touring tires and rider abilty...

Id like to know if a sport touring tire is good enough for most street riders even if they want to push their bikes. Is it better to have a sticky tire lets say if you're not an experienced aggressive rider? Could it be more forgiving meaning safer when hitting some twisties? Or would a sport touring tire be sticky enough for any street rider? A noob must feel confident when attempting to push his or her machine. I really want to trust my tires will stick when I fly into that turn. Who has pushed the sport touring tire to the limits?

yeah i would also like to know that.. im up for a new rear tire.. not sure yet what to get.. i currently have a 17 55 180 on there.. any suggestions ??

try a 190/55/17

i would like to try something like the pilot road 2 if it'd be safe to still experiment with aggressive riding but no 190/55/17 :(

I think you will find any modern Sport/Touring tire to offer plenty of grip for the average street rider. Plus, offer very good wear mileage.

I have the dunlop d220 200 on the back it works well for me

I'm with Skeeter on this. I have run a set of D220s on both my FZR1000 and my R1. They have plenty of traction for occasional spirited riding, and offer great mileage. I would not take them to the track, but Sport Rider did a couple years ago and had no major incidents.

Id like to know if a sport touring tire is good enough for most street riders even if they want to push their bikes. Is it better to have a sticky tire lets say if you're not an experienced aggressive rider? Could it be more forgiving meaning safer when hitting some twisties? Or would a sport touring tire be sticky enough for any street rider? A noob must feel confident when attempting to push his or her machine. I really want to trust my tires will stick when I fly into that turn. Who has pushed the sport touring tire to the limits? any more thoughts????

i'm running the bt021's and man they stick pretty go for me.. i use the bike mainly for commuting and go to the canyons on the weekends.. and stick good enough for me. and they last long too.. had the bt020 and lasted 10,000 miles before i put the 021's.. give a try.. joel

I ran Bridgestone BT 020's on my FZR 1000 and R1 in the past and had no issues, I could scrub 'em to the edges and they stuck and lasted a long time too. Good compromise tyre choice I'd say.

I'm currently running a Metzler sportec front and roadtec rear... Seems pretty balanced, and no worries getting it leant all the way over on track either.. Very happy with this set up, although I haven't tried any other tyres on my R1 yet!

I'll tell you a couple of quotes I've heard from some knowledgeable (and fast) riders. I live by these premises, and they are accurate not only in regard to rubber compound, but also regarding worn tires. Do I abide by them 100% of the time? No. BUT they are good to keep in mind. "The only thing between you and bustin' your tail is your tires." "You don't want to get on a good road and be wonderin' if your tires are gonna hold." Now, a good rider can adjust his style to different tires, hanging off more to keep lean angle in reserve, and being a little more conservative with throttle/steering/braking inputs. But if you're regularly riding on the street at 7/10s or 8/10s, then I'd recommend biting the bullet and spending the cash for the pure sport tires.

I have pilot road 2 rear tire on my 05 r1... I've carved up some twisities going pretty dang fast.. I think I hit some turns 120mph if not more range and they held up pretty good. the rear tire feels soooo much more stickier than my diablo I had on there. I have close to 4,000 miles on it and it looks brand new. When you put it on it is going to seem like a monster 4x4 tire because the water channels are atleast twice as deep per say as my roomates qualifier. get a PR2 and you will be satisfied with handling and to top it off you will love the grip in the rain.. I commute on my bike and I can wheelie in the rain lol :p

I have pilot road 2 rear tire on my 05 r1... I've carved up some twisities going pretty dang fast.. I think I hit some turns 120mph if not more range and they held up pretty good. the rear tire feels soooo much more stickier than my diablo I had on there. I have close to 4,000 miles on it and it looks brand new. When you put it on it is going to seem like a monster 4x4 tire because the water channels are atleast twice as deep per say as my roomates qualifier. get a PR2 and you will be satisfied with handling and to top it off you will love the grip in the rain.. I commute on my bike and I can wheelie in the rain lol :p I've heard some very fast guys comment that the PP is probably the best rain tire on the market. I have no doubt that the PR & PR2CT are also very good.

