Front Tire Expected Life?

[DFCarruth]

The dealer tells me my 2023 TriGlide Ultra needs a new front tire.
It only has 8800 miles on it. Air pressure has been good.
I would expect it should last longer than that.
What should I expect for life of a front tire?

 

[Peter A.]

The dealer tells me my 2023 TriGlide Ultra needs a new front tire.
It only has 8800 miles on it. Air pressure has been good.
I would expect it should last longer than that.
What should I expect for life of a front tire?

I currently have approx 17,124 miles on my 2023 and getting ready to replace it, Wife had a little less on hers when we replaced hers.

 

[Arctic Fox]

I just bought my used 019 trike and it needed a front tire. I put a Dunlop MT90-16 rear tire rotated for the front application. I'm hoping I'm going to get at least 15-20k, I don't think the previous tire got more than 8-10k miles according to the previous owner.

 

[pwhoever]

There are a lot of variables in how long a front trike tire will last. Road surface will be a big part of it. Also if you ride on mostly flat roads or spend a lot of time riding twisty roads at higher speeds. And air pressure can affect the lifespan as well. Even though trikes only ride the center part of the tire, varying air pressure (even if using the recommended pressure) can affect the way the tire treads meet the road.

So that's pretty much why you will never see a motorcycle tire list an expected mileage life like you see listed for lots of car tires.

 

[Wmitz]

I was about 7k or so on the oem, Switched to an Avon trike tire would have gotten 16k out of it but was going on a trip. It had 14k when I switched. Also look into a rear tire reversed, there are threads around on that topic. It does work.

 

[cycle7447]

I was about 7k or so on the oem, Switched to an Avon trike tire would have gotten 16k out of it but was going on a trip. It had 14k when I switched. Also look into a rear tire reversed, there are threads around on that topic. It does work.

My current Avon has about 10K on it - looks good and I will probably get the entire 2025 riding season out of this.

The Avon seems hard to find - so, when a new one is needed, I will probably go with the BT46 - backwards. Had a lot of luck with that tire years ago.

 

[JTJersey]

On my '21 Freewheeler got 19,000 out of my last one. Just shy of 5,000 on the new one. There are several threads about tire life here you might find interesting.

 

[Notgrownup]

I’m at 10,000 miles on the stock tire and it looks fairly new still

 

[Zammy]

On my '15 Tri I got 15,000 on the OEM tire, switched to an Avon and had 20k on it when we traded. I've only got 12k on my current OEM tire and still looks great.

 

[nevinpratt]

The dealer tells me my 2023 TriGlide Ultra needs a new front tire.
It only has 8800 miles on it. Air pressure has been good.
I would expect it should last longer than that.
What should I expect for life of a front tire?

The dealer tells me my 2023 TriGlide Ultra needs a new front tire.
It only has 8800 miles on it. Air pressure has been good.
I would expect it should last longer than that.
What should I expect for life of a front tire?

Careful... dealers like to sell it before you actually you need it.

My dealer tried to sell me on a new front tire at the 15K service (I have a 2022 Tri Glide). I said "no". I currently have almost 20K on it, and I think it will probably go to 22K.

 

[pwhoever]

The dealers although they do like to make a profit, also have liability to worry about and if they don't mention a worn item, it could come back to haunt them. Many tires have wear bars to keep track of when to replace. If no obvious wear bars, I like to use the penny trick. Flip penny upside down with Lincoln's face towards you and stick into the tread. As long as the top of Lincoln's head is covered by rubber, I consider it good.

 

[PosseRider]

I currently have approx 17,124 miles on my 2023 and getting ready to replace it, Wife had a little less on hers when we replaced hers.

find a new dealer

 

[ISP-FL]

Mike is correct when describing variables effecting the front tire life on these HD Trikes. My current ride (2019) averages a new one every 15,000 miles.

Last year we were on a "boy trip" up to the mountains. We did a week of some pretty hard twisties (Dragon, Red Neck Dragon, etc.). Two of us had pretty new front tires on but by the end of the week we were shocked at how much wear they were showing. I had to get mine replaced as soon as I got back home. That front tire lasted less than 10,000 miles. If you do a lot of hard curves the front tire basically scuffs a little and will wear out very quickly.