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Tomahawk Tire Test Two

Leonard

Leonard

Active member
Joined
Sep 24, 2002
Location
The Truckee River
Moto(s)
2000 Ducati ST4
Name
Michael
Tomahawk has come out with a new version of their street sport tires called the T3 tread pattern. I tried the T1 tires last year and posted about them. I have run the T3's for a few hundred miles now and have a pretty good feel for them. They are much quicker turning than the T1 tires and feel pretty good. The T1 tires were slow turning and took a fair amount of input. The T3 tires feel normal. They turn easily and track well. They are not as quick as the 207's that I took off, though. They took about 50 miles to get grippy the first time. Now they take a few miles to warm up and traction is good. I will see how much life I get out of them.
 
Here is what the front tire looks like.

1872674-t004.jpg
 
kevo said:
Have you tried them on your TZ?
Click to expand...

Very funny. :laughing

The TZ seems to like slicks just fine.

Not sure that the Tomahawks are for the track.

They are pretty good on the street though.
 
I had mixed results with Tomahawk. I ran several sets of slicks on my SV and got two bad tires, both fronts. One was a total POS molded in waves and the front end hopping in T3 at Thill really PISSED ME OFF!
 
afm199 said:
I had mixed results with Tomahawk. I ran several sets of slicks on my SV and got two bad tires, both fronts. One was a total POS molded in waves and the front end hopping in T3 at Thill really PISSED ME OFF!
Click to expand...

I think the T3s are better. I heard they are made on new moulds. I know they had problems with the T1 moulds and some tires were not true. Don't know about the T2s, which are the track tires and the slicks. I never tried those.
 
Don't you think new tires are worth the $? The Tomahawks are still not cheap. Best idea is to use an ST tire, yuk yuk.
I'm still waiting for the tire manufacturers to make dual compound tires, like they do for GP racing (Laguna Seca, just wanted to add that). They've been making bicycle tires for years with a hard strip down the middle and soft shoulders. Or do they just want us to buy lots of rear tires? I know I do...

But I'm sure you guys are much smarter than me, better looking and faster. And definitely richer.
 
velowood said:
Don't you think new tires are worth the $? The Tomahawks are still not cheap. Best idea is to use an ST tire, yuk yuk...
Click to expand...

The colored Tomahawks are not so cheap at $139 for a front and $199 for a rear. The colored tires are the older T1 design as well. The black sport tires are cheap at $69 for a front and $79 for a rear. The black sport tires give better traction than an ST tire and the new T3 design handles about as good as other sport tires that I have tried. Once they are fully warm the sport T3 tires are quite sticky. ST tires that I have tired have been a bit slippy. Since the T3 sport tires are good enough for street sport riding I don't really see a reason to pay $100 to $150 more for a set of tires. The Tomahawks last pretty long as well. Many of the soft sport tires are overkill for the street and they wear fast. The track may be a different matter. I haven't tried the Tomahawks there.
 
I am going to be ordering a set here pretty soon myself for the RR. Anyone ever bought a "blemished" tire?
 
:cool

Thx for the info Leonard! Might give these a whirl in the future.

:thumbup
 
Would these tires be good enough for track days (not serious track riding)?
 
Sidewalk said:
Would these tires be good enough for track days (not serious track riding)?
Click to expand...

Not sure. They are reasonably sticky. They might be okay. I have not tried them. I guess it all depends on how fast you go. They are sport tires, not race tires.
 
I might be doing my first track day soon after getting a new set of tires, which is why I ask. This will be my first track day.
 
Sidewalk said:
I might be doing my first track day soon after getting a new set of tires, which is why I ask. This will be my first track day.
Click to expand...

When the Tomahawks are scuffed in and heated up I think they should be fine for a first track day. There are a couple of things to consider though. I believe that these tires use mold release. They took about 50 miles to get scuffed in. Other tires that I have used that don't use mold release scuffed in about two turns. Also the Tomahawks took about ten miles on a warm day to get fully warmed up. They were pretty slippy before they were scuffed. They were okay when not fully warm. They were pretty good when hot. Considering that tires scuff and warm faster at the track based on my experience with other tires at the track I would guess that these would take about one to two sessions to fully scuff and would take two to four laps to fully heat. That would be about twice what softer sport tires would take. In any case with any new tires you want to pay attention to what is going on.
 
I am sure I will have them scuffed in long before I ever get to the track. On a slow week I will only get about 200 miles on the odometer :D

Warm up should be a problem, I will be going easy anyway since it will be my first track day. But I will keep in mind about the longer warm up time.
 
I just put another set of these on the bike. I got about 3,300 miles on the last set. A couple of trips across the central valley wore down the middle of the back tire and it didn't last as long as I thought it might. We will see how long this set lasts. They performed as I mentioned in the other posts. Nothing new to report besides the mileage.
 
velowood said:
Don't you think new tires are worth the $? The Tomahawks are still not cheap. Best idea is to use an ST tire, yuk yuk.
I'm still waiting for the tire manufacturers to make dual compound tires, like they do for GP racing (Laguna Seca, just wanted to add that). They've been making bicycle tires for years with a hard strip down the middle and soft shoulders. Or do they just want us to buy lots of rear tires? I know I do...

But I'm sure you guys are much smarter than me, better looking and faster. And definitely richer.
Click to expand...

Where ya been man. Look at Bridgestone, they have been making dual compound tires for years. I believe Dunlop has one also. Metzeler makes one too. Almost all the manufacturers involved in racing make a dual compound tire, wether its harder in the middle portion, or different compound side to side, like Daytona requires. Metzeler ME55 comes to mind, as do almost any Bridgestone Battlax for the street. Notice I did not include tires intended for the track. I'm not sure if anyone offers a dual compound track tire for us "regular folk".
 
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