AVON Am26 on the wing front (130/70v18)

I chose this tire mostly because of price (<$100 delivered) and because I have not seen any reviews.
Just got a few miles on it, but will post my experiences.

9/32 on the tread meter at the start.  I really need a mm gage.

I am using dyna beads for balance and starting at 41lbs.  
On the little I have rode it, I thin that is to hard, going to try 35lbs and see.

More to come.
...gene

I am a little surprised at the nervousness of the AM26 in rain groves.   It's not bad, just a "little" annoying.  In ground pavement - no issues at all.

I think I need to play around with pressures, but with the temps spanning 40 degrees, it maybe a month or so before I can really evaluate.

Overall, I like the AM26. And still 9/32" at 1000 miles.
...gene

I had that tire on my Honda 1100 and it was awful and got worse as the miles went up(had to run 45 lbs to try to limit the wobble). Got good mileage but the wobble got real bad at the end. Went with a BATTLAX BT-45V and all is good now. I can take my hands off the bars at any speed and no wobble.

ROD

I "cured" my wobble before the AM26 by adding the Kuryakyn fork brace and going to all balls (45lbs torque, after 3 tries  ).  My OEM Stone front lasted 12.5K miles and the cupping that started at 4K was completely gone when the tire hit the wear bars.  Only 2K on the AM26, and I am playing with pressure.  Started at 36, way to unstable.  Went to 41, a bit nervous in rain groves.  At 38 now and this seems to be the sweet spot.

So far at 1.5K on the AM26, still 9/32 tread (as when new) and some of the "nibs" are still there and clearly in the wear patch.  Also I have noticed that the wear patch is "wider" than I had with the stone - good but I really don't understand why.

Sunday is the next warm (60s) day here and I plan on thrashing it!   
...gene

One more thing, keep an eye on the rubber at the bottom of the center groove. On my first one it split and was showing the cord(saw it in the first 1500 miles on the tire), when that happens the weather will weaken the cord and you can have a catastrophic tire failure. It was hard to see, but one day the sun was hitting the tire just right. They gave me a new tire but it had the wobble too. The rubber was very thin, how thin? thinner than a piece of paper at the bottom of the groove.

ROD

Thanks Rod,
I went and looked, no issues yet at about 2K miles.
...gene

Well, I got out today and had a blast! (175 miles)

I am a bit concerned about high speed (shhh!) wobble. It really does not matter if its straight line or carving a turn. I can get over 110 but not much more. I am not sure where the issue lies but I suspect the back as I leave it 32lbs cold. Around town that is very comfortable, even out to 80. But when you start across the $1 mark its gets more interesting. I need to get a pump that I can carry. I would have loved to bump the rear by 3-5-10 lbs and try it over and over.

So while anything under the century mark is very stable, that is the beginning of the fun speed.   

More testing required.

BTW - I painted wear stripes across the tire to check the wear patch and I am using the whole thing - again as noted I am not sure how that works. By that I mean 85%+ of the treaded surface.
...gene

After more experimenting, 40 lbs in front, 36 in back seems to have cured the high speed wobble. My only complaint, really just a little annoying, is a bit of noise when leaning into a turn at pretty much any speed.

Other than that, the grip is good and wet weather riding is not an issue at all.
At almost 3K miles - tread depth is 8/32 + very little wear.
...gene

What started out as a little annoying is getting worse    - the noise when turning...

Almost 4K on the tire and wear is ok (8/32 still) but the noise is getting worse. I have also noticed that the areas where the length-wise grove is on each side of the center is wearing a bit faster than the rest - I am assuming this is the cause of the noise. If this wear continues at its present rate I will probably only get 10K miles out of it.

This is not cupping as I had in the past, but this one section is wearing faster than the rest of the tire. And I have decided the noise is enough I will not get this tire again. But it is still much cheaper than the stone...

Traction is great and when pushed sticks very well.
...gene

Went on a 400 mile romp through the rockies yesterday and had a blast. Tire worked pretty well at 38 lbs cold where went to 42 hot after about an hour of hard/fast/tight riding.

I think the wear is the nature of the tire, again another point for not getting another one.

I am going to move the pressure to 40 lbs and see if the hard/fast/tight response is better.
...gene

With 5K on the tire it has begun to "cup" fairly significantly.  The noise has gotten worse.  But handling is still really good.  I will be moving on when this one wears out which I expect at about 10K miles.  The cost here is not significant enough to try this over a stone as it looks like the mileage will be very similar.



...gene

I just finished 3400 mile trip out to see my son in Kirkland WA. And the cupping is much worse, not completely worn out yet, but it will not make the ~3000 mile trip in July. It has a little over 9K miles on it.

To bad, the handling was great even in the driving rain of the Northwest.

It may be mostly my problem, but I am not getting another at this point. I fooled around with the pressure but finally settled back on 41 lbs.

Off to the next experiment...
This one is closed for me.
...gene

Well, in doing the math, this tire is still cheaper than the BS 709 to run. And other than the cupping and noise it performed very well especially in the driving rain of the northwest.

so maybe...
...gene

Gene, Thanks for your long term review on this tire. This kind of information is very good..