Rear tire on front question...

[Al in Arkansas]

I've been reading the archives on this.  How common is it?  I see a Dunlop D404 and DK491-2 (which may not be available any longer).  Are there others?
Any negative experiences after running it a while?  Best to run it backwards from what I've read.

Thanks for any help.
Al

[bogator]

Al,the only thing that I've heard about that is,some are running a mich battlax on the front and running it backwards/only on trikes/

[RedValk]

lots of guys running rear tires on front on the RUNE board....due to the fact there is ONLY ONE OEM size tire...a Dunlop....that is actually made to FIT the front of a Rune (150/xx-18....it's the 150 /18 part that makes it impossible to find other front tires!). And that OEM Dunlop....typically only goes about 4-7000 miles. THAT'S RIGHT...I said typically ONLY 4-7000 miles. And if you get up close to 6-7000 miles, we're talking a badly cupped/bald front tire at that!

So..........folks either do the OEM and get TERRIBLE mileage (and pay about 200 for the tire...and mounting at a dealer is about another 100-150....couple hours of labor...front fender and other parts MUST come off to change front tire!).....or....they try SMALLER front tires...

Or.......they run a REAR tire on the front. Many have chosen that battleax by Bridgestone. Some run an Avon 150 rear on the front.......

anyway, if you go to www.runeriders.com to the Tech board....there is a "Sticky" post right up top...about front tires.....15 pages of info...half of which is guys running REAR tires on the front. Granted, it's a Rune board...but...the tech part of running a rear on the front...info on reversing rotation....tire vendor comments...etc....may or may not be worth reading for Valk folks?

me, i just can't bring myself to do it....so i put up with lousy tire mileage!

[RedValk]

here is the link...

http://www.runeriders.com/forum/showthread.php?t=516

[DeathWishBikerDude]

I run a kenda bias ply rear tire up front,mounted in the opposite rotational direction.
I pick them up from jc whitney for about $70.
They are a hair shorter than the stocker.
I will try the correct rotation on my next tire change to see if i can get a quieter and smoother ride.
I'm currently running the falken zx512 205/60/16 in the rear.
Getting multiple years of service and cheap rubber is awesome.
I couldn't care less what the safety nuts reccommend.

 

[R J]

The 1st time I run a rear tire on the front of one of my bikes was on my XS1000 Yama Hopper.

A friend of mine and I used to run about 20,000 miles a year going to bike doings all over the West, California to Colorado.

We thought nothing of doing a 2,000 mile weekend for Bubba Que.

Long story short, we tripled our front tire mileage, we felt we had better stopping due to more tread on the ground up front.

When I got rid of the XS, I got a 81 Gold Wing and it had a band aid tire up front.  Slapped a rear tire up there and low and behold, Honda enlarged the front tire on the 82 Wing.

Any tire will work on either end of a bike.  In an emergency on my XS850 Yama Hopper, was in Southern Oregon at the time and due back to work on Monday morning for the 7:00 to 3:00 shift, we installed a front tire on the rear as that was all that the guy had in stock.  Rode that tire for like 3,000 miles before it was toast.....

On the early on motors of the CHP, Hardley Diversions, they ran the same tire on both ends of them.  Front one was in reverse direction, due to how the cords were made for rear acceleration and front  needed them the other way for stopping.  Some of their current bikes, still run the same tire front and rear.