Reviews Archive
| March 26, 2008 |
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Sport Touring Tire Review - Pt. 1 |
| Selecting a tire for your sport touring motorcycle is nearly as difficult as selecting the motorcycle itself. Typically, you get your choice between excellent grip and traction at the expense of tread life, or decent longevity with a bit less “stick.” How much tread life are you willing to exchange for better traction? This is where we are wise to be honest with ourselves. I have come to terms with the fact that I don’t need the stickiest, 2,000 mile sport bike tire available for the level of my skills or the type of riding I tend to do. That doesn’t, however, mean that I want tire tread made of Teflon® that wears forever but won’t stick to anything.
Somewhere in the middle of those two extremes lie the tires that I am attempting to review. The following is based on my experience with three brands and models of tires designed specifically with the needs of sport touring motorcycles in mind. I am not a tire expert, nor do I claim to know everything about motorcycles, riding or writing, for that matter. I am simply relaying my impressions of these tires, explained the best way I can.
First, a note about tread life: Tire longevity on any motorcycle depends greatly on the style and habits of the rider. If most of your riding is on straight Interstate highways, your rear tire is likely to wear out in the center while plenty of unused tread depth remains on the edges. Conversely, if the world is your racetrack and you spend much of your time tilting your horizon and stretching your throttle cables, you will no doubt see accelerated tire wear compared to a rider who uses more throttle discipline.
The same can be said of riders for whom a tire gauge is the equivalent of Sasquatch. They’ve heard stories of its existence but they’ve never actually seen one. Keeping tires properly inflated is absolutely critical to not only making them last longer but helping to ensure that your motorcycle performs the way it was intended to. Your tires form two relatively tiny contact patches that are your only connection to the road beneath you. This is not the area to be shirking maintenance duties.
Keep all of this in mind as I mention the mileage I got out of my tires. I don’t tend to ride super aggressively, my travels take me on the super slab more than I’d like and I am fairly conscientious about maintaining my tire pressures.
Bridgestone BT-020
These were the original equipment tires on my ST1300 and they were typical of OEM provided tires. They offered very good dry road traction and excellent feedback. They were never overly impressive in the rain, (a condition I ride in a lot), but they were always predictable, (on the few occasions that I had the rear slide in the wet it did so without drama as the traction returned smoothly and predictably), and seemed to perform the same throughout the entirety of their life.* The only exception to this is that, at about 9,000 miles, they developed an annoying habit of wanting to follow pavement irregularities like tar snakes which they never tended to do earlier on.
The ‘Stones also felt very “neutral” and by that I mean that my bike never felt like it wanted to “fall in” to a turn. Nor did it require constant corrections to maintain a desired line or lean angle. These were tires that did everything reasonably well and nothing spectacularly.
If the Bridgestones were priced lower than their competition I could recommend them whole heartedly to someone who’s not looking for and doesn’t want to pay for the latest, cutting edge tire design. This is not the case, however. When shopping for replacements I discovered that the 020’s and their newer replacement, the 021, cost about the same as, and in some cases, more than similarly targeted tires from Michelin, Avon and Metzeler. If you do some shopping around, internet prices are roughly $250 delivered for the pair. There had to be something better in this price range.
At roughly 13,500 miles, I could have left the 020’s in place for another 1000 or so but I had a multi-state trip coming up and didn’t want to risk needing tire replacement somewhere on the road. Since I have had excellent experience with Avon tires in the past, or tyres since they're made in the UK, (3 sets of their AV45/46 S/T tires on my old Concours and a set currently on my 650 V-Strom), I wanted to try Avon’s new Storm line which is the replacement for the AV45/46. Unfortunately, the ST1300 takes a peculiar size on the rear, (170/60R17), and this size was on nationwide back order at the time. After some research, I decided to order a set of the Michelin Pilot Road tires, (not to be confused with the newer Pilot Road II).
* The performance of any tire deteriorates with wear and the 020’s were no different. Ideally, the tire degrades so gradually that the changes aren’t noticeable until new tires are installed to provide a contrast. This was the case with the Bridgestones. This can make it difficult to honestly assess the new tire because you will always compare it to the one you just took off which presumably was used up.
Michelin Pilot Road 
I ordered my Pilot Road tires from an eBay seller who had several sets for $225 with free shipping. They arrived in short order and, once on the bike, were quite an improvement over the Bridgestones. This was especially noticeable in the rain. Did I mention that I ride in the rain a lot? From the start, the Pilot Road tires managed wet roads as well as anything I’ve ever tried. It was almost as if I could forget the rain and ride like the roads were dry. The dry grip was excellent but I had no complaints about this with the previous tires.
