Tire Advice

Time for new tires. What are your recommendations? My priorities are:
1). Not made in China
2). Longevity
3) good wet/dry
4)price

Thanks for any input. Currently i have Continentals but they have reached the end of days.

 

Michelin Pilot Road 2's are what i ran on my ST1300. From what Im reading the Michelin Pilot Road 4's are even better. I will be buying a set to replace my stock VFR set on the bike now. For a dry/wet tire they are showing performance levels over the competitors in independent testing.

The 2's were very forgiving in wet conditions, dry performance brought no complaints, and weren't outrageous on price. Id say that you couldn't go wrong with the new 4's but have no experience with them personally.

 

ThePR4s are outstanding in all conditions in my experience. A little pricier but make up for it in longevity. I got 13,000 miles out of my first front tire & have one on the rear now with 7,000 miles & probably 1,000 left on it.

 

That is some impressive milage. Im excited to get them now.

 

I just got a set of Dunlop Roadsmart 2's from Bikebandit for $252, delivered in 2 days! I will be replacing my PR4'S with them (good tire, but lose too much feel in the 2nd half of their life). Also, I will be lucky to get 5k miles out of the rear PR4.

 

I just got a pair of PR4's and haven't got a chance to even scrub them in yet. prices are all over the place. shop around, I got mine on flea-bay for $305.

 

FleaBay has stock 6th gen sizes for 131.xx for the front with free shipping and 139.xx for the rear with free shipping on the PR4's.

 

I just put Michelin Pilot Road 4's on my 08. I bought it with ultra low mileage, so it came with the OEM BattleAx front and rear. All I can say is HOLY GRIP! I think I got the set from an Ebay dealer for around $280 shipped. I haven't got anything to say about longevity, since I only have 75 miles on them. I believe they said Made in Spain on them. on a personal note: I never noticed any rear slippage on the old BattleAx, but I have noticed my front end likes to come up a lot easier if I really get into it. I don't know if that's from the tire or the confidence I get from it. It's a very solid tire, IMHO.

 

Pilot Road 4s are an excellent choice as a road tire for the VFR, got to try them out through nearly every condition on a recent tour.

Smooth on the Hwy...check, stable on high speed sweepers...check, linear turn in with fast transitions on a warm dry day through tight twisies...check, predictable on bumpy rutted back roads...check and lastly very sure footed and confidence inspiring in cold wet slippery twisties...check.

I didn't like the Road 3s I had 2 years back with their slow turn in and hard work in tight long distance twisties but have recently fitted R4s after the dealer showed me the R4s front profile being visably rounder than the R3s, while they're not Supersport tires for the road they are not far off.

 

I ran the PR4 tires on the track at Chuckwalla. I never lacked grip and I was pretty much riding at 80% to 90%+ of my ability. I did notice that at lean and hard on the gas, the rear slid out a bit, but it was fully controlled (and fun as hell!). A little slick on the curbs though so I had to be careful avoiding them. It was about 75+ that day and sandy, as the wind was blowing fine dust all over the track. Never once did the tires scare me. I rode at lean angles to scrape my pegs, with the feelers off and the toe sliders for my boots. I never got my knee down, but that was more because of my body positioning being wrong a bit. I left some usable life on the track that day, but almost all off of the sides. I did get on the brakes really hard coming into the turns and no issue whatsoever. Even when coming in too hot to turn 8 when the front tire was chattering over the bumps and audibly screeching, it did nothing wrong. And on turn 13 which is a 10 degree banked corner and wide open coming out of the turn the tires held.



If there is one negative I have found is that the tires went through about 8 heavy heat cycles on the track and I think that they may have gotten a little hard, as it seems that they slip more on dry paint stripes on the street. I had very little miles on them before I hit the track so I don't know if it was that way before. However, this is an extreme example of what the tires can do and if I toasted the compound on the track, then I am OK with adjusting my riding style accordingly on the street as they were never really designed for track duty. They'll work, for sure, but it's not their design. I've run PR3 in the canyons until they turns blue and they worked well.

For almost anyone riding street, I feel the stock size PR4 tires will offer more than what is ever sanely and safely ridden, even above legality, I'm truly impressed with them. Perhaps Q3 or their ilk would perform better, but I pretty much think that 98% of riders would never out ride the tires.

 

If longevity is an issue, Michelin PR4s or Pirelli Angel G/Ts. If you look at third party reviews, you'll see that it's pretty clear those two tires blow the competition out of the water, with the PR4s being generally more preferred. I haven't personally tried the PR4s yet (next set), but I have Angels on my bike and they have wonderful grip, good feedback, good wet performance, and they turn in really well making for a more nimble bike than when I had the god-awful Roadsmart 2s on there (terrible, terrible tire).

 

JUST installed pr4s yesterday. Also had the shop set my rear shock to the firmest setting (I don't have the tool kit or wrench). The bike feels amazing now! PO had worn out pilot powers on it, so any new tires would have been better. But, I am truly impressed with them so far, but only time will tell as far as longevity. Between the new rubber and the firm shock, my viffer feels flickable like my old cbr!

 

I have about 750 miles on a new set of PR4's. I am very impressed with the tire. Have limited rain with them but the little I did felt great. They are supposed to be even better than the 3's in the rain. Turn in and feel is outstanding.

 

Maybe I'm stuck in my old ways but I really like the Bridgestone Bt023's.

They wear well and I've had them in heavy rain without any issues.

 

Fully agree with this.

BT23's are a great choice if your riding is more touring focused than sport. Sure footed in rain and even brought the VFR safely home on snow covered roads more than once. I was planning to order my third set last year with both previous sets covering well over 10,000 miles, but in Europe they have now been replaced by the T30 range which so far, have proved to be as good. If the manufacturer is correct, then the T30s should last even longer. For me, its early days yet, but certainly so far, they show very little sign of wear so if they exceed 12k+ I will be very happy.

If however you want track tyre performance Pirellis would be my choice - just don't expect them to last. Despite all the manufacturers hype about advanced designs using super duper compounds and multi layers, you only need to watch a few Moto GP races to see there is still a big trade off between grip & longevity.




SkiMad

 

Just installed a new rear Dunlop Q3 on my bike. Amazing tires. I will stay with Q3's on this bike for sure. I don't care where they are made or how long they last. I install and balance them myself. Seem fine in the rain if you are not a crazy ass.

 

I just put Q3's on to-a very soft tire and excellent on bumps- a over kill on the vfr however. Going touring tires next time PR 4. But the Q 3's are outstanding but the rear tire needed a lot of weight and was hard to balance, the red dot had to be turned 180 around maybe the dot was misplaced. Front tire balanced perfect.

 

No such thing as overkill. What? If any tires can bail you out of a bad situation these are them.
There are tradeoffs maybe. Like longevity but again, I don't care. Q3's are priced well.
Q3's stick right off the kickstand and when some lady in oncoming traffic turned RIGHT in front of me they saved my ass. I found out just how good VFR 5th gen brakes are. They are REAL good. I would be dead or in a hospital if I was on my old BMW.

 

Mr. Jim,
Glad you are still around.

 

the abs 2006 brakes are even better, I did noticed the brakes were stopping very fast with the Q3's, the Q3's are much better than me and my poky Mr. slow wear in the middle old giser self, however the Q3's would make anyone faster-being soft they ride extremely nice. I have only put maybe 25 miles on them so I don't really know to much-they aren't even broken in yet-and I need to fine tune the air pressure-I may be able to run more air because they ride so nice. But I am a little worried about that back tire being so hard to balance, I may call Dunlop and ask them about the red dot.:hi2: