Shinko 230 Torture Test

[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 :

 

[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.

 

[Guest]

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 didn't do it.

 

[Guest]

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

 

[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.

 

[Dakotakid]

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.

 

[koolaid_kid]

Bear in mind 3 things:
The 850 is the second heaviest GS made.
Brian is no lightweight.
He rides his bike extremely hard. All the time.
So, this is the most extreme torture test for these tires.

 

[john82q]

I was just wanting a visual on how far one can go and live to tell about it.

You can go thru the first two layers of canvas before they blow..

Tracton gets a bit iffy around the first layer...

Usally once you wear thru the tread compond the very thin soft rubber will blister n bubble over the first layer of canvas, you can feel this when riding. Also once your wearing the canvas the wheel will spin up more and more easily, wearing even faster.
your demise follows soon after...

(pic is sidecar touring, not burn out..)

 

[bwringer]

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.

Good idea. I just spooned on the Avons last night. I'll get some pics of the Shinkos up tonight.

Basically, no cords were showing, but only faint traces of the line in the center were showing in a few spots. On the 450 mile trip home, the remaining tread was disappearing pretty quickly -- you could see a difference at every gas stop.

 

[bwringer]

Bear in mind 3 things:
The 850 is the second heaviest GS made.
Brian is no lightweight.
He rides his bike extremely hard. All the time.
So, this is the most extreme torture test for these tires.

Yep.

It would not surprise me if a normal person got double the miles out of their tires. :twistedevil:

 

[lurch12_2000]

Thanks for the review….
I would agree that the Shinko 230 Tourmaster is a good inexpensive tire. Those who call them cheap and ask themselves “What’s your arse worth?”, well I think these tires pass muster. Now my arse ain’t worth much anyway, and maybe more dead but don’t tell my wife, but if you want to spend twice the amount on Michelin or Dunlops because of price and name recognition(more expensive is better), be my guest. That will push the demand lower on the Shinkos and go on sale more often for me! Most don’t push the GS to tire limits anyway, so settle on something that handles well at least to scraping of pegs, center stand and exhaust…. after that you’re sliding on metal anyway…and something that holds well in rain and on gravel/dirt roads, and wears evenly. The 230 will do that. Heck, even the cheaper H rated Shinko 712 will be ok too…since when was the last time you pushed your old GS to over 130mph and needing a V rated tire? The 712 will squirm a little on hard cornering because of it’s deeper tread design at the edges.
Now, I would add that you should get more like 6-8k on rears and 8-10K on front which in my experience is about the same I’ve gotten with Avon Roadriders and Bridgestone Spitfires, 2 other good tires for these GS bikes I’ve used. And the Shinko 230s wear evenly unlike some Michelin and Contis I’ve ridden. If you ride mostly highway then you’ll probably wear any tire square. But I really think Bwringer sanded his Shinkos down at night looking for more traction in the corners by day, knocking 3k off the life of his tires, but he won’t reveal that secret!
As far as price, consider cheaper labor in Korea, less marketing overhead, aggressive pricing against better known brands, and economy of scale, in why they are inexpensive, as opposed to poor quality or performance such as most Kenda or some old Cheng Shin tires I’ve had experience with. I’ve had over 20 motorcycles and logged close to 40k miles in the last few years on those bikes, FWIW.
BTW, I like Avon Roadriders when they’re on sale (not often because of reputation) and have scoffed them up when they occasionally dropped to under $70 a tire.

 

[salty_monk]

I'm 165lb & ride a little slower than Brian (at least some of the time).

I get AT LEAST 10k out of a rear Roadrider. On my 1000G (tubeless makes a difference) it was still going at 14k.

This should give a comparison as to what Brian puts his tyres through.

Brian - Out of interest, what do you get out of the 705's on the KLR? I got 6500 out of my rear. Front will probably go to 10k.

 

[bwringer]

I'm 165lb & ride a little slower than Brian (at least some of the time).

I get AT LEAST 10k out of a rear Roadrider. On my 1000G (tubeless makes a difference) it was still going at 14k.

This should give a comparison as to what Brian puts his tyres through.

Brian - Out of interest, what do you get out of the 705's on the KLR? I got 6500 out of my rear. Front will probably go to 10k.

Sounds about right -- I've been getting about 3,500 to 4,000 mostly pavement miles out of a rear 705, and two rears for each front easily.

The last rear was the victim of a dual-sporting trip to North Carolina/Tennessee -- many miles of the highly abrasive rocks and gravel in the Smokies (lots of granite and quartz) and much thrashing on the paved twisties ground off an amazing amount of rubber in under 1,000 miles. The rear went a total of just over 3,000 miles before the center of the tread was smooth. Still plenty of knob on the sides, of course, and the tire didn't develop any bad habits on the pavement. These things stick like you wouldn't believe in the paved twisties, and work better than you'd think off-road.

For those playing along at home, a rear Shinko 705 for a KLR650 is only about $55. Cheap fun.

 

[salty_monk]

One of the local guys here told me he uses the 140 705 (instead of the 130) as it is similar in performance in all situations except it's much better in the sand when aired down low... I'm not inclined to believe him but I guess it's possible!

I've also run the 705's on the Suzuki & if you had a long gravel driveway or lived where the roads are really bad I can see it working well....
I put 2,000 miles on a set (in Los Angeles & Baja), the amount of wear on those tyres was negligible, I'm expecting to get at least another 4k out of it now it's on the KLR.

 

[koolaid_kid]

Absolutely lowering the pressure will yield a wider patch and better traction off-road. Two things to watch out for: Don't go too low or you will spin the tire on the rim. Second, you need to pump it back up when you get back on the road.

 

[salty_monk]

Sure... I air down to about 16/17PSI Front & 21 PSI Rear off road.

The bit I am not sure about is his comment that the 140 is much better off-road than the 130 whilst not making any noticeable difference on the street (KLR is only a 2.5" Rim).

I can see that it would provide a touch more contact patch but it also might be pinched in general use... As Brian says - they are cheap so maybe one day I'll give it a go!

 

[bwringer]

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.

Here's the thickness of the carcass on the worn-out 230. It was well past legal limits, but not unsafe yet, at least in the dry. Heck, I had a whole millimeter or so before showing cords...

 

[lurch12_2000]

Here's the thickness of the carcass on the worn-out 230. It was well past legal limits, but not unsafe yet, at least in the dry. Heck, I had a whole millimeter or so before showing cords...

Looks like another 3k left on the side tread to me....spend less time on burnouts, hard braking and the highway and just stay on the twisties and you'll stretch that Shinko out to less than 3 cents a mile. ...oh, and get your riding weight down to 160lbs, like me, and you'll be fine too!

 

[tkent02]

Or you could just buy new tires a little more often.
The last new tires I didn't buy cost about $60,000.