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Here is my experience with the Avon Venom R's...
I have been a test rider for Avon for the past several years. When they need immediate miles put on a tire, they usually send the tire to me, and ask that I put 10,000 miles on it in the next two weeks. That seems like a lot of time for me, so I usually get the 10,000 miles done in about 11 to 12 days, depending on which bike I am riding. A point in fact...the very first set of Venom R's that were made for the Goldwing 1800 were sent from England...directly to my home address. They did not go to the distributor, and then have the distributor send them to me...they came directly from the tire plant in England, to my house. Because I have all my own tire equipment, and ride higher miles than most people do, Avon knows that I can get these tires installed immediately, and run off the miles they need immediately, and give them back the used tires, with test results in hand, within the two week time frame.

Avon uses...or utilizes...4 test riders around the country. There is one guy in California, two guys in Florida, and myself in Washington state. Butt it takes more than just riding the high miles to do this testing. There is also all the technical info, such as checking tire temperatures at different times of day, after having run different speeds for extended periods of time, checking air pressures several times a day, depending on speeds, altitudes, and weather condition, and then checking tread wear rates, again...depending on speeds, weather, road surfaces, temps, etc. Unfortunetly, the paperwork involved gets in the way of just having a ball out there riding.

My take on the Venon R's is...yes, they are noisey. I did not believe this as quickly as a couple of my friends, as their Avon Venon R's that I shared with them (Avon sent me a couple pair too many, so I recruited a couple friends to go riding with me) their tires started making the noise several thousand miles before mine did. Was I that hard of hearing? Was my radio on that loud that I couldn't hear the tires? While their tires started making noise at 3 to 4 thousand, mine did not make noise...that I could hear, until about 10,000.

The noise did not bother me. I can live with theings like that, once you figure out what the noise it. I was VERY pleased with the mileage, as I got 16,500 on my very first set...the very first set of Venon R's that were ever put on a GL-1800 in this country, and the only reason I took them off at 16,500 was because I had been sent another set of tires to test, and I was getting ready to leave on a long ride. I took those original Venom R's off early, knowing that I probably could have hit 18,000 on that set.

The Venom R's did handle very good, nice and sticky, not bad wear, and they maintained air pressure for longer periods of time than most tires that need adjusting every couple days.

Were it not for the price...I would recommend buying Venom R's. Butt...my question to you is why would anyone want to pay a minimum of $ 100.00 more for a set of tires than they would have to pay for...oh...say...the Dunlop E-3's?????

I have done a lot of testing of the E-3's, and I like them.
Prior to the release of the E-3's, Dunlop was a sponor of mine for several of my World Record rides, and they donated 6 sets of tires to me in 2003 alone. I ate up those tires, like a fat gorilla in need of a banana. These were the Dunlop D-250's, and while many Wing riders did not like the D 250's, I did, simply because of the high mileage factor. My very first set of D-250's that were the OEM tires on my 2003 GL-1800...I rode those puppies to a total of 19,300 miles. I don't believe I would have made 20,000 on them, as they were worn out. Butt while almost all the other guy on 1800 Wing were whining and sniveling about getting such low mileage on their tires, like...8,000 to 12,000, I was consistently getting over 16,000 and usually around 18,000 on a set of tires.

What was the difference, you ask? The difference was that I ran higher air pressure than what Dunlop called for, or than what the other brands of tires called for. Also, as a former mechanic of 30 years, I have a better grasp on what kind of tire wear is okay to ride on, and ride through. Meaning, these other folks were worried that a little bit of cupping of the front tire meant they needed to replace their tires. I kept telling everyone, give me your so called worn out tires, and I will get another 5,000 to 8,000 miles out of them.

I was not worried about the alledged issues with steering head bearing, thinking that was causing the cupping of the front tire, which was causing the head shake when slowing down. To make a long story short...oops...it is too late for that...Dunlop started coming to me for the story on tire pressures. Then Dunlop revised their recommeded tire pressure standards, and started telling people to run higher pressures in their D-250's.

Folks I have tried every brand and model of tire available for the GL-1800, and tried each one several times to give them a fair shot. In the long run, I prefer the E-3's, as the price is the lowest, the mileage is the highest, the handling is as good or better than Avon's or Stones. I have NOT had any E-3's that make noise, but if I do gat any that start making noise, I will just live with that, as there are too many other benefits to out shine the noise.

One last note...and this one is important...

You may, or probably will, come across a dealer that will refuse to mount the 180/60-16 tires onto the rear wheel of your ACE T. I am telling you, the tires will fit, and works GREAT. If any of you have probelms getting a shop to mount these tires, just ride over here to me, and I will do it, for FREE.

Thanks,

Million MIle Rider

Gary, the ACE T is certainly not a usual platform for LD Riding. I would not recommend using the T, but if that is all that a rider has, more power to him. I can tell you that I burned my butt riding that 2000 ACE T back from Florida. On one of my fully set up bike, with a Russell Day Long Saddle, I have no problem at all doing 1500 + miles a day. On this ride back from Florida, I only averaged 900 miles a day, and my ass was sore. I even had Black Sheep Trading Co. in Maine ship a sheep skin down to Florida, so that I could use it on the ride home. Well...it certainly helped, butt...the T would not be my choice for LD Riding. Fortunetly, my wife is not into that stuff, like I "was", so she won't have a problem. Butt I can tell you that with the 11 inch progressive shocks on the back, and the lower profile Wing tires on it, this is one stiff suspended ride. In time, it will soften up, butt until then, she will be using her tush for most of the softening.

To you, and to Fredrider, YES...you should be putting 38 psi in those front tires, on a radial tire that is used on a T. You should be using 40 psi for the rear radials. The 33 psi that Honda told riders to use was WAY too low, and that is why riders got 6 to 10 thou out of a tire.

In fact, the 38 psi on the front tire is actually less pressure than what you would use for the same tire if it was mounted on the front of a Wing. On a Wing, we use 41 psi for that same tire.

Million Mile Rider