Can I Mix & Match Front and Back Motorcycle Tire Brands?

Are front and back motorcycle tire brands interchangeable? Well, it’s not completely out of the question to use different brands of motorcycle tires for the front and back, but why go there?

Partzilla’s motorcycle expert John Talley livestreams Q&A sessions on our YouTube channel every Friday at 3pm Eastern. In this edition, John was asked his opinion about whether it’s a bad idea to use different brands of motorcycle tires between the front and rear of the bike.

Mixing Front and Back Motorcycle Tire Brands

Is it bad to mix brands of motorcycle tires between the front and the back? 

John Talley: That’s a bit of a loaded question. It’s better to have them match, because usually the manufacturers, especially on street tires, specifically street performance tires, you want basically the same compound. Especially if you’re tracking your machine, you want to have the same compound in the front and rear so that the bike will handle evenly. And if you’ve got a harder compound up front or in the back, that’s going to completely change the way the machine responds when you throw it into a curve. Is it completely against the law? No. But typically a particular make and model of tire has a complimentary front and back pairing. Can you mix and match tires? Sure, but why would you want to? That would be my question. I would rather get tires that were designed to work with each other than to guess about what might and might not work.  

Watch the video below to see how to change the front tire on a motorcycle.

Watch the video below to see how to install a rear tire on a motorcycle.

Watch the video below to learn about how and when to inspect and change motorcycle tires.

Want to see more live repair questions answered? See more motorcycle and ATV repair questions answered here.