Street Tire Evaluation

X-Cruiser · Post by **X-Cruiser** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:30 am

FYI - in case you didn't see it; the December edition of Sport Rider magazine did a fairly comprehensive test on a number of popular street tires. Testing was done with two different bikes and different riders (Honda CBR 600RR and a Suzuki GSX-R1000) on a 180 mile test loop that incorporated some city/freeway riding, but mostly twisty canyons. Here's a quick summary of their findings:

Avon Viper Sport - Rated 83.7 (decent traction, but not up to the level of Pirelli/metzler or Michelins they tested. Wear was slightly above average.

Bridgestone BT-014 - rated 89.0 (excellent traction - even over bumps during cornering. Only moderate wear noted)

Continental Contisport Attack - rated 80.7 (lower traction than some of the top tires tested, but better than average expeced tread life)

Dunlop Qualifier - rated 91.4 - (top rated tire in the test) (Superb traction, performance and stability during cornering in bumpy conditions. significant tread wear was noted, so they'll need more frequent changeouts)

Maxxis Supermaxx M6029 - rated 79.0 (average in performance, traction and wear)

Metzler Sportec M1 - rated 87.3 (Good compliance over bumps, excellent traction, excellent braking characteristics, average to moderate tire wear after the test was completed)

Michlin Pilot Power - rated 89.3 (Good compliance over bumps, excellent traction, excellent braking characteristics. wear was minimal)

Pirelli Diablo - rated 86.0 (Since Pirelli owns Metzler, this tire apparantly shares many of the same characteristics as the Sportec M1. Good compliance over bumps, excellent traction - slightly better than the M1s, excellent braking characteristics, steering charactistics did not rate quite as high as the M1s. Minimal tire wear was noted after the test was completed)

Anyway, there you have it. Obviously, your individual results may vary, and since they didnt use a Rock as one of their test bikes (what were they thinking!) the info may not be as applicable, but it was an interesting read.

fnfalman · Post by **fnfalman** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:25 pm

It'd be interesting to see the next generation of Metz Sportec M3.

Yeah, the M1 is a pretty old design and it fared very well against the newer models.

X-Cruiser · Post by **X-Cruiser** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:59 pm

Yeah, I agree. But I still think a rider needs to find a good balance between performance and durability. Frankly, I'm not a good enough rider to be able to feel the minute differences in some of these tires. A tire like the M1, Pirelli or Michelin will work fine for me - providing decent performance and good durability. As an "x-cruiser", I'm used to geting 20,000 km's (12,000 miles) plus out of a set of tires; however, I expect the money I save on Chiropractic bills after selling the cruiser will balance off against the additional cost of tires.