Member Contributer BusyLittleShop Posted May 12, 2007 Member Contributer Share Posted May 12, 2007 I'm switching from DOT race tires back to High Performance Street tires after reading Sport Riders shoot out where they sampled all the different tire categories to test how they stack up... In summary: They gathered a lot of data during this test and learned a lot about each tire and our own preferences for tires. Much of the objective data show the more track-oriented tires to be superior when it comes to lap times or speed,and certainly that is the case. However,on both street and track that increasing performance comes with more of a requirement from the rider. Setup is more important with the grippier tires, stability and compliance suffer,and conditions have to be just right to access that extra traction. Over 80 percent of our street test loop,the four types of tires averaged within a couple mph of one another,a strong indication that factors other than what tire you are on dictate your pace on the road. Surprise No.1 for us was just how capable the sport-touring tires are, especially on the street. If you're not looking for that last 10 percent of performance from your bike,sport-touring tires have excellent traction and predictability and will provide thousands of miles of use. Surprise NO.2 was how good sport tires were on the track. Both brands provided great,consistent performance,lapping an average of just a half-second off the DOT race buns. They carded the best scores on the street portion of the test and required little in the way of set up to get comfortable with. Surprise NO.3 was just how much the DOT race tires sacrificed on the street compared with the sport and hybrid tires. Neither of our riders felt comfortable on the majority of the test loop with the race tires, and even though the tires have incredible grip levels and are amazingly fun on a fast,smooth road,that performance is not worth the trade off that must be made the rest of the time. At the race track the DOT race tires are clearly a step above the street tires, and there is even more of a performance gap than our lap times indicate-both our riders felt they could go faster than they did with more set up time. Again,that is the price that must be paid for great grip and steering from a race tire. The final piece of the puzzle is this: To get the best performance, you must be honest with yourself when it comes to choosing a tire. They given you the answers. You just need to figure out what questions to ask yourself. SPORT-TOURING DUNLOP D220ST AND MICHELIN PILOT ROAD Rating Street: 78.7 Track: 75.5 Average lap time: 1:12.72 ......Street v Track General:. 7.7 7.5 Braking;. 8.0 8.0 Traction; 7.9 7.8 Steering; 7.6 7.2 SPORT DUNLOP SPORT MAX QUALIFIER AND MICHELIN PILOT POWER Rating Street:89.5 Track:87.3 Average lap time: 1:08.90 ......Street v Track General:. 9.0 8.9 Braking;. 8.9 8.7 Traction; 9.0 8.7 Steering; 8.8 8.4 HIGH-PERFORMANCE SPORT STREET DUNLOP D208GP AND MICHELIN PILOT POWER 2CT Rating Street:89.3 Track:88.8 Average lap time: 1:08.97 ......Street v Track General:. 8.8 8.8 Braking;. 9.0 9.0 Traction; 9.2 8.9 Steering; 8.6 8.8 DOT RACE DUNLOP SPORT MAXGP AND MICHELIN POWER RACE Rating Street:89.4 Track:92.8 Average lap time: 1:08.447 ......Street v Track General:. 8.4 9.1 Braking;. 9.3 9.5 Traction; 9.3 9.6 Steering; 9.3 9.3 RACE SLICKS DUNLOP KR106/108 AND MICHELIN PILOT Rating Street: NAT rack:93.2 Average lap time: 1:08.23 .........Track General:. 9.0 Braking;. 9.5 Traction; 9.9 Steering; 9.1 I only have one bike... it's set up for the rigors of racing plus sport riding and touring... so a single tire choice is critical if I want to cut low lap times and still satisfy my street requirements... lucky for me Metzeler makes such a tire called Rennsport Road... only trouble is they don't import this hoop to the USA anymore... no problem... I found them on the UK Ebay site... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/METZELER-RENNSPORT-P...2QQcmdZViewItem Metzeler Rennsport Road / Street "Tyre developed for racing oriented riders using race technology for top dry performance on normal road and high satisfaction on the racetrack" a.. Fast and direct handling for very high performance riding on normal roads, for delayed braking and rapid direction changes b.. Compound deriving from racing experience for outstanding grip and very fast warm up: the slick-like behaviour allows fast cornering with very high safety margins c.. The 0° steel belt structure provides great degree of control and stability in all conditions, especially when powering out of corners, giving excellent feedback My Metzeler Rennsport High Performance *Street* tires after a Thunder Hill Track day... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Alien VFR Posted May 12, 2007 Member Contributer Share Posted May 12, 2007 I'm no "Ricky Racer", but I log 15,000 + miles a year on my VFR and previously on TL1000R, Ducati 900ss, GSXR 750, etc. I have no chicken strips and have tried several different catagories of tire. In my experience a good sport touring tire accomplishes everything I need it to on the street. ST gets my vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Brown81 Posted May 12, 2007 Member Contributer Share Posted May 12, 2007 Pilot Power are as good as I'll ever need! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turtlecreek Posted May 13, 2007 Share Posted May 13, 2007 as the Z6 was too squirrely for me, i am going to stick w/ M3 or PP's, which ever gets me the best mileage...they both work on the road quite well and they are all i need for track days so i can have my cake and eat it too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinyminds Posted May 13, 2007 Share Posted May 13, 2007 Metzler M3's since they came out, M1's before that. Awesome tire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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