1 or 2?

I have run different compounds front and rear and even so far as completely different tires (dual sport on the front, hard rear).  It never did anything weird.  Just another way to tune slides.

I'd do 1 tire.  I don't do the "canyon GP" thing though.

yeah, my bike is a 3-5k rear tire bike. but I'm also at 4 years now so both are getting replaced now. 3 Indiana winters to harden them up on a bike that naturally wants to kill me? yeah.... I'll just get some new ones

Gotcha I'm with you on that. Other than age I'm with FlightService, mix and match whatever, ride accordingly.

Huckleberry said:

minimac wrote:

Huckleberry wrote: ...... Cords or bust!

With a couple of inches of tire between me and eternity, I want the best couple of inches of tire. Have you priced hospital stays or funerals lately? Change them both.

Dramatic a bit aren't we?

My rear tire wears at 2x the rate of the front. I'd be throwing away 50% of a $165 tire if I followed that logic. I change every tire at the wear bars - that one above notwithstanding... I had to get home 500 miles when I hit the wear bars. 160HP makes faster work of them than I predicted

Now, I'd buy both tires at the same time because "free shipping" at BikeBandit... and if the combo exhibited any odd behavior I'd swap it (usually fine - no mixing bias/radials though). But why waste rubber otherwise? It's not like they will explode from being different mfgs/compounds.

Same here.  I go through two rears for every front on the k1300s.  I run Michelin Pilot Roads and just replace them when needed.

These tires have now been through 3 cold winters in the garage. First ride of the year told me I’m getting 2. 

Update on this. Just received the new tires. Dunlop Roadsmart III have a $75 rebate on purchase of 2 tires. They were already reasonable ($293 shipped for both on bikebandit) in my size (120/70/17, 180/55/17) but $75 back sealed the deal. They were one of 3 tires on my list. The rebate made it easy. 

Holy crap. I knew the old tires were bad. Didn't realize HOW bad. Handling is so much better! it actually WANTS To turn now and literally jumps down into corners. Should have done this last year.