Why Do Motorcycle Tires Wear Out So Much Faster Than Car Tires?
If you’ve spent any time with motorcycle riders, you’ve likely heard their gripes. It’s everything from oblivious “cagers” to how quickly they get through tires. Consequently, you may have also heard that motorcycle tires wear out quicker than cars, SUVs, and trucks. So, why do tires on bikes succumb so much more quickly than a set of rubber on a passenger car?
Motorcycle tires are rated for shorter distances than four-wheeled vehicle tires for multiple reasons
The tires on your favorite Ducati, Kawasaki, or Harley-Davidson will degrade faster than those on your car. Here are just a few of the factors that prevent motorcycle tires from living as long as the rubber on your sedan or SUV.
- Compound softness
- Contact patch size
- Rotational frequency
For starters, rubber on everything from sportbikes to cruisers is typically a softer compound than a comparable car tire. However, before you write to your favorite manufacturer demanding satisfaction, there’s a reason for the softer compounds. Softer compounds do a better job of maintaining grip on the road surface. It makes sense, too. A loss of traction on a motorcycle is much more likely to result in injury or death than a little slippage in a car.
However, not every motorcycle tire has the same purpose. I know, shocking. Joking aside, as you might imagine, some riders equip their performance-oriented sportbikes with grippy summer tires that squish and contour with the road’s surface, like the Michelin Power GP 2.
On the other hand, my last set of Pirelli Angel GTs lasted me much longer than the previous softer Diablo Rosso Corsa set. Like your favorite Sundays watching Formula 1, softer compounds tend to disintegrate faster.
Another reason why motorcycle tires degrade quickly is contact patch size. Even sportbikes like the Suzuki GSX-R or MV Agusta F4 apply their considerable power-to-weight ratios to a much smaller area than wide vehicle tires. As such, even conservative riding tends to wear out rear rubber faster than a car.
Finally, the rotational frequency based on the size of your bike tire is higher than that of your car’s. According to Two Tyres, a Mercedes-Benz station wagon is around 482 rotations per kilometer. However, compare that to a Kawasaki Z1000SX with tires about 200mm narrower in circumference than the car, and the difference is dramatic. Specifically, the Kawasaki’s rubber will rotate about 537 times per kilometer.
