Tire Wear Question

Can some of you who know more about bike tires than I do tell me if this looks like normal wear to you? The ridges where the tire is flattening out are worrying me a bit.

Tire is a Bridgestone Battlax BT-023R with 6300 miles on it.

It's normal for being mostly on straight roads. I was looking at those tires but the reviews were not good concerning mileage. You got more miles out of that one than some of the reviews I read.

Truth be told, I am guessing at 6300 miles. That is the mileage on the bike. I bought it at 4300 miles. I didn't think Bridgestones were stock, but wondered why the previous owner would have swapped tires so soon. So do I need to replace this?

nordbjorn said:

Truth be told, I am guessing at 6300 miles. That is the mileage on the bike. I bought it at 4300 miles. I didn't think Bridgestones were stock, but wondered why the previous owner would have swapped tires so soon. So do I need to replace this?

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Most tires have "Tread Wear Indicators".. TWI for short. On my continentals, I look on the sidewall and find the letters TWI. I then look up at the treads above those letters, and I can see a ridge inside the tread. That's the TWI. If the surface of the tire and the TWI are the same, then it's REALLY time to replace. Most tire companies suggest replacement when the surface and TWI are within one milimeter of eachother.

Michelin tires have a picture of the "Michelin Man" on the sidewall to show where the TWIs are.

I had to replace my rear because of a nail. Metzlers were on mine when I got it at 2,500 miles.
As far as replacing it, it looks like you have plenty of tread left for a few more miles. I don't know how having a flat spot affects when you go into curves.
Maybe someone with more experience will chime in.

Looks pretty normal to me. I'd keep running it a while.

Normal. Might feel a bit more tippy when leaned over, but most likely you will never notice.
Plenty of life left in that tire.

Ride on friend. That tire has lots of miles left in it. MC tires can wear lumpy, scallop, or cup. It might have something to do with air pressures, the roads you ride, your braking habits and your cornering style. There are lots of variables. If the tire began to vibrate or shake the bike due to a really unusual wear pattern I'd replace it even with lots of tread left like your has. But if you don't notice anything like that just keep going.

As others have stated..normal. However IMO you seriously need to find some roads with curves in them and lean into them a little.

Battlax and Z8s came stock on 2012/2013 so that is probably the original tire.

The little bar inside the tread is the TWI

As StratTuner said, when the bar is even with the outer rubber, get a new tire.

Chicken strip time !!!!!!

Thanks for all the responses and for putting up with my ignorance. This is my first bike and a lot of this stuff is brand new for me.

I will keep riding and quit worrying about it. It doesn't seem to be affecting handling at all.

I agree that more curves are in order. I commute around 40 miles each way on the bike and that keeps me on straight roads most of the time. =]

Careful relying just on the bar. The tire wears most in the very center and the bar is off center. I have had thread showing in center of MC tire with the bars indicating plenty of tire life left.

Fuzzy said:

Careful relying just on the bar. The tire wears most in the very center and the bar is off center. I have had thread showing in center of MC tire with the bars indicating plenty of tire life left.

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Try to find a TWI that is closest to the center. Seems like that will be the best indicator.

My bike came with those same tires. Not that it is any indicator as to how far your will make it but mine went to 8,600 miles and looked must worse than your. I do a lot of straight interstate riding.

nordbjorn said:

Truth be told, I am guessing at 6300 miles. That is the mileage on the bike. I bought it at 4300 miles. I didn't think Bridgestones were stock, but wondered why the previous owner would have swapped tires so soon. So do I need to replace this?

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I got my bike new from the dealer with ~4 miles on the odometer. It had the same Battlax tires on it then, and they are still there now (unless some one jacked my tires in the parking lot... that'd make me angry)

I have a little less than 5K miles on my tires, I was honestly expecting more wear on them at 5K (based solely around what I've read here for how long the stock tires have lasted).
I don't have a measurement of the tread off hand, but I'm estimating them to last another ~5k miles at this point given what I remember then looking like new. (Though given my memory, I'd expect my estimations to be completely wrong.)

Wow, that's the widest "chicken stripe" I've ever seen. After my blast over the Shenandoah Mountains a couple weekends ago mine are about a half inch wide. You really need to find more curvy (fast) roads.

Remember that most times the second half of the tire wears out about twice as fast as the first half.

Old Can Ride said:

Rember that most times the second half of the tire wears out about twice as fast as the first half.

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Very true!

My Z8's have 10900 miles on them and the last 500 miles they've really fallen off.

Mine did the same thing. I got over 11,000 miles on them before they were replaced.