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Which Tire Category Is Best For You?


BusyLittleShop

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  • Member Contributer

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...

1500MilesRennsportStreetF.jpg

1500MilesRennsportStreetR.jpg

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  • Member Contributer

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.

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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...

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