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favorite sport touring tire?

I've been using Conti-Road Attacks on my big ole heavy BMW for a while now. They don't square much while commuting/touring, seem to last a bit longer than the other tires I've used, and offer some pretty good wet road traction. They turn in nicely without "falling in" too.
 
Pirelli Diablo Strada

- Heats up quick
- Good feedback, yet complaint enough to smooth the ride out
- Medium Aggressive profile keeps the bike feeling nimble

The Dunlops I've used wear too quickly.
The Michelins and Bridgestones had a flatter profile for slower steering, with a harder carcass resulting in a rougher ride. I didn't have the same confidence in them, and the bike didn't feel as fun.
The Metzeler is supposed to be very similar to the Pirelli in its handling characteristics.

If you're into Sport touring with an emphasis on Sport, the Pirellis or the Metzelers might very well be the way to go.
 
boney said:
I've been using Conti-Road Attacks on my big ole heavy BMW for a while now. They don't square much while commuting/touring, seem to last a bit longer than the other tires I've used, and offer some pretty good wet road traction. They turn in nicely without "falling in" too.
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I have Conti Trail Attacks on my V-Strom 650, first Contis I've ever used and I'm impressed. So far they have 8,000 miles on them and are wearing well.
 
I've tried everything I can find to fit my Tiger, 19" front, and the Conti Trail Attacks are my favorite. Long wearing, sticky in dry or wet, don't square off as much as the others.
 
I'm loving the Avon Storms on my Trophy.

Full out assault mode from Mt. Hamilton to Lake Berryessa to 175/253, banging centerstand into tarmac chasing 600RR's sticking power.
 
Just switched from Continental ContiForce to Dunlop RoadSmarts. So far I'm loving them. Most noticable is the ride quality, not so harsh anymore
 
Metzler Z6's on the VFR. I've done everything from a C-group trackday to a ride to Montana with them, with a fair bit of confidence. Longevity vs. performace ratio satisfies me, and the wet grip is great.
 
AndyM said:
I've tried everything I can find to fit my Tiger, 19" front, and the Conti Trail Attacks are my favorite. Long wearing, sticky in dry or wet, don't square off as much as the others.
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The Trail Attack is a great tire, but I'm gonna try the Bridgestone Battle Wing next, then probably the Metzeler Z6 after that. I'm doing so many commute miles lately that I've decided to be my own official tire tester by constantly switching brands. :laughing

The sport-touring tires of today really boggle my mind...the tires offer an amazing balance of grip and longevity. :thumbup
 
Zerox said:
The Trail Attack is a great tire, but I'm gonna try the Bridgestone Battle Wing next,
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I tried a couple of sets of the battlewings. They were ok but squared off really fast. I've got a set of TrailWings on now because that was all they had in stock that day. so far, so good, but I'm going back to the Conti's after these.
 
AndyM said:
I tried a couple of sets of the battlewings. They were ok but squared off really fast. I've got a set of TrailWings on now because that was all they had in stock that day. so far, so good, but I'm going back to the Conti's after these.
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I actually liked the OEM Trail Wings a lot, they are good tires. Got 10,000 miles out of those. The Conti Trail Attacks have a more pointy front tire that causes deceleration wobbles on my DL650 if I take your hands off the bars, so my solution for that is to not take my hands off the bars. :laughing

The upside to a more pointy front tire is the bike steers super quick and nimble.

My Trail Attacks are flat-spotted after 8k of freeway commuting but they still feel pretty good. With 3-feet-wide handlebars, I have plenty of leverage to overcome flat-spotted tires. :p

The Battle Wings look like the best bang-for-buck tire out there. They were only $207 delivered to my door.
 
