How to choose the right tires for how you actually ride

Two patches of rubber decide everything

Every bit of acceleration, braking, and cornering your motorcycle does passes through two contact patches roughly the size of your palm. No other component matters more to how the bike feels and how safe you are.

Yet riders agonize over exhausts and farkles, then run whatever tire is cheapest or whatever the bike came with. Get the tire right and an average bike feels great. Get it wrong and a great bike feels nervous and slow.

Match the tire to your riding, not your fantasy

The single biggest mistake is buying a track-focused tire for a bike that lives on the highway. Here is the honest breakdown.

Sport and track tires

Incredible grip when hot, sharp turn-in, and they wear out fast. A soft track tire can be done in a weekend of hard riding and needs heat to work properly. If you commute and tour, this is the wrong tire and a waste of money.

Sport-touring tires

For most road riders, this is the sweet spot. They grip well, warm up quickly in cool weather, shed water, and last many thousands of kilometres. In our climate, that quick warm-up and wet performance matters on a cold spring morning.

Touring tires

Built for mileage and all-weather security. A little less ultimate grip, a lot more life. Perfect for heavy bikes covering big distances.

Adventure and dual-sport tires

Sorted by their on-road versus off-road balance, usually described as a split like 90/10 or 50/50. The more aggressive the knobs, the better off-road and the worse on pavement, where they wear faster and get noisy. Be honest about how much dirt you really ride.

Cruiser tires

Built for the weight, profile, and relaxed handling of cruisers. Use the type designed for your bike rather than forcing a sport tire onto it.

Pick the tire for the riding you do 90 percent of the time, not the 10 percent you daydream about. The rider who buys race rubber for a few twisty weekends loses grip on every cold, wet commute in between.

The details that actually matter

• Run the right size. Stick to what your bike maker specifies. A wider tire is not automatically better and can ruin the handling.
• Match front and rear. Mixing brands and models can give you unpredictable manners. Run a matched set unless the maker says otherwise.
• Check the date code. Tires age out. Rubber more than several years old hardens and loses grip even with tread left. Buy fresh and check the four-digit week-and-year code.
• Mind your pressures. The single most ignored free upgrade. Wrong pressure kills grip, wears tires unevenly, and hurts fuel economy. Check them cold, every week.

When to replace

Do not wait for the wear bars to vanish. Replace when you see the wear indicators, cracking, a squared-off profile from highway miles, or any cut or bulge. A tire near the legal limit in the dry can be dangerous in the wet.

Not sure what fits your bike or how worn yours really are? Our service team can spec and fit the right set, and you can browse options anytime in the tire section of the store.