The Tire For Moving From Touring to Sport Touring
Written: Aug 05 '06 (Updated Jun 15 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Handling, traction, comfort and tread life
Cons: Sensitivity to tire pressure and tread life
The Bottom Line: Handling, traction, comfort and tread life should more than meet the demands and expectations of most sport touring riders
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The Michelin Pilot Road rear tire, as the match for the "Michelin Pilot Road Front", is the sport touring step forward from the Michelin Macadam 100X touring tire. A sport touring tire trades off the durability (tread life) of a touring tire for greater road adhesion (traction).
Definitions:
Motorcycle Touring Riding a motorcycle so as to look at the butterflies as you pass by them.
Motorcycle Sport Touring Riding a motorcycle so as to look through those butterflies.
What are Tires?
Your tires are only a cushion of air that is trapped inside rubber case. The rubber case provides the very few square inches of actual contact area with the pavement. That contact area transmits all of your control inputs from machine to Mother Earth. But in those simple terms, a Bentley Continental is only a car.
Impressions
Literally, what most readers are concerned about are the seat-of-the-pants impressions of real people using these tire. My experience has been that these are excellent handling tires in most all conditions expected on public roads. Comfort and handling are exceptional, and tread life has exceeded by original expectations. For the details as to why these impressions were formed you should wade through the technical background stuff that follows.
Technical (per the Michelin website)
The Michelin Pilot Road rear tire is constructed of a radial structure with two ply at 75°, bound by a longitudinal zero-degree crown ply. This compliant casing promotes comfort, consistent handling under varying loads, and durability. The rubber mix contains 100% silica reinforcing fillers for added grip in wet or cold conditions. Progressively tapered grooves channel water away from the contact patch and semi-slick tread pattern at the shoulder combines wet traction with reassuring feedback on dry roads. The semi-elliptic profile provides progressive, stable handling for both highways and back roads. Variable depth of the tread grooves promotes uniform wear pattern. This tire is part of a matching set with the "Michelin Pilot Road Front" tire.
The Details
Steering: A tire must steer the motorcycle over all road and through all weather conditions. Steering and power inputs were found to be predictably translated, in a stable manner, to the expected trajectory on all encountered “improved” road surfaces. The semi-elliptic profile of the tire allowed for good mix of easy turning while transitioning to stable straight line riding. That means that I was always able to aim the motorcycle where I intended, as long as the intended path was over a surface most people would define as a road, and the weather conditions were at least considered survivable.
Radial Construction: In a radial tire the carcass plies lie perpendicular to the direction of rotation (90 degrees), with additional cross-plies on top and/or a crown ply at 0 degrees. A radial tire is made up of fewer components than a bias-ply tire. This makes it lighter, and offers improved handling. Also with fewer components, there is less internal friction and reduced operating temperature at high speeds. With a radial tire, designers can use more aggressive tread compounds that combine durability and grip. But, radial tires should only be mounted on rims designed to “lock” the tire in the case of a blow out, and with complementary suspension designs. If you do not have the engineering expertise to figure out if you can use radial tires on your motorcycle, dig out and check that owners manual you did not read when you first bought your bike.
Load Carrying: Motorcycle tires have to support the fully loaded bike, both at a standstill and while moving. Even when I came close to maximizing the gross weight of my BMW R1150RT, there never was a time when the stability of motorcycle was in question. Potholes and speed bumps were always kept at a safe distance from those expensive to replace rims.
Shock Absorbing: Linked to load carrying, the tire’s ability to not transmit shocks to the rider can make the difference between a 30 and a 600 mile day. Like the “ride” comments usually attached to automobile tires, a motorcycle tire is an important component in the overall comfort of the rider. The Pilot Roads enhanced the confident, relaxed, comfort of an already comfortable motorcycle over a multitude of harsh road surfaces.
Rolling Efficiency: I am sure there is some technical definition for this, but to me it translates into the ability of the tire to provide a feeling of control and to return steady, progressive wear. On this I rate these tires very high. As long as the tires were properly inflated, there was always a feeling of confident control.
Mechanical Grip: Now this is the fun part that makes motorcycle riding different from a sitting in a center seat on a budget airline. This one is a function of the formula (mix) of the rubber. Sometimes referred to as traction, the ability of those few square inches of contact patch to grip the road surface is what allows one to move from “touring” to “sport touring.” Here is where I was able to confidently lean the motorcycle over at the “exciting” angles and envision myself gliding through the switchbacks like the guys on cable television! Road surface conditions running from standing water to rain grooved pavement were handled with confidence. While not a true “race” tire, the Pilot Road returns all the traction necessary for transitioning from “super slab” Interstate highways to foot peg-dragging mountain roads. Yes, looking through those “sport touring” butterflies!
Tire Wear: I will always trade off a bit more tire life for a bit more traction. To me it is a safety margin thing. So even when I had heard reports of very high mileage from other riders on Pilot Roads, I have been impressed with my own experience. I believe that they should return between 12,000 and 16,000 fully capable miles to all but the most irresponsible riders.
Quality, On Balance: Since I am neither a scientist nor an engineer, I can only come up with a couple of ways to judge tire quality. One way is their ability to do all those detail things I mentioned, and the other is even more subjective. A tire should be of uniform material consistency all around its circumference. Because of this, I believe that any tire should be able to be balanced with a minimum of weights. I judge quality of manufacture by the amount of weight necessary for an acceptable balance. Count the number of weights stuck to your motorcycle rims or spokes and you have just applied my “quality manufacture” quotient. My Pilot Roads required the least amount of balance weight of any others in my recent memory.
Tire Pressure: A word about that cushion of air. I was surprised at how sensitive these tires are to air pressure. A difference of even a single “psi” translates into immediate differences in grip, low and high speed handling, and even tire wear! I strongly recommend using the motorcycle’s manufacturer’s recommend tire pressure and experimenting one or two psi up or down to find your optimum pressure. Lower will equal cushy but sluggish handling, harder will equal harsher (quicker) handling. I have also heard reports that running either the maximum or minimum (as stated on the tire’s sidewall) pressures leads to dramatically reduced tread life. Hopefully, a word to the wise will be sufficient.
What Did All This Mean?
I believe the Michelin Pilot Road Rear tire is a great offering for the sport touring motorcyclist. Handling, traction, comfort and tread life should more than meet the demands and expectations of most sport touring riders. Putting my money where my mouth is, I have just ordered another set!
Recommended:
Yes
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