Shinko 230 Torture Test

Did you happen to take a photo of the burned out rear 230? Just curious.
Did the carcass have any thickness at all at that point?
I recently pulled a Dunlop out of service sort of early in the name of safety and I was just wanting a visual on how far one can go and live to tell about it.

[bwringer]

Ouch, that would end up being an expensive set of shoes over the years if you do any kind of mileage a year. Almost sound like race/street tires. Regardless, well written review for us bwringer

FTFY...


Yes, between three bikes that I ride the snot out of, I spend one hell of a lot of money on motorcycle tires. Yes indeedy do.

I put a lot more miles on the V-Strom and KLR650. The GS has been more a "special occasion" bike the last few years.

[Sci85]

Oops. My apologies to you both. Well written bwringer!

[tkent02]

I didn't do it.

[Sci85]

Ouch, that would end up being an expensive set of shoes over the years if you do any kind of mileage a year. Almost sound like race/street tires. Regardless, well written review for us tkent.

[tkent02]

I'm thinking I might try a set on the 1100G. I don't ride it all that hard compared to the smaller bikes, the long distance stuff I do on a different bike. Even if it's done at 3,000 miles that will last me quite a while.


Thanks for the test report.

[bwringer]

Earlier this summer, I spooned an unsuspecting set of Shinko 230 Tourmaster tires onto my GS850G in the name of Science.

Bear in mind I am a large galoot and I ride like a flaming bat out of hell. Normal people get a LOT more miles out of their tires. The numbers below represent extreme abuse -- your mileage will probably be a lot better.

114,000 miles: Set installed. Poor lil' guys didn't know what they were in for...

114,800 - 115,000 miles: Somewhere in here I caught a large nail in the rear that made two oddly angled punctures. Not the tire's fault. Couldn't fix it, so I replaced the rear tire.

117,900 miles: rear tire at or past tread wear indicators. Since I was 450 miles from home in the middle of a trip to Wisconsin, the only option was to shrug and ride on.

118,500 miles: Got home from Wisconsin. Rear tire completely, utterly beyond shagged. Bald. Done. Avon RoadRiders ordered, bike parked until new tires arrive.



In a nutshell:

- They stick great in all conditions and under extreme cornering -- dry, wet, cold, etc.


- They feel great -- very neutral.


- They didn't last long at all. The rear was at the TWIs in about 3,000 miles, and WAY past worn out at about 3,500. The center tread is completely smooth.

- The front shows pretty normal wear (fronts don't flat spot like rears, so you have to look closer), but it is visibly very worn and also needs to be replaced at about 4,500 miles -- not sure if you could get away with running two rears for each front with these.


- In their favor, they felt great all the way up to the end. This indicates to me the tire is very well-designed and well-built (it's V-rated), but uses a soft tread compound to achieve a high level of performance. I suspect that more expensive tires use more expensive rubber compounds to achieve adhesion along with better wear.


- No, I personally would not buy another set. I ride too many miles and go on too many long trips, so cost per mile matters to me. I know that I can reliably and safely get at least 6,000 miles out of each rear Avon RoadRider, and that I can use one front through two rears. Two Avon rears and one front will take me 12,000 miles easily at a far lower cost than four sets of Shinko 230s. A new set of Avons is on its way to me right now, in fact.

However, I would not hesitate to put Shinko 230s on a bike that doesn't get ridden as much, or if budget for purchase price is a big consideration. (They're about $80 less per set.)

Conclusion: The Shinko 230s work great, they're inexpensive, but they don't last very long.



Now let's do some accounting. Math R hard, but I need to make myself feel better about dropping all this cash on rubber.

The set of Avon RoadRiders I ordered cost $212.09. (100/90-19 front, 130/90-17 rear). (American Moto Tire)

The Shinko 230s are $136.35 a set in the same sizes. (Motorcycle Superstore)

I know I can get 12,000 miles easily and safely from one front and two rear Avons, a total of $328.38 at current prices -- 2.7 cents per mile.

I can only get 3,000 safe miles from a set of Shinko 230s, so the total for 12,000 miles (four sets) would be $545.40, or 4.5 cents per mile.

Even if I suddenly get religion or something and slow down enough to get 4,000 miles out of a set of Shinkos, the cost per mile would be 3.4 cents, plus all that extra time spent 'rassling tires.

Conclusion: the more expensive tires are cheaper.




Edit: after EPIC struggles with getting my phone to cough up usable photos, here's a pic of a shagged Shinko. You can see traces of the center stripe here and there. Not down to the cords, anyway :