New Motorcycle Tires. Not Cheap.
People that do not ride motorcycles are often surprised to hear that motorcycle tires cost about $200 installed. If you want to mount tires and balance them at home, you can get that down to about $100. Even more surprising to many is that a rear motorcycle tire only last about 10,000 miles and a front motorcycle tire last about 20,000 miles. To make matters worse, motorcycle shops have this “boutique” and specialized ambiance. They want you to make an appointment so that you shop on the drop-off and repair of the bike. Replacing tires is more of a sideline business for them.
I didn’t want to go through the motorcycle dealership routine and wait 2-5 days to get a tire replaced and I wanted a choice in tires. I decided to try the ever-expanding Iron Pony Motorcycle Superstore. For the exception of spending $385 on a set of mounted tires, I was happy with the service.
Iron Pony is a little different than most motorcycle shops. They started by selling parts. I found them in 1988 when I wrecked a 1982 Honda Silverwing and placed a hole in the valve cover. I went to the Honda dealer where they didn’t have the parts in stock. and the price was outrageous. I went to a motorcycle junkyard where I was attacked by bees and came up empty handed in the search for a new valve cover. Finally, a stop at the Iron Pony had everything I need at 1/4 of the Honda dealer’s price and they had the parts in a few days. This was before the days when you could order online and just finding someone who knew where to find parts was a challenge.
Since those days, Iron Pony has steadily grown into this huge store that offers everything related to motorcycles. The bulk of their stock is discounted merchandise that may be a little dated, but MUCH cheaper than a motorcycle shop. There is a parts center and you can order online. They’ve recently added a Piaggio, Vespa, And Yamaha dealership section and a repair shop.
The repair shop surprised me when they told me the job would be done in less than 2 hours, and it only took an hour. They had a rail around the shop and you could talk to your mechanic while he worked! Simply unheard of in the motorcycle industry. Other shops I’ve frequented roll your motorcycle off to some unseen area where you will not see it again until they are done. The last tire change required me to tell the mechanic how to remove the tire because he was stumped. The Iron Pony mechanic acknowledged me when I told him that this setup was tough AND showed me 2 other ways to remove the rear tire. I know it’s easier for a mechanic to work without the bother of the customer watching, but I appreciate seeing what is going on with my bike.
They did only have 2 choices of tires for my 2006 Honda Shadow Aero, but explained that for unknown reasons, it’s a tough bike to get tires for. I was not impressed with the last set of Dunlop motorcycle tires and the Bridgestone name brings to mind the exploding tires that Ford was using. The salesman assured me that the Bridgestones were a good tire. I can’t tell how they are going to where yet, but these tires handle great.
If you’re in the Central Ohio area, I would recommend Iron Pony. If you’re not, their online store has a wide selection of merchandise for a good price. I would warn against their discounted helmets. Helmets only have about a 6 year life span due to the degradation of their materials. Iron Pony tends to get helmets a few years old that they sell for discount. The helmets are less money, but they’re not going to last long if they are already dated when you buy one.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Causes of Uneven Tire Wear on Motorcycle Front Tires (brighthub.com)
Facebook comments:
We have been dealing with Iron Pony since the 80′s. No matter where we live we get on their site and order what we need. When we make a trip back home it is one of the places we like to shop at.
It’s hard to believe they were just a small at one time. They were the first around here to offer parts that the dealers were charging way to much for.