Should I be getting through one front tyre to two rears?

This always used to be the case.

Most of the time, when it came to changing your rear tyre, the front had around 50% left in it, so the economic thing to do was to keep the front on there and just stick a new rear in. That being the case, quite a few bikers would still change their front as they’d want a fresh pair.

These days things are different. Manufacturers have improved their tyre performance by a huge margin over the past decade and now, in the pursuit for maximum performance, the 2 to 1 thing has largely gone out of the window.

That’s because the tyre manufacturers realised that they could use a compound of rubber and construction to enable the front tyre to warm up quicker than before and offer more grip in practically all conditions.

In fact when you get a dual compound tyre, it’s usually only the rear tyre. And on these dual compound rear tyres, the centre is a harder compound than the rear. The matching front tyre however will always use the softer compound rubber as used on the shoulders of the dual compound rear.

The only downside is that those fronts now wear out faster, because the softer compounds don’t last as long.

That obviously means you’ll be spending more money per mile on your motorcycle’s tyres which isn’t ideal but the positive aspect is that by fitting a pair, you’ll get the best from the tyres and really notice the difference. Previously when a rider fitted a new rear but kept the front, they wouldn’t see the benefit. The front is the tyre that does the work getting you into the corner, so a new rear plus old front never quite gave you that new tyre feeling.