Shinko SE890 Journey Touring Tire performance reports

[Ansimp]

As most of your are probably aware I have been extremely pleased with my Shinko 230 tires on the Rats Nest from the moment I first rode on them in August 2013. I went on the excellent advice of BackLander and how well these Korean tires were working out for him and how well they performed for such a reasonable price. I was currently running Metzler TourTeks on my CBR1000fs due to a mates recommendation and had been extremely pleased with their performance over the years. I noticed that some Shinko customers weren't happy with their mileage but most praised their performance and I believed that they would be perfect for my riding style as I didn't expect to ride more that 6k miles in the States. I am now on my second set of Shinko 230s on the Rats Nest and couldn't be happier apart from the fact that I pay twice as much for them here in Oz.
I would of fitted 230s to Val (98 GL1500c Valkyrie) but the rear was not available in the 180/70x16 that I required so I have fitted a Shinko SE890 Journey instead.

New tire and polished rim installed, ready to ride

• Ansimp
• Jul 9, 2016

Shinko SE890 Journey 180/70r-16 77h rear tire

• Ansimp
• Jul 9, 2016

At the time of fitting I had 9000ks on the odometer. My first real ride on Val was last weekend with about 350ks of hard performance riding around some of my most favourite local roads. I was more than pleased with the performance of the new rear Shinko SE890 and it was only hampered by the old Dunlop E3 on the front which needs replacing soon.

Shinko SE890 after first 350ks of hard riding

• Ansimp
• Jul 12, 2016

Not quite out to the edge but not a bad effort for my first real ride on Val and the front tire...

Shinko SE890 after first 350ks of hard riding

• Ansimp
• Jul 12, 2016

It was all nice and shiny black for the majority of the tread surface until it's trip back up...

 

[slabghost]

I had worn out dunlops on my Valk when I bought it. I had the Shinko tour radials installed. I've been very pleased with their performance so far.

 

[Ansimp]

slabghost » Wed Jul 13, 2016 7:16 am[/url]":1a4mns9q]
I had worn out dunlops on my Valk when I bought it. I had the Shinko tour radials installed. I've been very pleased with their performance so far.

Great to know. :good:
Just need to ride it some more. :yes:

 

[skiri251]

I guess you know already but Shinko is made in Korea by Japanese company (formerly Yokohama tires).

... or it became 100% Korean now?

 

[Ansimp]

Well this is the end of my Shinko SE890’s Journey. Just under 7k Klms.

Worn out after just under 7k klms

• Ansimp
• Jul 21, 2018

 

[desertrefugee]

Tony, that is terribly poor service. What pressure were you running?

 

[backlander]

You must not have seen his dreaded driveway and riding videos, he’s not bashful in the twistys lol !!

 

[desertrefugee]

:smilie_happy:

Well, I'm not exactly "gentle" on my motorcycles, but I will offer up a couple of observations.

1) Tires definitely wear longer if consistently inflated to their maximum rated pressure. Sometimes dramatically longer.

2) The wide open spaces of the great American Southwest do funny things to tires. If one mostly stays in the low desert with long stretches between curves, tires wear such that side or center stands almost (almost) become unnecessary. The wear in the center is so pronounced, the bike can almost stand up unassisted! My '78 is in that category. I mostly use it in nice weather in the low desert with occasional runs up to points on "the rim". The Shinkos are embarrassingly "fresh" looking on the sides. The Valk, on the other hand has tires that show wear nearly to the beads.

3) Tony is carrying around more weight than I am...

(ducking and running)

 

[backlander]

True on both counts, easy to tell a straight liner when there’s more chicken strips left on the rear tire than you can buy at KFC. Lol

 

[Ansimp]

Is that why I am carrying more weight than Darrell, too much time at KFC? :smilie_happy:
I always run higher that recommended but I did lower my rear pressure(38 psi) because I wasn’t happy with the traction from the Shinko Journey. Standard pressures for me in all my bikes has been 36 front and 42 rear (45 with more load).

 

[pidjones]

I tried Shinkos on the 1800. The front blistered in five places @ ~5000 miles. The tread and traction were similar to Dunlpo 250s, which were roundly considered the worst handling of GL1800 tires. When I bought new tires for the 100o I saw that Shinkos were available for it but didn't even consider them. I ended up buying Duro 918s. It will be a couple weeks before they get mounted. Most of the 1800 community figured the Shinkos just couldn't handle the 1800s weight. Mine was not the only failure. Honda Direct Line took the blistered one back and refunded me for it.

 

[desertrefugee]

I run Shinkos on the '78 and Avons on the Valkyrie. I get 15-20k miles on the Avons. Right at 10k with the Shinkos on the 1000.

 

[Ansimp]

I couldn’t be happier with the Shinko A230 Tourmasters on the GL1100 and now also the front tyre on Val, unfortunately they are not available in Val’s rear size.

 

[slabghost]

I have Shinko on my valk. Both ends. So far holding up well.Two years now.

 

[FlipFlop]

I have Shinko A230 on Winger my gl1k. I did also installed them on my Blackbird and ran them about a season and wore them at about 8k miles. I thought people were going to laugh me out for running Shinkos on a Super Sport but in the end what killed it was a weird leak in a 2x2 area that could not be patched. I bet I had another 3 or 4 k left if it were not for that leak. People tried to do I told you so, but I did not listen

 

[backlander]

I know nobody asked for it but here’s my two cents. It’s nice and well to have tires that last forever but you pay for the mileage up front when you buy that tire. One of the reasons you pay that premium price is to limit the labor or cost in putting that tire on the bike and that makes sense also. What I think is detrimental in that is the preventive maintenance and or lubrication of the rear of the bike is being done at 15 to 20 thousand miles instead of 8 to 10 thousand miles which could lead to driveshaft failure, yoke binding, seal failure all kind of things that would happen on the road when those problems could have been addressed or performed at shorter mileage intervals. I admit I’m biased towards the Shinto 230 because of cost, traction and load rating and it wears out at what I think the proper mileage is to be doing checks and maintenance in the area that would require the same labor. So why would I put on a tire that cost two times as much as the Shinko. Why not keep a fresh tire on the bike if I’m going to be tearing it down anyway. Like I said, my 2 cents. Lol

 

[dan filipi]

Good point Mike.

I wonder too the traction ya get from a tire that goes that long. How sticky is it.
I’m sensitive to that now since my son rides the canyons on his BMW, and the front tire slid out on me on the Goldwing recently. Dunlop E3. All straight line highway I guess okay, but I wasn’t going all that fast in the turn, and the way we were carving prior should have scrubbed it and been plenty warm.

 

[backlander]

Seems the compound hardens up with more age and heat cycles causing traction to fade. Still good tire as long as your aware of the loses caused by those two factors. It’s a trade off. I’ve had traction save me twice