Avon Road Rider Cracks

[derwood]

yea, it's kind of an old thread,
but that bastard avon on the front of the 1150 (110/90 16) is cupping like a bastard. No cracking though, also, that is not the only brand that cups on that bike.
the only tire i am ever putting on the front of that bike again is a Metzler Lazertec....
...bastard

[bonanzadave]

that is not the only brand that cups on that bike.

Thats curious..... I wonder if something on the bike is causing this. Bent fork ? Under / over inflation ? Weak fork springs ? etc...... My front RR is 4 years old now and is holding up nicely.

Ill let you know how mine held up to the MN winter.....around May 2015.

Looked good coming out of storage and has held up well all summer long. No cracks. By far the best "feeling" tire Ive had on this bike.

[1_v8_merc]

It's cosmetic guys, get over it. If Avon is lying about it, Where are all the blown apart tires and crashed bikes at?
Nevermind the fact that it would be suicide for Any company to continue to produce a truly defective tire, not to mention a government investigation.
I've had my RR's for 4 years now, no problems.

[bwringer]

[derkiow]

I have had a set of avon road runners tyres that cracked and not many miles before they ran bare fornt tyre was ok for cracking but did not last longer than the back...

[trevor]

It's cosmetic guys, get over it. If Avon is lying about it, Where are all the blown apart tires and crashed bikes at?
Nevermind the fact that it would be suicide for Any company to continue to produce a truly defective tire, not to mention a government investigation.
I've had my RR's for 4 years now, no problems.

I agree. I would think that there are very few people on the forum that have put more miles on Avons in the last 4 years than me. Some cracking..yes. No problems associated with cracking. Period.

[Chuck78]

110/90-18 front, n o cracking. 150/70-18 rear with 200 miles stored in Texas over last winter, very cracked sidewall and even in the tread grooves slightly. The grip with it mounted to a 3.50 rear rim is not nearly as good as my 140/70-18 Shinko SR741 (same compound as my Shinko 230 TourMaster fronts). I can whack the throttle at 10-15 mph on the Avon and spin up the tire quite a lot, and worse, getting on the throttle out of low to medium speed turns, I frequently have broken loose the rear end accidentally, leading to a bit of unexpected drifting, as well as lack of confidence in the cornering capabilities of both tires. On the Shinko, this accidental rear end drifting while powering out of low/medium speed turns only occurred if I really pushed it coming out of a turn, and was far more predictable and quite fun if you wanted to really goose it. On the Avon, it is a but alarming, comes unexpectedly.

Only problem with the Shinko is that the tread gets pretty flat by 4000 miles and leaning into corners changes noticably. Still, for the price, the Shinko performs AMAZINGLY.


I wondered if my traction issues would go away if I had a 4.00 rim with the 150/70-18, or 140/70 on the 3.50 rim, which Avon says is the best fit (150/70 on a 3.5 is considered acceptable, however, by Avon's fit chart). The tire profile could be pinched in just enough to give me less contact patch and steeper radius profile on the tread curvature.