I went to a bike dealer yesturday to ask him about the new qualifiers and how they compare to the 208s and he said that they feel the same but the qualifiers will last alot longer on the street. I have had my bike for about 3700 miles and my tire needs to be replaced badly, actually I needed to replace it about 700 miles ago, but money is tight and had to wait until this week to get it. But anyway I have heard some people say that the qualifiers are a softer tire and they will wear out faster than the 208s. I don't know what to say because they are so far off both ways so I will ask you guys what you think before I drop the cash for the tires. My front is like new so I'm not going to replace it, thats why I want to get the qualifier so my tires will heat up about they same time rather than getting a different brand that has a different warm up time. I know that they should be replaced at the same time, but my budget won't allow that right now. Alright I guess thats it but if you can help me out please do.

-Jesse-

 

i've got DQ's now and had 208's before. i'd say they are softer than the 208's. as for wear - can't really tell you because i've only got about 1500 miles on it (moderate riding). so far though it's wearing pretty good.

 

Wearing pretty good as in their wearing out fast of they are holding up good. I guess I will go with the pilots since they are a multi compound tire, they are harder in the center and softer in the sides so they won't wear as fast. Hopefully someone else will chime in, but I'm not getting a tire until the end of next week so I have a little time still. Thanks

-Jesse-

 

lol.. sorry about that i guess i wasn't too clear when i said that. i meant it's holding up good - better than i expected.

 

Ok thanks alot LOL, I will check out a few more dealers before I buy one, but I appreciate your input.

-Jesse-

 

I went with the Qualifiers and have 4-500 miles on them so far. They perform a little better than the 208's but not sure about the long haul yet. From the reviews I've seen they rank very well.

 

I have a set of qualifiers going on tomorrow, so I don't know how they do yet, but I hear good things. The absolute cheapest place I could find, other than ebay, was tireexpress.com With shipping it was $225 for both and I got them in 2 days.
With that many miles on your front, I'd go ahead and replace that one as well. There might be good tread on it, but if it's cupped then you're better of replacing them as a set. Inspect that one more closely.

 

No the front is actually in good shape. The rear is bald and cupped pretty bad but the front is in good shape still. I think I'm going to go with the pilot and see how I like it and replace the front shortly after. The thing that I hate most about the 208s is how the rear will slide in some corners even if the tire is warm. I have had 2 bikes with 208s and both have done it, I almost lowsided about a month ago, but I luckily saved it when the rear slid out. I have heard that the qualifiers will do the same thing, but I haven't heard anything really bad about the pilots yet. Let me know how you like them though I still have until friday before I have to decide.

-Jesse-

 

i have had my DQ's slide a tiny bit on me in corners but that's when the tire was still pretty new and there was still a tiny bit of that "film" on the sides... [:@]

 

I'm totally over the 208s. Those things slide under heavy breaking all the time. Since my bike is more work than play I'm thinking I'll opt for the pilots next time because of their multicompoundedness.