ME880's---Opinions??

[ConPilot1]

Due to a front tire failure@ 3000 miles, the dealer I purchased them from has offered me a new set of ME880's and mounting costs as a settlement/replacement.

I know this is a fairly popular touring tire, anybody running these Metzler 880's here??? What do you think of them, wearwise and wet traction???

Thanks!!

[ConPilot1]

I just emailed Murph to find out if they're radials or bias. I think I'm going to go for them and give it a shot. From the little I've read, they're not good for lightweight high horsepower bikes but seems like they
do fine on a 700 lb pig like my Connie with my 180 lb fat ass on it and another 40 pounds of misc gear on the back of the bike.

[Snapping Twig]

I have them on my 85 Virago 700. They are a big improvement over the Dunlop 404's I had. The 404 rear wore out in 6K miles and so far I have 11K on the 880 rear and another few K to go.

I had to go with 36psi R and 32psi F which is higher than Yamaha suggested and they are very good in the corners.

[Giaka]

I ran them on my old C10. They were ok, good tire, a little slippery in the wet. I replaced them with GTs and they still had a ton of tread left. I just wanted to try something different. An 880 went 13,000 miles on the back of our Ninja 250.

[Specter]

Very good tire for the Connie. I ran through a few sets on mine. Wear like iron. I ran the rear at 44 psi, front at 36.

They do tend to cup after a while, and slip some in the wet or on tar snakes (damn scary).

Tons of info on them at concours.org

[Mac]

I've run quite a few on my ST. Love em. Sticky enough, although I do have a z4 up front. Great life, I get an average of 12,000 miles out of them.

[Roadhound]

Unfortunately they will wear like iron, you will be wishing they didn't. I've been riding a C-10 for a lot of years, the 880 is with out a doubt the worse tire I've ever run on the bike. I had to buy it in the middle of a ride to Idaho, I put a little over 1200 miles on it found another tire and trashed the damn 880. They suck in the wet, they suck in the dry, if the dealer sticks that wing size front on your bike it will suck every time you turn. I'd run far from any dealer who even suggested an 880 on a Concours.

[Yankee Dog]

Mileage varies...

I ran the 880s on a Triumph Trophy and BMW R1150RT and really liked them. Generally got around 12k out of a set with a lot of that mileage 2up. Although I found they started to make noise in the corners at around 6k.

They stuck fine for me, I am not a super fast rider but they never slipped on me right up to the edges. Never had any problems in the wet either, although I certainly slow down when it gets wet.

[Andrew]

880's have the hardest rubber I have ever seen on a radial tire.  
They do wear long but really not suited for anything sporty

TRY A SET OF PR2s  

[ConPilot1]

Thanks for the info guys. Opinions here concur with what I've read elsewhere too. guess I'll give the 880's a shot.

A TAD concerned about the wet traction consensus, but I also really turn the volume down in the wet myself.

Thanks everybody!!

[cognosticator]

A few years ago I had an ME880 put on the rear of my C10 and had a pilot road (original) on the front. Great combination for me, road it hard dry or wet and was happy with the mileage, which if I remember it was around 8k

[spd2918]

They will last a long time, but are hard when cold and slick in the wet.  I prefer the Z6 Metz, but I probably ride harder than you. ( )

[FJRmgm]

please explain to me why anyone would run a bias-ply tire instead of a radial unless they absolutely had to?

[Specter]

please explain to me why anyone would run a bias-ply tire instead of a radial unless they absolutely had to?

Connie's are an older bike designed with and spec'd for bias ply tires. Not saying there aren't radials that can be an improvement, but selections for the C10 sizes, especially gen 1s with narrow front rims, are very limited.

[Roadhound]

Connie's are an older bike designed with and spec'd for bias ply tires. Not saying there aren't radials that can be an improvement, but selections for the C10 sizes, especially gen 1s with narrow front rims, are very limited.

