Tire Selection
 

I know tires are discussed every so often but, I have a question about the newer "duel" compound tires out there. I need to replace my rear tire and am wondering about these new tires. I currently have a Metzler on the rear and a Pierelli Diablo on the front. (Don't ask me, that's what the guy had on it when I bought it). I am not real hard on tires, gettin too old to be worrying about going down cause I'm knee scraping. So, the longer life these compounds are supposed to give sound nice. Hard in the center and soft on the sides.
Any suggestions as to what is good? :rolleyes:

Metzler Sportec M3 is supposed to combine relatively long life with good wet/dry handling...

I have a Metzler M1 that the middle is worn after 1500 or so miles but the sides look new still. I need a new tire now

Stop doing burnouts! LOL Sportbikes are supposed to be ridden on curvey roads. Maybe you should move out of the city. I did and now I wear the sides of my tires out before the middle.
I just put a Bridgestone BT-021 on my VFR. I have about 1000 miles on it now, and many of those were fairly loaded which would cause a normal tire to have a flat spot in the middle. Not the case with this one. Its dual compound too.
I am impressed with my M3's. They are going to the track in 2 weeks.
Now I'm ordering PP 2CT's from Dennis Kirk for the RC51.

2CT's
 

I'm on my second set of Pilot Power 2CT's. They seem to wear reasonably even and they stick well when on the side. When the sides go, they go fast so keep an eye. Cheers

I run metezeler m3's, zero complaints.

Bowhawk:

On your PP 2CT, does the front and rear seem to wear evenly? It seems to me that on every 'hawk the rear wears out b4 the front... when tires are equal.

Rear tires always wear out first because power goes to them. I've been going w/ the Michelin Road 2CT in the rear and Pilot in the front hoping to get more even wear. All's good so far and the Road 2CT has done a track day already with impressive results.

Yellowbird, I'd say buy what's on sale and save yourself some $$$ cuz the limiting technical factor on a stock bike prolly wont be the tires and you'll get decent miles outta them cuz they wont be real sticky, otherwise they wouldn't be on sale;)

My 2cents:popcorn:

Good luck bro,
RC

Well I'm bummed.We had a local motorcycle shop, Redline, where I've bought tires before, and they don't beat you up on mounting, went out of business. Anyway, I've checked around and can get the M3 for 133.oo + mounting or the Diablo Corsa III for 160.00 + mounting. My son had the M1 on his Ducati and loves it. I think I will take your advice and go with quality + price and do the M3.
Thanks to all for responding. :p

I have found the M3 for $139.00 + mounting. The Diable Corsa III for 160.00 + M. My son has the M1 on his Ducati and loves it. I think I will go with your suggestion and combine quality + price and get the M3.
Thanks to all who responded. This is a great site. :p

+1 on the BT-021's. Got just over 600 miles on mine and no issues rain or shine.

Wear
 

LineArrayNut,
I go through about 1.5 rears for every front. A track day or two usually puts a front to pasture. The 2CT front will go away fast if it only ridden on the side. I rode deals gap earlier this year and the roads around it and wasted a front in about 1500 kms with the middle still fine. For the piece of mind, I'll stick with these for now. The rear really does seem to wear evenly, no flat spotting. I guess that's why they went to dual compound, it works. I have a friend who pushes his FZ6 hard and the 2CT's last him what seems forever. So the hawk power eats rubber.

I put on PP and when Erik got back he put on 2ct's. I like the idea of the dual compound and have researched the road feel in the transition zone. This particular tire doesn't seem to have one which is hard to believe - nobody that I could find reports problems.

I will say this, when my PP's are cold they are more slippery than the old Dunlops. But you get them warmed up - which takes a little longer than the old Dunlops - they're pretty grippy.

It will be interesting to see how they wear. Erik is more aggressive than I am but I'm good at keeping up.

