Tire Opinion ~ Looking for a good street tires that will do 1 or 2 track days a year | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Tire Opinion ~ Looking for a good street tires that will do 1 or 2 track days a year

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Brian P said:
Bridgestone S20 - haven't tried. Didn't like their predecessor (BT016). Really like the BT003RS. I have those on my cbr125 now, around 7000 km on them including a Pennsylvania trip, still quite a bit left.
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The S20 is just like the BT-003RS but with more life. Used them on the SV650 and preferred them to the BT003RS. They slide around at a good track pace but very manageable.

I haven't tried the Q3 but have heard good things. I rode some Q2s and they were good until you got near the limit, where I found them to step out quickly when you got on the gas out of a corner. Damn near highsided with them.

If the press coverage on the Q3 is to be believed you can ride them serious fast in the wet.

Pilot Powers are a good all rounder. Probably the best in the wet/rain.
 
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Rory, I have an S2 front and a Q3 rear on my cbr600 right now. Best of both worlds I guess. Had them on all season last year and I ride from Milton to Waterloo rain or shine. No issues with warm up with either of these tires and no issues in the wet.
 
I have been running pilot power 3,s. They grip like hypersport tires but last like sport touring tires.
 
twostroke said:
I have been running pilot power 3,s. They grip like hypersport tires but last like sport touring tires.
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At an intermediate pace, I'd expect those tires to turn into wet poo. Perhaps I'm wrong...
 
Metzeler. I have used Sportec m5 in red group. Awesome street tire ok on track. And racetec k3. Good on track, not as many kms on the street. Racetec come stock on s1000rr and rsv4.
 
Shaman said:
At an intermediate pace, I'd expect those tires to turn into wet poo. Perhaps I'm wrong...
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No, they will not. At least not that I would notice on someone in the group running them fairly quickly at the Gap without any complain, as well track days up here. What makes you think that they would.
 
Shaman said:
Re: BT016 mentioned above... ugh. I had a set of BT015s on my 750 and then BT016s. We're well rid of those tires.
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We agree. I think the BT016 is by far the worst tire I've ever run. Ever. Longevity sucked. Traction and heat up time sucked. I even tried a second set thinking there's no way they're that bad and I just got a weird set. I'll never even look at them again.
 
N3WMAN said:
If the press coverage on the Q3 is to be believed you can ride them serious fast in the wet.
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Let's just say that I would not call them confidence inspiring ... I don't think it's so much the water, but rather the cooling effect of it and this leading to the tire hardly ever getting close to operating temperature. Ontario summer is OK, but once you get into before and after riding season .... you will notice the lower traction soon ... on most bikes.

Mark loves PP3 on his CBR600 and I don't blame him. It seems that the Michelin gives much wider window where good traction is provided .... or Mark is a magician ... LOL
 
mxs said:
No, they will not. At least not that I would notice on someone in the group running them fairly quickly at the Gap without any complain, as well track days up here. What makes you think that they would.
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The Gap is not a race track, no matter how fast some people think they are (though I've seen some quick riders, for sure). As for those running them at track days up here... novice or intermediate? It really matters.

That being said, I had the "power 3" confused with the "road 3" and so you could be right, they may work just fine. That being said, I was totally stoked about the original Power specs when they were new and it turned out to be worse in its own way than the BT-016s were. At least the 16s were consistently crap, whereas the Powers would work right up until you got to about 8/10ths and then start to flex so bad that you would get shimmies leaving corners at full throttle... maybe they've fixed that, but I'll never know as my initial experiences with them turned me off Michelin street tires. The other issue I had with the Powers was that they required major commitment in corners - all corners, even casually riding around town. I couldn't wait to get them off my GSX-R and my Tuono, which both exhibited the issues... but then they lasted for 7000km. At least there was that, I suppose.
 
Shaman said:
The Gap is not a race track, no matter how fast some people think they are (though I've seen some quick riders, for sure). As for those running them at track days up here... novice or intermediate? It really matters.