Wrong, all  Concours with the possible exception of German units came out of the crate with Radials. They were fitted with a Dunlop K105F Radial on the front and a K700G on the rear. The 110/80/18 front tire is available from several tire manufacturers today, the rear is the one that is hard to find, the front is 110/80/18 is no problem.

[ConPilot1]

Wrong, all  Concours with the possible exception of German units came out of the crate with Radials. They were fitted with a Dunlop K105F Radial on the front and a K700G on the rear. The 110/80/18 front tire is available from several tire manufacturers today, the rear is the one that is hard to find, the front is 110/80/18 is no problem.

Roadhound is correct there.

Problem is, those Dunlop OEM stockers sucked big time too. Worst cupping and tread distortion I've ever seen 1/2 way through the tire life. I changed them out at 7,000 miles, they were completely shot.
very unstable on the slab with the OEM windscreen.

[ConPilot1]

OK I got the new ME880 bias ply tars in Goldwing size mounted up on my C10 on Friday night. My wrench buddy and I had them done in 3.5 hours flat from shop pull-in to pull-out.
The carcass on the ME880 is nice and thick, and side by side with the Stinko 757's, you can tell there's a huge difference in the tire quality. You can compress the tread on the Shinko with the palm of you hand and form a dent, not so with the ME880.

Saturday we went for a 175 mile scrub in run mainly on mountain backroads with a 25mile bit of slab on the way home.

I believe I got a real good pair of sneakers on the old Connie. The bike absolutely LOVES those tires and she's a joy to ride again. They seem like they stick well, I had NO grip problems in the
twisties with some wet spots here and there. They turn in quickly and effortlessly, and feel very stable and planted in the corners. There is no decel shake, no quivering or dancing around,
and they are stable as all hell on the slab. I can take a hand off the bars and pick my nose again while rounding a sweeper.

My Sprint ST riding buddy even commented that usually he has to slow it down in the twisties for my pokey ass on the big heavy bike, but Saturday during a stop he said that he thought he was
clipping along pretty good and I was right on his tail.

The tires on the Connie are very confidence inspiring and they seem to neutralize some of the negative aspects of the Connie suspension and frame.

I hate to admit it, but I like these tires better than the Pilot GT's. The Pilot GT was a great tire, but it was a little heavy feeling in the front end and required a bit more effort on the bar input to turn.

The ME880 bias are not like that at all, and the bike feels super-nimble with great stability all around, and rides excellent on both twisty and slab.

I'm a very happy camper with this rubber choice, and any of you old C10 owners looking for a good set of tires, take a look at these.

[ianbh]

please explain to me why anyone would run a bias-ply tire instead of a radial unless they absolutely had to?

Because the bias ply 880s are good for approx. twice the miles as the radials.

I've also read that mixing bias/radials isn't that big a deal on a mc.  I've had that combo on my Wee for 15,000 miles.  
Ian, Iowa

[ConPilot1]

Because the bias ply 880s are good for approx. twice the miles as the radials.

I've also read that mixing bias/radials isn't that big a deal on a mc.  I've had that combo on my Wee for 15,000 miles.  
Ian, Iowa

I was running a radial on the rear and a bias on the front just out of an emergency spare situation. Didn't feel really good, but I chalk that up to the
Stinko rear tires, which really were a POS. Front Stinko 757 separated on me @ 3000 miles. Garbage tires, really. I'll never run them again. They never felt right from the
get go. My riding partner told me he used to watch my 757 front tire compress almost all the way to the rim when I hit a bump. They felt semi-decent in the twisties, but were
unstable as hell on the slab, and always felt like a rough, squirmy riding tire.

These new 880's feel great.  

[M]

One of the three sets of wheels/tires for my Ninja 250 is a Bridgestone BT-45 front & ME880 rear; both are bias ply. The first time I tried this combination, I was able to get 20,000 miles out of both the front and rear. The ME880 began to cup a bit by 12,000 miles. This isn't a high performance tire, but will do fine with non-peg dragging riding.

My 2nd set of BT-45 & ME880 have about 15,000 miles on them. They wore fine through the '09 IBR, going from 110*+, to 10* in Canada.