Thought I would post the tire life of this tire and some thoughts about it for others that frequent the forum. I know when I was asking it was hard to get solid answers on car tire life.
The tire is a 175 / 60 r 16 studless snow tire. It went about 8000 miles and was changed when it was just to the wear bars. Might have squeezed another 500 or 1000 miles out before the cord began to show.
Maybe not?
The first 1/2 of the tread is snow tread on this tire and the last 1/2 is all season tread. Being a snow tire it has no wear rating. The first 1/2 of the tire wore down in 2500 miles and the last 1/2 wore out in 5500 miles. This tire gets great traction in snow, slush and ice. Plows through standing water well also . The trade off is that it doesn't last that long. It also turns into an all season tire without the aggressive siping in 2500 miles.
Once the tire was in AZ it saw mostly 60- 85 degree days. It might have worn faster if it had been hotter out. It is a very flexible tire and gives the back of the bike a more mushy feeling than the Yokohama that replaced it.
The rig is a 91GL1500 with a Champion 2+2 sidecar. One more note in passing is that with this rig it needs the rear drive shaft and final drive hub relubed every 10,000 miles anyway as the moly paste in the drive line was about done when the tire was changed.
Turns out this is the recommendation for Valkyries by Honda which are more powerful and have a wider rear tire stock than the Goldwings do but share many of the same final drive components.
Snow tires made with softer rubber to have better grip in the winter.
I'm running the same tire on the rear of my '84 Kawasaki Voyager pulling a '79 Vetter Terraplane. Only have about 4000 miles on the tire so far, but can't see any measurable wear yet. I bought two of these tires at the same time since the Tire Rack wouldn't sell just one. They also wouldn't sell for use on a bike, so when asked if it was for a car, I said "Yes!", but left off the "side" part of the car! Yes, some dealers really do ask and refuse to sell tires for sidecar use. Also, snow tires are usually only sold in pairs, too.
I may be getting better mileage out of mine since my hack is much lighter (290lbs) than yours and much narrower. Do you use your sidecar brake, or even have one? Also, half of my riding is with no passenger, but a 114lb ballast weight in the car.
BTW, at just $64/each, it's still much cheaper per mile than any bike tire I've ever run!
That's great that you aren't getting a lot of wear. That is what I had hoped for. This hack only weighs about 220#. Probably 3/4 of the miles were with a passenger. We don't normally run ballast without a passenger. The car is wide enough and low enough that it doesn't lift easily. The average speed that it was driven was 70mph because we did most of the driving on the interstates and Phoenix freeways. Sometimes more sometimes less. Sometimes into headwinds too.
I paid the same for mine. It was a heck of a deal. Best tire in the rain that I have ever had. The areo load is high with this car. It has about the same frontal area as the GL1500. With the smaller windshield we have now fitted on the bike the car may now have a little more frontal area than the bike does.
The car has a brake and is plumbed into the rear brakes of the GW. Stops nice and straight and all. I'm trying a harder tire this time. I've pulled a bunch of tow in out of the rig already and as a result it goes down the road much easier than when I got it. Perhaps I need to consider pulling out more. Thanks for the feedback.
Curious as to what air pressure you use on the rear? I run a 195/55R-16 Firestone Precision Touring tire at 28psi. It's got about 14,000 miles on it right now, just checked the tread: Right groove 5/32, Middle groove 6/32, Left groove 7/32. Looks like I need to pay more attention to the lean of the rig. The rig is a 1800 Goldwing with a Champion Escort.
Note: The prior rear tire was a 195/55R x 16 Bridgestone Potenza G 019 Grid that I replaced after 17,000 and still had 5/32 thread. I replaced it early because of a pending trip. When the time comes I will probably replace the Precision Touring tire with another Potenza G 019 tire.
Sorry I am so late in getting back to you.
I run either 26 or 28 also. The tire being a snow tire just doesn't last. Great if you need to go through snow, slush etc. Did some of that with it, it was amazing.
If you want mileage on dry roads it isn't a good choice.