I love the Michelin Pilot Road 2, but run a regular Pilot power up front with them
Wasn't a fan of the Pirelli Diablo Stradas.... good tire and all but I felt it was a much larger gap from the sport tires than the sport touring tires from Michelin and BStone
The BT021 was good, but didn't get quite the mileage as with the Pirellis or Michelins

I always run a regular sport tire up front though
 
AndyTheMofo said:
I love the Michelin Pilot Road 2, but run a regular Pilot power up front with them - GREAT IDEA!!Wasn't a fan of the Pirelli Diablo Stradas.... good tire and all but I felt it was a much larger gap from the sport tires than the sport touring tires from Michelin and BStone
The BT021 was good, but didn't get quite the mileage as with the Pirellis or Michelins

I always run a regular sport tire up front though
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:thumbup:thumbup
 
My #1 criteria has been mileage, cornering #2. My skills aren't such that I challenge the corning aspects of a tire, so it's been mostly mileage. Best I've gotten are on the Z6's, with the Diablo Strada's right behind. Thing is, with 12k on two sets of Z6's, I figured they were the best for my bike and my riding. Then I took a fresh set to Texas last year (Hill Country) and pretty much had a grand time keeping up with everyone else. However, the roads there really are cheese graters, and at 8k, the Z6's were toast. I've got Pilot Road 2's on now, but no idea how long they'll last without the Texas pavement tossed in. The original Pilot Roads I tried (2 sets) were finished at almost 10k

I've had Metzeler M3's on a couple of times, and they were good for 6k each time. Got them for track school, so I still don't know if the Z6's will slide if I push them...
 
Another vote for Pilot Road 2's. I've run the original Pilot Roads, Z6's, and Diablo Stradas. Like the feel of the PR2's best of all, though the Diablos were good too, but they just didn't last for me. Lots of good mag reviews on the Dunlop Road Smarts.

Got 7500 miles out of my first set of PR2's. The Diablos were toast after about 5K. The Z6's had good life, but I don't remember the mileage exactly.
 
Dunlop Roadsmarts, just so happened they took 1st in a recent road tour tire test.

I like them!

Michael
 
I might have found the best ST tire so far. Shinko 005 Advanced rear tire. This Winter it has excellent wet grip as good as the BT020 and Diablos. It wearing nicely with mostly straight up riding. Even though it's similar to the BT020 with deep treads. Its not having the squaring problem. Contribute it to the flatter tire profile.
Compare the Diablo Supersport profile to the Shinko 005 profile.
Diablo
PR_DiabloSSPair.jpg

Shinko
18995_1.jpg

The Diablo's naturally lean into a turn. The Shinko takes more rider throwing weight into it. It takes more work to get through the twisties. Lean grip is real nice.
The flat profile means more surface area contact, less concentrated wear. So its not squaring like higher profile tires.
A bonus is the tires are less expensive. Its a high quality tire. I think Shinko is new and still breaking into the market.
 
I've used the Dunlop Roadsmarts and they feel great. Decent wet traction, linear turn in, and I'm just now on the wear bars at 10,300 miles.

However I started with a Qualifier front and wore that out before I put a Roadsmar front on. Seems the front is wearing about twice as fast as the rear.
 
Just got some Roadsmarts about a month ago.
Lookin forward to that 10,000+miles I'll get out of them.

So far they handle great in turns and in the wet.
 
I've run Avon Storms, Michelin Pilot Road 2s, Dunlop RoadSmarts, and Metzler M3s. To be honest, all of them have been great tires. My favorite so far has been the Avon Storm: they seem to last well and retain good traction and handling characteristics as they wear out -- I've ridden the storms harder than any other set of sport touring tires. But the difference between them and the other tires hasn't been huge.

IMO: The best bet is to try out different brands until you find something that works well for you, and your bike. There are a huge number of factors that play into the way your motorcycle handles, and the right set of tires can compensate for a bad chassis characteristic, or compliment good characteristics. Likewise, different people have different preferences and expectations of their rubber.

If you don't explore a little, you'll never know what you're missing.

Edit: I meant to say Metzler Z6. I've also used the M3, however that is a sport tire. NoGall's post reminded me. Thanks.
 
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