[Oliver]

Great discussion. I've never trusted my seat-of-the-pants impressions of new tires because by the time I replace mine, the rear has been squared off and they don't turn as well, the tires have probably been heat cycled to past their optimum performance, and they are at or near the wear bars so they wander and track whatever is in the road, oh, and they suck in the wet. So, as a result, every new tire always feels great: light steering, quiet, responsive, great grip....because I'm directly comparing them to tires that a 2+ years old. I always bought the stickiest, best reviewed sport tires for my previous bike and got tired of replacing them so "soon" (3000-5000 miles). And I'm not what I feel is an aggressive street rider (see previous comment about wearing a bald spot down the middle on my rears!). I think I simply sport-toured on sport tires. So, I decided to try a dual-compound sport-touring tire (Dunlop Roadsmart IIIs) that have longer tread life. The N1K I bought had Angel GTs on it, but to be honest, they were fairly worn and I only rode them on superslabs to the end of their life. My impressions to follow as it warms up here in Upstate NY!

 

[Volfy]

That is so true. It's difficult not to compare brand new tires with the worn out set, since that contrast is immediately felt. It's not as easy to try to remember what that out-going set used to feel like when they were brand new. Not impossible though. It does take some concerted effort to ink down an mental impression of the set of tires soon after install and commit it to memory. It helps if the tires don't stay on for a long time. Mine typically get changed out in less than 2 seasons, quite often in one... sometimes less. This past year or so was different, as I did no touring at all, and commute frequency was cut down by a lot of work from home.