Motorcycle Tires for a Dual Purpose Bike

I’ve been riding a long time; I think I’m on my tenth motorcycle, at the moment; It’s a DR650 Suzuki dual-purpose. Dual purpose bikes are sort of a niche product – if you can only afford one bike, they are a reasonable compromise for someone that wants to commute to work, and take an occasional trail or dirt road. This Suzuki is the fourth bike in this category I’ve owned.
I’m pretty disappointed in the tire mileage I’ve gotten on this one. I have around 4400 miles on it, and the back tire needs replacing. The front tire is at about 50%.
So I did some research, and found some Pirellis that I like the looks of – the Pirelli Scorpion Trail. These are not the cheapest tires out there, but they probably aren’t the most expensive, either.
The local dealership quoted me a total of about $320 for the two tires, plus $150 to mount them. The other local dealership quoted almost the same. So, around $470 from the dealer.
I found the same identical tires online at a motorcycle on-line store, total cost $212 for both, with free shipping. So I ordered them. I’m going to take a swing at mounting them myself; I’ve done it before, although it was a long time ago. I do need to buy some motorcycle tire-irons. I don’t expect it to be easy, but I can devote this Saturday to it and maybe save around $255; my fall-back position is taking them in to the dealer to get mounted, if I just can’t do it myself.
Frankly, I’m a bit amazed at the quoted $75 per tire just to mount them. But I may be finding out why it’s so high.
-Popgun

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