.

Looks perfectly normal to me and my rear tyre (Roadrider) looks exactly like that, but I do like to crank it over and use lots of right hand. 

Have a look at any super bike's rear tyre where the owner likes to give it some and you'll see exactly the same.

Nothing unusual there, considering the age, use and mileage on the tyre it is doing well. One thing I have noticed is that the Roadrider does not age well, most would not see 5 years old let alone 2, you can check with a relatively new one fitted to fellow members bike to see how the hardness changes with time. 

The tyre is well on its way out, look in the centre groove, check some of the side channels, the cracking is age related.  

Norman,

We still sell the Roadrunner, mainly to the high mile tourers, that is why we still like to stock them. Though not a modern pattern I believe it has better weight capacity over the Roadrider. 

The Cont's I have, and the rear is nearly worn out, I have dropped the pressure in the rear to try and squeeze some more life from it, but at the moment I would not use one for touring on the continent as I would wear it out in one trip, though that may be just me!! 

I believe that Continental may have underestimated the loading capacity of the steel radial, as I had to work out the approx tyre pressures to start with based on axle weight, the figure I arrived at and used seemed to be proven as too high, suggesting the Conti is a more capable tyre, and that a rating for the tyre was just chosen on one that was on the safe side and one that would be expected of a tyre of that size. At the moment I am still trying to get the pressures right, but make no mistake the performance of this tyre is head and shoulders above the Roadrider, even at low speeds. 

As for rim size, the manufacturers that belong to the ETRTO scheme, seem to conflict the organisations advice and guidance. If anyone cares to read the tyre and rim width guidance and then look at the 19'' offerings from Dunlop, Avon, Conti in the flesh new and unfitted, then something tells me you will be wanting fit the smaller construction tyre to the WM2, which is the Conti. 

As for the compound of the Avon, Norman, you said it. And when the road going classic attack laps quicker than the race compound Roadrider!! it makes the Roadrider look old hat, though they are very different technology.  

Norman,

I have been following this thread with interest. You may find my experience of interest.

My wife and I did a 2200 mile round trip to the Alps this summer on the Mk3. We were fairly well laden, but not excessively. The bike is shod with newish AM26 Roadriders - 100/90 rear and 90/90 front. The riding was a lot of barrelling along the motorways and plodding up and down mountains, plus a mixture of in between, some spirited( at least by my standards that is). We did not always have luggage

Interestingly, if you calculate the all up weight of the bike, incl riders, luggage plus fuel and oil you find you are on the tyre limit ( if not just over!) when having reference to the data on the side wall of the tyres. You will also find the tyres specify 42 psi as max pressure. I rode at 40 psi back and front for the entire three weeks which included a period of heatwave in the high 20’s/low 30’s centigrade.

As to the handling I found this was generally fine with good grip, although whether a modern Japanese bike rider would agree is another matter. There was however occasional waggling of the handlebars at low speeds, particularly when slowing down. This occurred irregardless of how laden or otherwise the bike was. It was usually easy to bring under control except on one slow speed, solo and unladen occasion when I very nearly required a change of underwear as it developed into a real tank slapper. The tyres did not appear noticeably worn after the trip.

Conclusions: in my experience the Roadrider handles better than the Roadrunner, especially in the wet, which in turn was better than its predecessors. Having said this there still does not appear to be a tyre out there  that really combines longevity, all round practicality and first class handling. As to the bar waggling , I have had this on various commandos over the years with all types of tyres. I am not totally sure what causes it, I suspect steering head flex plus weight distribution may be a factor, but find a full fuel tank helps.

Alan

Yes the width, despite being a 100/90 - 19 has a fitted width of about 94mm when fitted, even prior to fitting they look narrow, I thought they sent me the wrong tyres!

I was running at 34 rear, 31 front, but dropped the front to 30 and the rear to 31. 

Alan, many thanks for your findings, for what I have been trying to say and what Avon technical admit - the Roadrider on some Commando's and especially the MK3 two up with luggage and fuel is on the hairy edge of its limits, the moment you brake you have exceeded it and then relying on the tyre design and safety factor are satisfactory.  

