Extensive new tire review

[orangeokie]

Tire Review

[Guest ratchethack]

Thanks for posting this, Orangeokie. Interesting evaluation and ranking, certainly a lot of good info here, and definitely worth a read and some study.

 

FWIW, a few random blatherings, in no particular order:

 

When it comes to my Guzzi, I put tire choice at the very TOP of my priority list - numero Uno. Since I ride in "real-world road conditions" 100% of the time and suffer no "Boy Racer Wannabe" illusions - (OK some. - But having at least enough brainwave activity to understand the limitations of my riding skills, I try to limit myself to the least dangerous of these ) - Seems to me that most racetrack evaluations of tires (or in this case, Michelin's private test track and development center at Ladoux) are of inherently limited value, because to the best of my understanding anyway - track and real world riding are entirely different worlds as far as tire performance is concerned.

 

Operating temp ranges, surface conditions, etc. aren't even in the same ranges between a track and mountian roads, which in my case, is where I need my tires to perform. The rest of the time I'm just "travelling" on my tires without asking very much of them. Track conditions this just ain't. Night and day.

 

The Demon Tweekers are dedicated to "Superbike riders" - I don't think I'm one of those. They use an R-1 and a GSX-R600 for their evaluation. Guzzi being Guzzi and me being me, I'm an altogether different kind of bird, more of a Retro Sport Geezer with a heavy, low-power Retro Euro Sport bike with some nice, somewhat dated, yet still "modern" brake and suspension gear... Let's just say that I don't spend much time worrying about losing traction due to power-induced wheelspin coming out of sweepers at 140 mph. The "test mules" used here seem to be a considerable departure from my tire evaluation needs.

 

I've been around long enough to realize that (thankfully!) the top road tires available over the past decade have rocketed light years ahead of where they were in prior decades. On top of this, they all seem to be making leap-frog improvements beyond this every few years lately. When it comes to tires, life is indeed very good. I might be a ways off on this, but from my non-racing perspective, it occurs to me that the top racers of 20 years ago might have given a kidney to race on tires available at the corner moto outlet today. All the best tires in each category also seem to be so close together in terms of value and performance now that in a pile of tires from all the big mfgr's, a rider can hardly swing a dead cat without hitting a half-dozen superb choices - any one of which could hardly be considered a mistake.

 

Though I always have reservations about these kinds of evaluations, I'm willing to take both the objectivity and the data compiled by the Demon Tweekers (whoever these guys are) at face value here, with the possible exception of the ages of the testers. Their photos suspiciously don't seem to quite line up. As printed in the article, the testers are Kenny, age 76 (!), Jonathan, age 16 (!), and "secret weapon" Ian, age 12 (!) So we have a geriatric pensioner, a kid who presumably recently took his first driver's test, and the "secret weaon" - a child who hasn't had his first shave and can't legally ride on the road...?

 

Hmmmmm......OK. Somebody answer me this. Are their ages as published some kind of a credibility-killing joke without a punchline , or is this just subtle British humor that's beyond my provincial ability to appreciate?

 

To their credit, the Demon Tweekers divided their evaluations into Road Tire, Sporty Road/Track Day Tire, and Track Tire categories, yet they ranked them all on parameters that included such track-only (racing) considerations as lap times, which I consider irrelevant as a parameter to measure road tire performance.

 

I note that my all-time first choice of tire manufacturer took First in the Track Class and First overall - the Racetec (Metzeler). Fine, but I'll never have any use for these tires. I won't be bringing a bicycle to a kayak tour of the Sea of Cortez either...

 

My all-time personal favorite tire for the Guzzi is the Metzeler M-1. The DT's ranked it 2nd in the Road Tire Class and 6th overall, and concluded thusly: "If you want a tire that does all it can to help you, this is it. It seems to work well on both large and small capacity bikes and offers consistent performance unless pushed hard on the track." Well, I gotta agree with this, what else can I say? Since I've never pushed M-1's hard on a track and don't intend to, I reckon the DT's findings are at least in line with my choice.

 

If nothing else, this evaluation brought me up to date a bit and made me re-think what's most important to consider in a tire - always a good thing. Of course, and as is most certainly applicable here - YMMV.

[Mike Stewart]

Tire Review

61895[/snapback]

 

 

I just don't understand these tire shoot outs. They make perfect sence but there was a tire shootout just like this one 6 months ago and the ranking of the tires were 180 degrees apart.

 

So, I was a Pirelli Diablo Corsa lover, read the last tire report and decided to leave the stock Bridgestone 014 tires on the Kawi (did real well in the test). I did almost 3 track days on them and they did work great till the rear tire broke loose with no warning and now I have a broken butt.

 

So, take the test reports lightly and stick with what you know works.

 

Mike

[Guzzirider]

Not worth reading the review unless they are tested on a Guzzi- an R1 is a lot lighter and has an extra 80bhp- twice the power.

 

 

Guy

[Baldini]

... take the test reports lightly and stick with what you know works....

 

....until you find something better.