On the Road Again!

The tyre arrived yesterday lunchtime with courier DPD. When I got home I pulled the invoice from the plastic wrapping and found it was all in German. Further reading showed that it had come from Bydgoszcz in Poland. Now I thought that Avon bike tyres were made in Melksham in UK. Looking on Avon's website shows that they were bought out in 1997 by a US company called Cooper Tire and in 2018 production was moved for most of the Avon range to European factories.  Although motorcycle tyres were supposed to stay in UK. Given the lack of riding I have been managing of late, the journey from Avon to Bydgoszcz and back would be about 1700 miles.  More that I did in the MoT year 2018/19! Carbon mileage? Update 22/2/19 Emailed Avon. Yes. The Cobra and Cobra Chrome are made in UK. Update 25/2/19 Booked for ride in and ride out at Laguna Triumph in Ashford for 0900 March 9th.

Took the bike up to Laguna Triumph at Ashford and left it whilst we had errands and a visit to my Aunt to fit in.  Why choose Laguna to fit the tyre I had sourced myself?  Although Oponeo have a network of fitters there are none within 50 miles of where I live.  In fact the nearest two were in Essex and Brighton. I had a look at a few of the places I have had tyres fitted before and the nearest ride in/ride out place was in London and 65 miles away!  Also, these guys are tyre sellers too. Laguna charged me half an hours labour inc taxes and that still meant the tyre was £40 cheaper than they would have done it for as supplier and fitter of the big fat Avon. When I collected it they had noticed an exhaust clamp had broken and so they had replaced that in the same labour charge. It will need a bit of scrubbing in. It's the first "road" tyre I have had fitted to a bike for many years.  The last was years back when I had BT020/021's fitted to the GS as a trial. All ...

I've read so much about tyres and it looks as though it will be a straight swap between the Metzeler ME880 as fitted as standard or the Avon Cobra AV72. Googling isn't much help in this size of rear but US sites have the option of a Bridgestone alternative. I am hoping that this one will get me to Assen and back at the end of the month. Fingers crossed. This Metz has just short of 7000 miles on it and hopefully I can get another 1000 out of it. On the various R3 sites some guys are saying they only get 2500 to a rear! But most of the UK R3 people are recommending the Cobra. Update: 4th June 2018 Had a Google search and found the cheapest place for the Avon is Oponeo at £146 with free delivery. So I ordered one.  It has 4 to 5 days delivery. Now to see when I can get it booked in the Laguna to fit it. Even though there looks to be plenty of tread left I decided to change it before Assen. Laguna have it booked in on the 23rd June. Links: Avon Oponeo Update: 11th June 201...