Any personal reviews on the Dunlop Sportmax Q3 plus? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Any personal reviews on the Dunlop Sportmax Q3 plus?

Dr.Manhattan

Dr.Manhattan

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Wondering if anyone has any other firsthand experience with these tyres and what they think of them. I have 800kms on mine so far, but every single ride it's a coin flip to how well they work for me. More than anything they just seem to be a little wobbly or slide around at the rear. Other times they perform perfectly and grip really well.

For instance I rode yesterday and they performed like normal. Today I go for a ride and I'm noticing even in a straight line they seem to be sliding a bit, and I'm feeling the pavement chewing them up, but it's the exact same roads and near identical weather conditions.

I've always bought Diablo Corsas but heard good things from these. Anyone else have mixed feelings on these?
 
Amazing tires, the grip for the life is unmatched from what I've seen. I got over 11,000km on my last rear on a 600 and that's with no wire showing of course (but was very worn...). I keep buying them and having a hard time justifying anything else. Don't get them if you only ride straight lines. I do think they take a bit to get warm.
 
Priller said:
Are you checking your pressures? Some tires feel radically different with just a few
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Thought the same when I got home from the ride. At work now but I'm going to check that tomorrow.

Good reviews above, thanks guys. I've heard from other riders they are amazing. I ride quite spirited but havent had the confidence to really lay it over yet with these on due to the weird issues I've felt. Could very well be the tyre pressure.
 
I believe Dunlop recommends 32f/30r psi cold for the 600cc sizes.

Recommended pressures can be found at https://www.dunlopracing.com/product/track-day/, although these might be more race/track oriented. Note that different tire sizes have different recommendations.

For example, Dunlop recommends as low as 20psi cold in the 140 & 150 sized rears for the CSBK lightweight class (300cc, etc). I mistakenly used 30psi for my first outing on a new-to-me 300cc track bike and it was noticeably squirmy.
 
Ash said:
I believe Dunlop recommends 32f/30r psi cold for the 600cc sizes.

Recommended pressures can be found at https://www.dunlopracing.com/product/track-day/, although these might be more race/track oriented. Note that different tire sizes have different recommendations.

For example, Dunlop recommends as low as 20psi cold in the 140 & 150 sized rears for the CSBK lightweight class (300cc, etc). I mistakenly used 30psi for my first outing on a new-to-me 300cc track bike and it was noticeably squirmy.
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Thanks for this. They are on a 2010 Hayabusa so I'll check out the numbers tomorrow morning.
 
Running them on a CBR650 for about 6k now, mixed riding straight cruising and spirited curves when I can find them. I'm not too worried about mileage so far, rear seems to be holding up well.

I'm running the stock Honda recommended pressures 36f 42r. I didn't find dropping them even 3 or 4 psi helped any, on occasion actually less stable. A few times I felt the front give out briefly mid-turn, but in retrospect it was surely slick surface + cold tire. Agree they may take a bit to warm up, give them an extra 5 minutes beyond when you think they're good.

Not too much wet riding but I don't expect any miracles from the minimal siping they have.
 
I'm about to throw a set on a DRZ400SM that I'm going to track. Can't wait to try them out...
 
Q3+ are excellent tires. I've raced on them.

But ... you are using them on a heavier bike. The pressure recommendations for a lighter bike might not work for you - I would guess slightly higher. Check internet forums specific to that bike ... it's certain that someone before you has tried them.

What sizes do you have installed? What's the OEM tire sizes?

Dunlop sport tires tend to have a triangular profile that leads to quick turn-in, possibly at a sacrifice of straight-line stability. I typically want the bike to turn, and deal with the stability later.
 
Dr.Manhattan said:
Wondering if anyone has any other firsthand experience with these tyres and what they think of them. I have 800kms on mine so far, but every single ride it's a coin flip to how well they work for me. More than anything they just seem to be a little wobbly or slide around at the rear. Other times they perform perfectly and grip really well.

For instance I rode yesterday and they performed like normal. Today I go for a ride and I'm noticing even in a straight line they seem to be sliding a bit, and I'm feeling the pavement chewing them up, but it's the exact same roads and near identical weather conditions.

I've always bought Diablo Corsas but heard good things from these. Anyone else have mixed feelings on these?
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The Q3+ is an amazing tire.
I know people who have raced on them. Others use them for everything to low-end red group pace at track days.

I've ran them several times and never had an issue.

