I recently bought a used 1290 SAS with a somewhat worn mitas front tire. It had new scorpion rear. The very first thing I did was buy a Michelin Road 6 and mount it. I could have ridden a couple of thousand km on the tire as it was, but there's no way I would ever trust my life to that horrendous piece of plastic they call tire. The upgrade in grip and comfort was immediately apparent.

Never skimp on the most important safety-equipment on a bike, the tires. The Mitas should be illegal, and so should most of the OE "tires" fitted to most bikes. I wonder how many deaths could be traced back to poor quality tires.

 

I've had the Mitias tires on two different bikes now, while they are not may favorite tire they are not as bad as being made out to be. I will likely be putting on a set of Michelins but I wouldn't pull them off before they are worn. I ridden in the heat and the cold in the rain and adjusted my pace to suit the conditions. I've learned from riding on track, that unloaded tires are usually when crashes happen.

 

I've had the Mitias tires on two different bikes now, while they are not may favorite tire they are not as bad as being made out to be. I will likely be putting on a set of Michelins but I wouldn't pull them off before they are worn. I ridden in the heat and the cold in the rain and adjusted my pace to suit the conditions. I've learned from riding on track, that unloaded tires are usually when crashes happen.

I support that. They are ok on the street, not so great on gravel. My dealer offered to install any tire of my choice to try and resolve the 40 MPH wobble. I torqued the steering head and triple clamp to spec and things improved significantly, although I could still feel the wobble at 40mph going downhill off the throttle (and pulling to the right) . Installing the Michelin anakee ADV didn’t resolve the issue, but it did improve the bikes’ ability on gravel.

 

I don't know if the manufacturers still do this, but it used to be a well-known practice to supply the bikes with a lower quality "OEM spec" version of known brand tires. In some cases the difference between an off-the-shelf retail version and OEM spec version was night and day. Both in terms of grip and in terms of wear. If this is still the case, it might explain why we see so different feedback around the world.

That said, my experience with the Mitas is that they're not good at all. Dangerous in the wet, little feedback, not good at low temperature and only decent grip in the dry on a sunny day. Adding in the wobbly behavior on the 1290 sas and quick wear, I can't see any redeeming factor. I've never ridden off-road so I can't comment on that.

I know it's expensive to change tires before you need to, but for me it's a relative thing. On a motorcycle all it takes to change the rest of your life is one turn, one emergency stop, one situation.
Nothing is more expensive than regret.

 

I know it's expensive to change tires before you need to, but for me it's a relative thing. On a motorcycle all it takes to change the rest of your life is one turn, one emergency stop, one situation.
Nothing is more expensive than regret.

Excellent observation, and my sentiments exactly...

What's your life worth?

I've never even seen these tires, but I'll be sure never to buy 'em... I'm kind of a Dunlop man anyway, Dunlop tires have never let me down. I used to like the old Yokohama tires, before the company sold out or merged or whatever. Michelin tires are okay, I suppose... but I still like my Dunlops, lol. Good rubber compound in my Dunlop tires, plenty sticky on high desert pavement, and grippy knobbies in the dirt.

Somehow this thread reminds me of a crappy front tire I once had on my beach cruiser (pedal bike)... whenever I banked or cut hard in a turn, the tire would "wash out" due to its inferior tread pattern and rubber compound, and I'd wind up doing a face-plant on the pavement, lol. I finally wised up and got rid of that POS tire before I broke my neck, aye? No future in it...

Hey, that reminds me of a glossary definition I wrote for a story which was published in the San Diego Reader decades ago, it was my personal skate saga... after accepting the manuscript, the paper asked me to compile a glossary because there was so much skate lingo in the story. I figured a glossary should be written like a dictionary, in alphabetical order, right? Here's my (published) entry for "face-plant!"

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That's funny, the paper actually publishing that definition, lol. I earned $1000 for that story too, it was hilarious! I should probably add a link to the blog version, which the Reader staff managed to botch in parts, but meh, no worries, you'll get the gist of it, lol.

Trix Are For Kids

Okay, I'm back to my football match, weather is not stellar so I'm not missing anything outdoors...

 

similar impressions here when I got my new-to-me 2023 1290 SAS. Went with Mutants after a ton of research and so far so very good... not to mention not so squirrely on tar snakes..

 

Why OMG??? Blasphemer!!

 

I can`t believe the original owner suffered these tyres for the whole ownership of the bike! There`s 0.8mm of legal tread left so he`s done me a favour, tyres getting changed next week.

 

And good riddance, I reckon... cr@ppy tires are downright dangerous, ya know? And that's in the dry, with no debris or sand on the road, lol.

I can still remember slamming the pavement whenever that POS tire on my beach cruiser washed out, I think I did about 3 hard slams before I got rid of that tire, yeah?

I was on the Mission Beach boardwalk after one hard slam, my face all marked up with road rash, and some hot chick thought I'd been in a fight, lol...

I told her, "Naaah, I just slammed the pavement when I cut hard on my cruiser and my cr@ppy front tire washed out... I was drunk at the time, of course!"

Her reply: "Thanks for sharing!"

She was a good-looking gal too... no idea where she might be now, probably dead or in prison, lol.

Meh, you're doing the right thing, that hand I quoted earlier has the right perspective... better to be safe on superior rubber, or as safe as you can be, depending upon your riding style, lol.