EasTexRIII
Living Legend
41 Rear. keep in mind, I'm not on a touring so tire is larger
Here's what I've got to say; running V rated bridgies. 40 P.S.I. front 42P.S.I. rearJust removed an Excedra Max V-Ratedfront tire from my 2009 Touring, 15,000 miles and just to the wear bars. I only got 6,500 miles out of the Metz front and it hit the cords!
38#F 41#R
I run 38/40 and just a bit lower in hot weather, which we won't see here until late July/Aug
On the Commander, I've heard pretty good things about those tires and am willing to give the front a try. One of our other forum members, I believe it was Spawn, mentioned that he only got about 5K on the front. I'll have to go back and check his thread about being back on the road.
I also got it completely wrong. When I checked the tire size in the garage I could have sworn it was a V rated tire like on my Classic. Somewhat dark and bad old eyes. The Metz is in fact an H rated so the last part of my post is completely off.
Experience and opinions on tires, sizes, makes and longevity are all over the map. I put Bridgestone Exedra Max on the Classic's rear before giving the bike to my son and it is still going. I put the same brand on my Vulcan Nomad, front and rear, and they are OK so far but guys on the Nomad forum report them as short lived.
I know I'm going away from Metz's and need to change this front tire out quickly. I just found the Cobra on one of the on line places, an Avon AV71 Cobra 150/80R16 and it's a V rating with a maximum capacity of 761 pounds. From the chart you provided Ishrub, if I do the eye dance correctly, the 71 H has a load rating of 783 pounds.
Mike,
Anything besides the very old Metzler will be an improvement. The Avon is fantastic, and mine has now traveled almost 7,000 miles, I'd rate it at about 1/2 its lifespan and I'm not gentle. The other options will also feel a lot smoother than the Metz. You can basically forget about ever loosing the front from lack of grip with the AV71, the only exception being when its both wet and cold (like in the low 40s and 30s), but warm wet and dry cold are fine with it.
Just so i have this correct, you are running these tire sizes on a R3T??@Navigator myself and a few others run Michelin Commander ll's f130/90/16 R180/65/16 they handle great, longevity 15,-16,000 on the rear mid to high 20,000 range on the front.