Hi,
Have got a 05 R6 and I think it is great!! However next week I am taking it to Italy and am not sure if I need a new rear tyre before I go?

The bike has 13500 miles on the clock and the rear is down to about 3 1/2mil. (Dunlop D218)

It will be all motorway work and I do not ride the bike anywhere near it's limit, so what is the typical mileage limit of a rear tyre?

Thanks
Mark

:lol: 13,500 on bike tires! :wink:

I just changed my tires...but I had 4,000 miles on mine. That's a FAR cry from 13,500!!! Gonna assume you meant 3,500. I was told from dealership that 4,000 is an average amount of mileage I can expect from the D218.
I would change those tires. The last bit of tire seemed to disappear very quickly. I went to go riding one day and saw steel thread showing through on rear tire...CRAP! Good news though...I got a set of Pilot Powers! I love 'em!

I used to get an easy 4-5k out of pilot sports. I would heat cycle them and make them hard long before they ran out of tread. The key to long term life out of tires is pressure maintence.

D218s are some serious touring rubber. They are hard and last forever. So I could easily see 10k plus out of a 218.

If you are going to continue commuting I'd get another set of d218's. You might want to ask a dunlop guy if they recommend going with say a d208 front and a d220 rear. That way you get long term rear tire wear, and superior stoppign and handling from the front. And when matched soft to soft, you usually go through 2 rears to each front, so this should give you about right tire wear.

My mate has just rinsed a D208 in 800 miles - but then he is on an R1!
Obviously it all depends on how you ride but the best bet is to fit a new pair of tyres just for the tour as they will soon square with miles of motorways/autobahns.

I'm sure you'll have a cracking time. Ride on.

I changed my Dunlop D218 on my 05 R6 at 5600 miles. I did my share of burnouts, so if your nice you should get more!