I'm on my second rear Qualifier, and I'm trying to stretch the front so I can replace both at the same time. All my other bikes that was no problem, but they didn't equal the grip of the Dunlops. :draggin:

i seen a post somewhere around herefor pilot road 2ct's at 308 shipped.... cant find it againit was real I went to the site just didnt have the dough at the time. any help? all the reviews say these tires are nice

It's the torque that the Superhawk lays down that eats the tires. Driving the fronts into the corners and the back digging out. They like gas and tires. :D

I love the tire question.But I'll try to make this short. I've been a metzler fan for 20+ years.I ride on the M/3.But Im almost convinced that the M1 feels better.Last winter I bought a pair of Roadtec Z6 as an experiment.Stupidly, I am out there pushing it.The Z6 was supposed to last 8000 miles.They didn't,The center was fine but the sides were gone in 1500 miles just like the M1 and M3.The things I learned were-Apparently any tire pushed hard wears fast,and that the Z6 handled being pushed hard with few complaints.
IMO.. If you need fast tires,buy fast tires.If your trying to squeze milles out of them,you;ll problably be impresed with the capability of the Z6 or any other quality sport/touring tire.

indysuperbikes.com 309.11 shipped to Md.

indysuperbikes.com 309.11 shipped to Md.

+1 on the M3's

I'm commuting on my bike during the week, and just switched to Michelin Pilot 2s, I'll let you know how they wear. I don't wear my tires all the way to the edge as it is, so I was looking forward to getting the higher mileage from the harder center strip. So far I love 'em! But that's with the caveat that my old Dunlops were basically square with mileage (D'oh!). Everything I've read about the Roads 2s has been good, I'm hoping that they'll work for my type of riding, seems like they're a good choice on the 'sport touring' side.

Cheers!

ill be getting the pilot power 2s on as well tomorrow. the shop here is doing them 360 for both mounted and balanced. I could do it myself but I'm lazy and don't have a tire balance even thought the weight will probably fly off anyways ill be doing a pretty long stretch up and down San Diego county round the Ortega highway into the San Bernardino mnts then into Julian and the surrounding areas. ill post my findings.

Hello from DerbyCycles.com,

Thank you for your order. We appreciate your business and will do everything we can to meet your expectations. Please visit us again soon!

--PRODUCT INFORMATION--

Quantity: 1
Product: Michelin Pilot Road Two Tire $ 109.99 (each)
Options: 120/70 ZR-17-Front-87-9678 4.00

Quantity: 1
Product: Michelin Pilot Road Two Tire $ 109.99 (each)
Options: 180/55 ZR-17-Rear-87-9687 35.00


SHIPPING: $ 33.13
SALES TAX: 0.00
TOTAL: $292.11

Looked like a fine deal.

I got these today. I will be getting them mounted soon. I saw somewhere a recommendation to cut the nubs off, and scuff the new tires with a wire brush or something. Is that a good idea? I guess there is some release compound on there? I DONT want to be the guy who pulls out on his sweet new tires and promptly lays it down.....:eek:

Thats a KILLER deal on those I might sack up and buy a new set. I just had new power 2ct's put on and got about 200 miles on them. About the release compound they say it wears off after a good warm up and about 60 miles. I help it out by swerving back and forth down the road .I have heard of people sanding, scuffing, washing tires before mounting but from what I was told the oils used to help it release is IN the rubber and scuffing will just get the immediate surface oils off and only a good warm up will help the tire release it all. I left the knobs on and didn't notice any difference and sense my initial warm up Ive already used the whole back and about 1/2" left on the front. Didn't feel any less stable.

As far as a report on the new Pilot Power 2ct's I love them. They stick like a good tire should I run 32/34 psi. The response and turn in are great. At first I had 38 in the rear tire and could feel when I would hit a small rock or pebble in turns as if the back rolled to the side but once it got contact again it felt solid. Going 34 in the rear I haven't felt anything like that sense. I just got done with a riders course with lots of hard braking sliding the rear and evasive maneuvers and never once did I worry about my tires 3 strait days of it and the tires look perfect. I would suggest anyone looking into getting some tires consider them.

I have been running Continental Road Attack on my NT650 (Hawk GT) and have been very impressed with them. Previously I had ran Z6, Battlax, ME33 (now known as Lasertec, great low HP sport tire BTW) and stock Dunlops.

They have been the best confidence inspiring tire that I have ran so far on my Hawk GT. Wear seems to be minimal and I bet that I will easily get 6-8k out of the rear.

Think I got the pair of 120/70 160/60 shipped next day to my house for $240.00 through southwestmototire.

My favorite SHawk tire: metzler Z6, hands down.....
 

my last set were d 208's.
wore out 2 fronts before i replaced rear..
my project will be wearing 2ct's next.

nobody ever mentions shinko 005 advance tires on this site. i put a pair on my hawk a little while ago and they are awesome. wet and dry. they dont seem to be wearing very fast either. also, they're really cheap, which is really nice.