That being said, I had the "power 3" confused with the "road 3" and so you could be right, they may work just fine. That being said, I was totally stoked about the original Power specs when they were new and it turned out to be worse in its own way than the BT-016s were. At least the 16s were consistently crap, whereas the Powers would work right up until you got to about 8/10ths and then start to flex so bad that you would get shimmies leaving corners at full throttle... maybe they've fixed that, but I'll never know as my initial experiences with them turned me off Michelin street tires. The other issue I had with the Powers was that they required major commitment in corners - all corners, even casually riding around town. I couldn't wait to get them off my GSX-R and my Tuono, which both exhibited the issues... but then they lasted for 7000km. At least there was that, I suppose.
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Interestng observation... I have used Pilot Power 2CT's and the Pilot Power Pure for street (and 1 track day each) and had no experienced what you had.
 
I can tell you this, switching to Q2s fixed both bikes. No other changes. Q2s aren't a perfect tire but they worked a lot better FOR ME. When it comes to tire feel, it's definitely subjective. However, objectively, the Q2s also fixed the rear tire flexing so much that it caused shimmying. When I reported it on gixxer.com, a whole host of people chimed in and said they'd felt the same thing. That might be a 170hp+ bike issue, as it wasn't nearly as prominent on the Tuono.

FWIW, my friend bought that GSXR from me and has switched to Supercorsas on a spare set of wheels for the track, and reports the same as I did, they're just a grippier track tire than the Q3 but he appreciated the quick steering feel of the Q3's stiff sidewalls. Now that I think about it, my friends Jim (ZX6R/GSXR600) and Jay (GSXR750) are also going back to Supercorsas for the track (or possibly Rosso Corsa for Jay) as they were running intermediate pace last year and tried out both tires but preferred the Supercorsas. It's notable because both have a fairly strict budget and the Supercorsas are considerably more expensive.

On a completely irrelevant and unrelated topic: that motor Scott Miller built for me in 2010 has almost 40K on it since the rebuild and is still running strong. Valves were checked this year and were still in spec. despite being at about six track days and two crashes (both on track, heh)
 
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One thing that is something of a headache in these tire threads is that what works on one bike might not work on another, and no one has the same riding conditions. A friend of mine bought some tires for his 2000 R1 years ago, which he found made the bike twitchy and unstable. For the life of me, I can't remember what they were, but knowing who this person was, it would have been Dunlop something-or-other. He very quickly bought something different, I took the tires from him and put them on my ZX9R, where they worked fine and I had no complaints.

I used BT016 on my FZR400 when it still had the 18" rear wheel, mostly due to lack of anything else being available in a size that would fit (and even then, they weren't really the right size). They worked OK on that bike. But they turned my ZX10R into a heavy-steering, bump-impact-transmitting tank.

Q3, no complaints on either bike. BT003RS work great on my cbr125 at Deals Gap and they seem to last, but that bike weighs next to nothing.

Also, I have tried Metzelers ... M5 (IIRC) on a rental BMW F800ST in Europe. Flogged them through the Alps and they never did wrong.

Track conditions tend to make tires designed for sport-touring overheat.
 
I had the q3s last season then changed over to the corsas I don't think ill go back in turn they seem to really have some great grip
 
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That's a good find. I have yet to figure out Pirelli's model code gobbledygook, too many Corsa and Super and Diablo and Rosso and Pro terms mixed randomly together; I know the Pirellis that I tried were Corsa Rosso - not sure how those relate to the ones they tested - but the Corsa Rosso's wear out fast. Beyond that ... Q3 good, S20 good. The Continentals are a surprise. I've only ever experienced Continentals on cars/trucks, and they have been without exception, the worst hockey pucks you can possibly imagine. Terrible ride, not much grip, and they last infuriatingly forever. Infuriating, because I wanted to get rid of them long before they actually wore out.
 
Yep. I have Conti "sport" tires on my S4. Can't wait until they wear out... they tramline so bad... grip isn't terrible but I hate fighting the wheel over major cracks in the road.
 
Metzler Sportec M5's. Amazing tyres, especially in the rain.
 
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