At the moment there is no real suitable road going tyre for the Commando, the Roadrider is a middleweight tyre by Avon's own admission. 

I like the mileage life that can be edged out of the Roadrider if high miles are done each year, but the Conti's just blow them away in performance except life. The Conti is zero degree steel radial construction and the Roadrider is last of the ply technology, both have their uses and advantages. Rumour has it that the Roadrider is being updated this Autumn, I suspect it will keep the name but become a radial, with dedicated front and rear fitments. 

The Roadrider is a very good middleweight (as pointed out to me by Avon) tyre, it was designed for that sector, but I have pestered them to give us Commando owners a dedicated tyre that suits the Commando, hopefully they have listened. Once I have sussed out how to get the Conti life beyond 3,000 miles, it will be certainly be number one recommendation, it is the only thing that lets it down at the moment.  

Roadriders have changed several times during its life, some may remember when they were not available back in 2012 in the size we use. Those that fit their own tyres will be well aware of the changes, the early versions could be easily pushed on bar the last few inches, the later ones are more stiff in construction.   

I fitted an Avon 90/90 AM26 on the front of my 650 ten years ago and cracks appeared all over within a very short time. The dealer replace the tyre with a 3.25x19 which was fine and has now done 7000 miles of running. Compared to other 90/90 tyres I have used it no longer has a rounded profile and is actually now quite flat in profile. The rear tyre was an AM21 and has also worn quite square.

When I visited a local tyre dealer to check out some replacements I was quite surprised by what was on offer by both Dunlop and Avon. The dealer offered Dunlop TT100 rear tyres in both 90/100 and 4.10 sizes.The profile of each being significantly different. This applied to similarly to the Avon tyres where a 4.00 tyre was also an option.

I believe we could all do with some serious advice on what tyres to fit and also what pressures to inflate them to. I have been running my 650 Dominator on Avons at 28psi front and rear. This appears ok for me but I note some people recommend 32psi and above. I find that more than 30psi in the front tyre gives a very jarring uncomfortable ride. 

I run (and have done for many years) a 3:00 x 19 Speedmaster on the front and a 3.50x19 SM Mk 2 on the back of my Atlas/99. I used to race it on TT100s but found on the road, in the wet, I couldn't keep up with a friend on a 99 with a Speedmaster/SM Mk 2 set of tyres. This gave me pause to think. I have found that the Speedmaster/SM setup is just fine for spirited riding and scraping footrests where conditions permit. I did buy a Roadrider at one point but it didn't fit between the fork legs so got consigned to my wife's A10 which sports an SM Mk2 on the back. It seems fine on there but I'll stick to my present setup on the Norton.

You can, but be aware that some of those may be radial construction, and a rim size change is something I looked at doing. With bias ply's anything goes, but once you fit a radial, the opposite tyre must be suitable iaw the law. There are configuration tables out there for the combinations allowed. I found some nice tyres, in 18 & 19'' sizes, but getting a working combination was hard. 

And yes, tyre advice is something that is needed from the industry, it seems that when Hardly Dangerous make a new bobber / chopper / tractor, the manufacturers fall over themselves to make a skinny narrow whitewall front fitment, but us classic owners are overlooked it seems. 

I have Avons fitted on WM2 front and WM3 rear both in the 19 inch fitment on Central Wheels' Elite chrome rims.  They seem much better in terms of handling than on a WM2 rear.  I have 90/90 and 100/90.  The one problem with Avons is that the rear is only available as a universal fitment; it has much less tread from new.  Hence, it seems to wear out quicker.  This is because it is not advisable to put 8mm of tread on a universal fitment tyre - it wouldn't be safe on the front wheel.  I am using 35/39 psi without a passenger.  The Avons wear out quickly but they grip really well.  I miss those days of TT100s whereby you had tons of tread left but it disappeared the moment you crossed the channel.  And of course, their wet-weather unpredictability when riding on the wrong side of the road, which was probably related to a change of camber and previous wear issues.