Treadwear indicatiors on MC tires?

[Bud]

How do you know when to replace your tires? I have Metzlers front and rear. The front has a snakey groove down the center. Replace the tire when that groove is gone?

[russell_bynum]

What model Metlers?

 

Most tires have "Wear bars". These are little blocks of rubber in the tread grooves that are raised above the bottom of the groove a bit. (I'm not explaining this very well...hopefully you'll look at your tires and say "Oh...that's what that idiot was talking about!") When the tire is worn so that the wear bars are level with the surface of the tire, it's time for new tires.

[Voodoo]

Bud,

 

There should be small cross-bars that are raised just above the base of the tread as seen below on a car tire. When the tread wears down to them, replace it.

 

[Bud]

Just looked. No bars on the front. 880's

[Boffin]

Look on the sidewall for the letters TWI, then look at the tread alongside them and you should find the wear bars.

If you look in the rider handbook you will find BMW's reccomended minimum tread.

As I am in the UK I change tytes when tread depth is no less than 1 millimeter, else I will find a nice ticket on the bike from a friendly LEO

 

Cya, Andy

[RFW]

Just looked. No bars on the front. 880's

 

You might want to look more carefully. My old 880s had the wear bars. They may not be all that obvious, but as I recall, they are manditory by law.

 

Typically, the bars are raised about 0.75mm above the bottom of the groove, so you can simply measure your tread depth with an ordinary pair of calipers and see how close you are to that.

 

Bob.

[tomk99r11]

When you get down to the wear bars, you will be able to see them and you will also feel/hear a rapid thumping. You still have mileage left in the tires, but it is time to monitor additional wear. Lots of us change tires as soon as those indications appear, but IMO, that is a complete and needless waste of $. (Watch the cats pounce on that!)