Modern Vespa

so i was just curious my Vespa 300 super has about 3200 miles and I was curious how long do we usually get on Vespa tires. And when to be replace is there a better tire to get?

thanks for any input



larry

I get between 3,500 and 6,000 miles on my rear tyres, double those figures or more on the fronts. The amount of wear is very much dependent on what sort of riding I've been doing.

Tyres wear mostly on acceleration input from the frame - so positive acceleration for the rears, which tend to wear in the centre, and negative accceleration (braking and cornering) for the fronts. If I've been doing mostly urban or freeway riding, my tyres wear in the middle, if I've been doing mostly progressive riding in the twisties then they wear more at the 45° parts of the tread.

At the moment I'm ready to swap out both the front and rear tyres on my scoot. The fronts are worn mainly at the side wear bars after ~13,700 miles, the rears in the middle at ~4,200 miles. Both are City Grips.

so trying not to be too stupid. How do you tell when they are worn?

larry

All tires have "wear bars", raised bumps in the grooves of the tread. When the tread wears down to the wear bars, the tire is worn out.

thanks I will check that out

I replaced the stock tires with City Grips at just under 3800 miles.

Easier to see on car tyres but the same concept

Good info to have! I've never heard of wear bars before today.

Just remember, motorcycle tires can wear differently than car tires. They don't always wear evenly depending on how you ride and more important (as Jim noted), wear heavier on the rear tire than on the front. One thing I do which is not sensible or cost effective is change out both tires at the same time. I feel like it's safer and it allows me to keep a close eye on the mileage rather than the wear bars.

I never wear out my front tire but i change it out at about 5yrs. Rear Hedinaeu gets about 6 thousand miles.

I'm not a very aggressive rider apparently...

I've got 15K on Front City Grip and about 8K on the rear City Grip.

I'll be changing them both out fairly soon.

Does anybody remember this one? If the top of Lincoln's head is showing, it's time for a new tire.

please someone post a picture of the edges of your tires.

On my large frame there just isnt enough weight and brake power to "wear" a front tire. Even if you deliberately load it. If you have the stones & skill try locking up the front brake at 20mph and see what happens.

I would much rather have a "new" front tires than rear. Matter of fact I would be putting the old front tire on the rear and mount a freshy up front IF you were wanting the safest combination of wear and tire life.

And I dont understand why more folks dont run 120s on the rear. Look at your tread... you are NEVER getting to the edges of the tire on a 130 or 140.

News to me as well. Good info to have. Appears I've got a long way to go!

You're right. Not only the wearing, but the age is important too.

In case you have trouble finding the wear bars... I often find the wear bars really hard to find looking for them directly. Instead, there is usually (always?) a "TWI" (tire wear indicator) marking on the sidewall to tell you where they are. Much easier to find that way!

Front tires don't ever wear out if you do wheelies all the time. Balance it out with some stoppies so some wear will exist.

And of course, change your fuel and vacuum lines, too.

You get to within 1/4" of the edge - if you were able to go further then you'd start to lose grip as you'd have a decreasing amount of rubber on the road with an increasing sideways force...