That's about what I paid for my Max as well. I have a funny story about that tire. this is not informative, so skip on ahead if you don't care to read my story.
I ordered the Excedra Max through my dealer which was already less than the posted price on Amazon. Then I used my military discount to get a price you can't get anywhere else. Since it's through the dealer, there was no shipping cost. Once it came in, I scheduled a day to get it installed the next week. This was important since I was already overdue for a new tire. The day before my scheduled service to replace the tire, a punk kid at my work riding a CBR 600RR left about the same time as me and went the same way home. as we approached the on ramp for the freeway, we noticed that we would be lining up to the metered light at the same time. We nodded to each other as in agreement that we were to prove to the other that our bike had better acceleration. I had thought we would stop and somehow signal to each other when to go, but he decided a 5 MPH roll-on was better. Once he launched, I hammerred down. I brought the front up a bit and instantly got ahead of him since he was likely worried about lifting the front tire as well and didn't hammer it as hard. Well, in my excitement, I short shifted into second and hit WOT. My abused tire didn't think this was a good idea and decided to break all traction. So here I am doing 40-50 MPH WOT leaving what I though was about an 1/8 mile squiggly black line. When we got off the freeway, he yelled something at me. We had to shut off both bikes to understand what he was saying. He shouted "That was rediculous, we have to have a rematch because I backed off as soon as you started spraying my with rubber...then with sparks! You are definitely showing steal!" In fact, I was showing quite a bit of steal. I was suprised it didn't blow. Now you might be thinking this was the end of the story, nope, I still haven't changed the tire yet. So I ride the bike about 40 miles to the Triumph shop. You're thinking 'What? Didn't you just say you were showing steal?' Yes, I did say that. And yesm I was still showing steal. But tow trucks are expensive and I wore my leathers. I arrived at the shop with a tire that was remarkably still holding air but looked like I just won a burnout competition (side note: can't do a brakestand burnout on the rocket with ABS engaged). The service guy took my info, I told him I had a tire delivered and it's likely the only BS 240 tire in the shop. He said it would take a couple hours and he would call me. I didn't have anywhere to go, so I stayed and tested a few BMW demos just for ****s and grins. When I got the call that it was done, I got my key, started it up and did a walk around. At the back of the bike, I looked at the new tread patturn of my new...Metzler?! WTF?! They put the wrong tire on my bike. I stayed cool, though. Went inside and advised them of their mistake and asked for appropriate solutions. After I denied all the solutions they suggested, I said, just give me a loaner and deliver my bike when you're done. They agreed. With free reign of demo loaners at my disposal, I walked to the Ducati sales guy and asked for the keys to the used Diavel Carbon outside. He knew of my situation so he had me sign a form, gave me the keys and away I went. Hours and an entire tank of gas later, I came to the conclution that the diavel was not meant to ride for that many miles, and that you need to hoon out a Diavel as much as possible if you have access. That said, I would not trade my Roadster for a Diavel, but I wouldn't mind owning one to ride to work once a month. And that concludes my short story of how I didn't die on a Triumph and a Ducati in same day even though I definitely pushed the limits on both. The end.
Those of you who are lucky enough to have a good dealer in your pocket can be choosey about tires. The closest dealer that i trust and just found recently is 70 miles away. When he tells me he has a steel on a pair of Metzlers or Bridgestones i don't bock. I've never had an issue with the Metzlers except for the fact they are a little pricey. My other dealer who went to the happy hunting grounds used to meet or beat any price i found.I got a kick out of reading Vinksters post i know of two Harley riders who get 30-40K out of a set of Dunlops. I won't go into their personalities but when we all went across country and stopped at a restaurant these two would take out a loaf of bread and a jar of peanutbutter.