I'm guessing, as others have said, it's a tire pressure issue. 32/30 for some serious sport riding.
 
I have them on my Tuono and just finished a track day at Grand Bend. Tires performed flawlessly, excellent grip and good feedback. Pace was mid yellow group for most of the day with a couple of quicker laps peppered in.
I’ve also used these same tires for about 1,500 kms of street riding before the track day. Zero issues so far.

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Katatonic said:
I have them on my Tuono and just finished a track day at Grand Bend. Tires performed flawlessly, excellent grip and good feedback. Pace was mid yellow group for most of the day with a couple of quicker laps peppered in.
I’ve also used these same tires for about 1,500 kms of street riding before the track day. Zero issues so far.
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Thinking upper yellow by the lunch break.
I was running the Bridgestone RS10, and didn't have any issues either.
I wouldn't recommend the RS10 for regular street use here in Ontario though. Friend of mine destroyed a brand new set (to the point of almost zero rain sipes, looking like a slick after a week of riding down at the Dragon and surrounding area.
 
The rear turns a little slow and is sensitive to pressure, so use something close to suggested pressure on the road.

On track, these are a great race tire for a lightweight bike. They're very capable but wear quite quickly.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. Finally got around to testing the psi. According to Dunlop for a Hayabusa 42 psi is recommended for both front and back. I checked my back tire and I was sitting at 30 psi and only 25 psi at the front. Pretty surprising I didnt check earlier but have just been so busy and have been jumping on the bike when I have a few spare hours.

Got both front and back to 42 psi and took it for a quick spin. Pretty windy day today but it did feel more stable. Felt it much more in the corners - very stable, more responsive and could feel the control. Looking forward to a longer ride next week.
 
Genuine question to those tracking:
Why run the Q3+ instead of the similarly profiled but more track constructed Q4? Sacrificing a little grip to eke out a few laps?
 
The Q4 is a track day tire. Q3+ is street and track. You will burn up a Q4 quickly on the street. Interesting. I ran the Q3 on my 05 gsxr1000 after using the D211 for the street (slick with sipes) and they were great especially for the money. Equally good grip. Then when I bought my 17 Tuono I replaced the pirellis with the Q3 and had alot of issues with slippage. I have gone back to the Pirellis now. The Q3 is not available in the 200 series that the Tuono uses so not sure if that was the issue. I have another friend who put the Q3 on his 02 gsxr1000 and claimed he had a lot of slippage also. So I have heard good and bad about them.
 
Opinions requested... The current Q3+ that I have mounted on the rear of my Ninja 300 track bike was an unmounted take-off from the bike's previous owner. I mounted it, and after a day at Shannonville yesterday it developed distinct circumferential ridges/grooves, approximately where the two rubber compounds meet. The ridges/grooves are present on both sides of the tire and go completely around the circumference. The ridges on the right are more distinct, probably due to additional wear. Pressures were in the 24/26psi range (hot).

I'm mildly suspicious of the tire to begin with, because the previous owner said that they took it off after a single session at Calabogie after noticing unusual wear on the right side, approximately where the ridges have formed. That wear didn't appear especially unusual to me, but that's not saying much.

For reference, the Q3+ that was on the bike when I got it wore "normally" all the way down to the wear bars, but it had somewhat more wear on it to begin with. Pics of both are attached.
 

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@Ash -- looking at those pics, and adding your 24-26psi hot temps, it's definitely possible you're hot tearing the tire. Dunlop recommends 26psi hot for your bike. It could very well be that when you were running 24's hot, you were hot tearing the tire. I pretty much destroyed half the life of a Pirelli SC4 in 1 session by having it overinflated by 1.5psi (cold tearing). So, if you're 2 psi low, it's possible

Check out the Dunlop site here for factory recommended pressures.
 
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The tire worked great, it's just that the circumferential grooves seemed really weird and didn't match any of the usual wear patterns that I've seen discussed on the interweb. For now, I've swapped out the grooved one for a brand new rear and I'll see how it wears.

In 2018, CSBK was recommending 20psi cold / 24psi hot in the rear for the lightweight class (see minute 2:23 here), but I'm not going anywhere near as hard as those guys. Those pressures worked okay for me last year on the previous tire.

I was aware of the Dunlop site recommendations and I was basically aiming to split the difference between the site and the CSBK recommendations. I probably will up the pressure a bit and see how that goes on the new tire. Using an uncalibrated pressure guage means it's possible that my numbers are off by a couple of psi in either direction to begin with.
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