I'm accustomed to getting 50K to 60K out of a car tire. What is a reasonable tire life for a scooter?

Depending on the tire if you buy a good tire that is grippy it will have a shorter life than say a cheap non grippy tire because it is made fro harder rubber. 

Depends on the tire, on the scooter, on your weight, on your driving style and the front and rear wheel have a different lifetime... so it depends...

Test of Michelin City Pro tires (in BKK?):  "November 14, 2013, and March 26, 2014. Over the 440,000km covered by 48 motorcycles, the average durability of the  front tyre was apparently 30,000km, and that of the rear tyre 20,000km."

 

Sounds a bit on the high side to me.

12 hours ago, Damrongsak said:

Test of Michelin City Pro tires (in BKK?):  "November 14, 2013, and March 26, 2014. Over the 440,000km covered by 48 motorcycles, the average durability of the  front tyre was apparently 30,000km, and that of the rear tyre 20,000km."

 

Sounds a bit on the high side to me.

 

Scooter tires don't seem to have tread wear indicators like passenger car tires. It's difficult to tell what is an acceptable tread pattern on a worn tire.

If I divide 440,000 by 48, I get 9,166 km. So presumably the figures quoted by Michelin are an extrapolation.

On that basis, I should be OK if I change tires every 10,000 km.

2 hours ago, Lacessit said:

 

Scooter tires don't seem to have tread wear indicators like passenger car tires. It's difficult to tell what is an acceptable tread pattern on a worn tire.

If I divide 440,000 by 48, I get 9,166 km. So presumably the figures quoted by Michelin are an extrapolation.

On that basis, I should be OK if I change tires every 10,000 km.

Obviously riding style makes a difference, checking pressures at least weekly as well.

Smaller diameter/fewer miles of life or as my Irish mate said

' they go further for the same distance '

16 hours ago, Damrongsak said:

Test of Michelin City Pro tires (in BKK?):  "November 14, 2013, and March 26, 2014. Over the 440,000km covered by 48 motorcycles, the average durability of the  front tyre was apparently 30,000km, and that of the rear tyre 20,000km."

 

Sounds a bit on the high side to me.

They made a test with them over 6 months? How many people drive 30k km in 6 months on a scooter? So you wonder how they calculated these numbers

 

4 hours ago, Lacessit said:

On that basis, I should be OK if I change tires every 10,000 km.

If you have too much money you can of course change them every 10k km, but it won't be needed.

11 minutes ago, jackdd said:

They made a test with them over 6 months? How many people drive 30k km in 6 months on a scooter? So you wonder how they calculated these numbers

 

If you have too much money you can of course change them every 10k km, but it won't be needed.

I've had the scooter for 5 years now, put new tires on it when I bought it. Have only done 8000 km in that time, all city driving.

I guess the other concern is how the rubber degrades over time, as a separate issue to wear.

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

I've had the scooter for 5 years now, put new tires on it when I bought it. Have only done 8000 km in that time, all city driving.

I guess the other concern is how the rubber degrades over time, as a separate issue to wear.

If you drive so little this might indeed be necessary but does also depend on how exposed they are to the sun (parking under a roof or just outside)

21 hours ago, Lacessit said:

I'm accustomed to getting 50K to 60K out of a car tire. What is a reasonable tire life for a scooter?

2-3 years and they are perished, split, cracked and the rubber falling off. No need to drive them around at all.

But this only appears to happen to 'Thai tires'

Michelin City don't seem to suffer from this problem, but do cost 50% more.

6 hours ago, jackdd said:

They made a test with them over 6 months? How many people drive 30k km in 6 months on a scooter? ...

They were motorcycle taxis in BKK.  That's about a 4 month test, average of about 9,000 km each.

Does it really matter? Scooter tires are cheap.

Recently I had a puncture (on a Suzuki Raider 150) and they quoted me the price to repair that. Then they told me how much a new tire cost.

I got the new tire. I don't even remember the price but I think it was less than 1000B for a Michelin tire.

19 hours ago, jackdd said:

If you drive so little this might indeed be necessary but does also depend on how exposed they are to the sun (parking under a roof or just outside)

Scooters in Thailand rarely get pampered by being undercover. That's usually reserved for cars.

My Stock IRC now at 26,000 kms. Rear Almost at its wear bars, front still looks far from the bars but ill change both anyway. Will go for the Pirelli or the Michellin next. 

Front IRC scooter tire was about 25k km and 4 years old when I changed (I only did 8k on it, it was from previous owner who did long trips). Michelin in the back was about 15k and two years when changed. So harder IRC last longer and softer Michelin needs to be changed earlier - of course undercover storage is very important.

 

 

On 7/2/2018 at 6:14 PM, Agusts said:

Front IRC scooter tire was about 25k km and 4 years old when I changed (I only did 8k on it, it was from previous owner who did long trips). Michelin in the back was about 15k and two years when changed. So harder IRC last longer and softer Michelin needs to be changed earlier - of course undercover storage is very important.

 

 

Irc have soft tyres too

They just cost abit more

IRC is not that bad actually, esp if your'e it only using it to commute to and from work..

 

 

On 6/29/2018 at 10:14 AM, Damrongsak said:

Test of Michelin City Pro tires (in BKK?):  "November 14, 2013, and March 26, 2014. Over the 440,000km covered by 48 motorcycles, the average durability of the  front tyre was apparently 30,000km, and that of the rear tyre 20,000km."

 

Sounds a bit on the high side to me.

This was with mocy-taxi service,

so riding 2-up mostly.

City Pro tires are a good buy, very.

35 minutes ago, papa al said:

This was with mocy-taxi service,  so riding 2-up mostly. ...

So if I ride solo but always doing a wheelie, I could expect similar tire life?  Certainly it has to be less 2-up.