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In a turn, which tire is more important

dgold

dgold

Member
Member
At this time I have PR2's on and the rear is toast. I am replacing the rear with a PR3 soon for the wet Southern California winter.

Is this a mistake? Should I change the front now with a PR3 even though  the PR2 only has 2000 miles or should I stay with a PR2 on the back.

I am of the opinion that the rear is more importtant for turning traction but am I mistaken?
 
Go to youtube and watch a few WSB and MotoGP low and high-sides.

Many low-sides are the rear tire going away, but you will see them where the front tire goes away and has the same result.

So which is most important? Hard to say. You need a good front tire to create and hold the line, and you need a good rear tire to power you through the turn.

And it all depends on how you ride which will come into play most.
 
- if you have traction control , perhaps leave the rear wheel to the computer and get the best tyre for the front.

.
 
Following a rider several years ago he went down in a corner on  wet roads.
He swears the rear slid out. Being close behind I clearly saw his front wheel tuck under first as he tried to change his line mid corner.
Just saying.
IMO, front tire is more crucial. Tho I still prefer two..  ;)
 
You have a good tire on the front now. Keep it until it's time to change it. There is nothing wrong with PR2 tires, that is the most popular tire on this bike.  Putting a PR3 on the rear is fine, you can run a PR2 with a PR3. When the front tire wears out, change it to a PR3. You won't hear anyone on here saying, oh, darn, I can't ride today, the road is wet and I have a PR2 tire on my bike.

Turning traction and wet roads are both brought up in your post. PR3 is supposed to be better in wet conditions. I guess if I had to ride every day like a motocop, even in the rain, I would like to have PR3 tires, but if you avoid riding in the rain, I am perfectly happy with PR2's.

Turning traction is critical front and back. Either one can put you down. Rear sliding can result in low sides or high sides where you get tossed up in the air. Front ends tuck when you start dragging hard parts and pivot the weight off the front tire, or you mis use the front tire with braking or overloading it with a sudden weight shift. Just cutting the throttle mid curve can shift weight to the front tire and overload it. When your front end starts to lose traction, best to give a little more throttle and shift weight to the rear tire, which is wider and can usually handle it.
 
not sure how you ride, were the pr2's installed at the same time ?? 2k ago ?? i have run 023, pr2, and pr3 mismatched. all felt fine pounding twisties. if the front is like new, run it is what i would say. Not sure if you drag a knee in the rain or just commute, make sense ??
now my opinion is based on my tire life. 4k out of a rear and say 6k out of the front. in 40k miles, that is a huge stack of tires. Others may say always do both, well for me that would be a set a month compared to the tire i need. Now if planning a trip, long weekend, something like that, Always have good rubber, no chance of cords for me. my guy stocks my tires, does them at his house almost anytime, so i can stretch it a little more.

:beerchug:
 
In my opinion, the front tire condition is more important than the rear.

The contact patch for the front is a lot less than for the rear.

Personally, I replace the tires as needed.  I don't hold to the opinion that you've got to have matched tires on front & rear.  (Good thing, as I go thru about 2x the number of rear tires than front...)

UD
 
Unless you are hammering the bike to the edge of it's performance envelope mismatched tires are not a big deal IMHO as long as they are the same type of tire (IE both dual compound radials etc)
 
I agree with Deal that you should just leave the front a PR2 and change the rear tire that is worn.  As a metter of fact I did the same thing abt 5000 miles ago before I swapped the front over.

Fred
 
  I have mixed feelings on this. But I will freely admit that these are just my feelings and opinion. With that I will say that I also feel the front tire is more important to me. I can normally deal with rear stepping out (within reason). But it's (again IMO) harder to compensate for loss of grip on a front tire than a rear. So with that I want my front tire to stay planted in all conditions as well as it possibly can. Not that I don't want my rear tire planted as much a possible. But I would rather deal with a little rear drift than the front drifting. And sometimes planned rear drifting can be interesting. 
  As to the front tire on the bike. Well 2,000 miles isn't a lot of mileage and the wear of the new tire may make for the two tires wearing out in very close proximity. Thus it could make changing them next time any easy choice between one or both. But on the other hand, I'm a person who doesn't believe on skimping on brakes or tires, ever. So I probably would still change the front tire to match the rear, resulting in the best rubber you can have with both tires.
  But to be fair, I normally do that every time. I normally will change a front with plenty of life in it, to have a brand new matched set. And yes I also prefer matched sets.
    So on that hand, I would change it  to have matched tire compounds and brand new rubber both front and rear. Yes, it could be construed as a waste of money. But to me, it's worth having as good of matched compound rubber as I can have. Plus the extra money for the front tire might offset the time and trouble to change the front tire at a separate time than the rear.
  Then there's the final thought that I personally have found the PR3 to be much better than the PR2's in both wet and dry grip and confidence inspiring. So for me it would be both front and rear PR3's, rather than just the the PR3 rear and staying with the PR2 on the front. Again, this is just my opinion. But also in my opinion, you need to do what makes you comfortable both financially, in terms of time & trouble, as well as rideability and your safety. Because it's you butt and wallet on the line.
 
Personally, I would rather ride with a ratty rear than a ratty front. So, to me, front grip is more important.
 
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