The bike handled very well and easily made quick right-left-right transitions without undue wallowing or twitching. Basically, for the first 7 thousand miles, the Michelins made me forget all about wanting the Avons originally. I can’t explain nor do I even fully understand what happened at around that 7,000 mile mark, but it was as if someone snuck into my garage and switched bikes on me. These tires that felt so right for the first half of their tread life were suddenly downright scary. I don’t remember when I first noticed it but the steering got progressively slower and it became a chore to get the bike to change direction.
In the rain, the sure footedness that I had enjoyed before simply evaporated. I found myself dreading riding the bike to work in the rain. Curiously, I haven’t talked to anyone else who has experienced this phenomenon with these tires. It’s reminiscent of a pair of Metzeler Tourances that I had on my V-Strom after I rode it at a track day. Even at my beginner level, the abuse that the Metzelers took on the track seemed to affect the compound and the wet traction simply disappeared. At least in that case, I could point to an actual event as the culprit responsible for the loss in performance. There is no such event in the case of the Pilot Roads.
It seems as though Michelin was pretty quick to release a replacement for the P/R’s, the Pilot Road II. This newer model has a dual compound tread construction. This means that the rubber in the center of the tire is of a harder durometer than that found out near the edges. The result should be better grip when the bike is leaned over with longer mileage when the bike is going straight down the road. I can’t help but wonder if Michelin might have been addressing a known problem with the Pilot Roads’ construction. Probably not but, for what it’s worth, I cannot recommend these tires - at least not as replacements for a heavier bike like my ST1300. Obviously the same tires can exhibit different characteristics on different bike models so it’s entirely possible that these would be fine on something else.
Whatever the reasons, by the time the Michelins had 12,000 miles on them, I had had enough. There was likely another 2 or 3 thousand miles left but I just couldn’t stand the thought of putting up with the vague steering and slippery wet road handling any longer. It was time to try the Avon Storm.
Avon AV55/56 Storm 
I ordered my Avon tires from swmototires.com for $254.90 with free shipping. The tread design on the new Avons is similar to the older AV45/46. The front has the same, familiar triangular profile when viewed with the tire rolling towards you. It has a distinct crown in the middle that I can only assume is responsible for the quicker steering feel that the bike has.
The tires were uncannily easy to mount. The first bead of each went on its respective rim with just hand pressure. I installed these new Avons on February 29th and took a nice afternoon ride on Saturday, March 1st to scuff them in. At this writing, on March 26th, they have about 1700 miles on them. Roughly half of this has been on wet roads. That’s not much of a test for the tread wear but I can state that the performance of these Storms is outstanding so far.
My commute is fun again. Gone is the dread that had accompanied wet road direction changes. Mid-corner pavement irregularities like cracks or tar snakes are no longer cause for concern. These tires just stay where you put ‘em.
It will take me a few months to put enough miles on this set to really give them a test. If they continue to perform the way they do now and the tread life is reasonable, I will likely just continue to buy more of them for every subsequent tire change. If they don’t hold up as well as their predecessors, I may try the Michelin Pilot Road II tires next. I’ll try to keep you posted.
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| I'm a big fan of the BT021, I've been using them for years. The dunlops I had been using before weren't as reliable in the rain or the cold, and required a determined warm up time.
The best prices I've been able to find on mail order tires is at AmericanMotoTire.com I've ordered from them more than once and have had no problems. Also I ended up with the affordable cycle hill tire changer, since paying 'the man' $30 per unmounted change was going to get annoying quickly.
Give us an update on those Avons, since it's been a year now. |
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| Added by Luke on 10 Mar 2009 |
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| Just wanted to say I have a 2006 Yamaha FZ1 that I bought in 2008 (used) it had Michelin Pilot Roads on it (I think they might have come as the OEM tire) and I have done a fair amount on wet weather riding. The only thing I can say is that they seemed fine to me. I'm not one to push it in the rain, however, I did have several hard braking moments and they always brought me to a stop. I also did some twisty road riding in northern Arkansas in a pretty heavy rain and they had good performance. Anyway, I really appreciate your reviews and the way you write them. Thanks |
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| Added by Mark Brown on 28 May 2010 |
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