I'll tell you a couple of quotes I've heard from some knowledgeable (and fast) riders. I live by these premises, and they are accurate not only in regard to rubber compound, but also regarding worn tires. Do I abide by them 100% of the time? No. BUT they are good to keep in mind. "The only thing between you and bustin' your tail is your tires." "You don't want to get on a good road and be wonderin' if your tires are gonna hold." Now, a good rider can adjust his style to different tires, hanging off more to keep lean angle in reserve, and being a little more conservative with throttle/steering/braking inputs. But if you're regularly riding on the street at 7/10s or 8/10s, then I'd recommend biting the bullet and spending the cash for the pure sport tires. I'd have to disagree here. Most riders I encounter would do just fine on a Z rated sport touring tire. We blame too much on tires. Some of us have not had our suspensions set up properly, and we blame the tire (yes, a tire will make up for an ill suspension... it's the contact); others blame bad conditions on tires: I had a friend swear off Dunlop because he low sided his bike (spun out the back tire) on a 40 degree day when the sun was just rising within 2 minutes of leaving his house. Put the best tires in the world on the machine and neglect your suspension. You may mask other conditions. Balance is the key. Balance in the machine, and in your mind. Know your abilities, know your gear, and don't focus on making just one thing better (ie all of us who go for all the power goodies and then think we can compensate by buying "better" tires). Magazines have done comparisons using racers and came up with small differences. USING RACERS. I'm no where near that good. Maybe we should all think about that and get our suspensions set for our weight and use tires for traction instead of everything. Bottom line: Racing tires will not make you a racer. And if you are a racer, you can probably ride any tire out there. Get a tire that is capable of doing what you do NORMALLY. Heck... Z rated rubber... how many of us NORMALLY do 180???

I'd have to disagree here. Most riders I encounter would do just fine on a Z rated sport touring tire. We blame too much on tires. Some of us have not had our suspensions set up properly, and we blame the tire (yes, a tire will make up for an ill suspension... it's the contact); others blame bad conditions on tires: I had a friend swear off Dunlop because he low sided his bike (spun out the back tire) on a 40 degree day when the sun was just rising within 2 minutes of leaving his house. Put the best tires in the world on the machine and neglect your suspension. You may mask other conditions. Balance is the key. Balance in the machine, and in your mind. Know your abilities, know your gear, and don't focus on making just one thing better (ie all of us who go for all the power goodies and then think we can compensate by buying "better" tires). Magazines have done comparisons using racers and came up with small differences. USING RACERS. I'm no where near that good. Maybe we should all think about that and get our suspensions set for our weight and use tires for traction instead of everything. Bottom line: Racing tires will not make you a racer. And if you are a racer, you can probably ride any tire out there. Get a tire that is capable of doing what you do NORMALLY. Heck... Z rated rubber... how many of us NORMALLY do 180??? Ahh, not trying to start an e-argument here, but, respectfully, would you elaborate on what part of my statement you disagree with? I felt that my post was specific. IMHO, sticky tires are solid insurance for those who choose to hang it out a little bit on the street.

But if you're regularly riding on the street at 7/10s or 8/10s, then I'd recommend biting the bullet and spending the cash for the pure sport tires. There is the inference that the sport touring tire may not be up to par with regard to traction etc. Sport Rider took a bunch of tires, ranging from slicks to sport touring tires on a series of tests and street trips (where possible). What was interesting to me was the stop watch. There was basically a 10th of a second difference in lap times. Down from the slicks, DOT race, street sport, and sport touring tires in that order. Now... this is with professional racers/riders. I don't think that many of us on the street are riding near that pace. We may think we are, and we may be riding way above our own ability, but just a tire will not correct this. The motorcycle is a system of systems, and tires are just one small part. Take a class, get your suspension set, buy a couple of books, something that helps. Don't put all your money on just one thing. I still believe a sport touring tire can do well on a high powered machine and spirited riding. One of my sportbikes is still on sport touring tires and has been so for about 7 thousand miles. Over twice what I was getting out of street radials. And while I'm not a professional racer, I don't feel that they are a bad tire excepting maybe feedback. If you look at the chart on Dunlop's website (http://www.dunlopmotorcycle.com/infocenter_tirecharts.asp) you'll see there are overlaps between the tires. I contend that most of us can run a sport touring tire and have them last twice as long as street sport tires. Spend the savings on something else that needs to be improved. Just a difference of opinions. Not grounds for an e-argument :lol

Dan, I do agree with you that sport-touring tires can do fine in most situations. Interestingly, a guy I ride with who has hundreds of thousands of miles of sport riding experience (59 yrs. old and very fast) has just changed his long-held belief that pure sport tires have no benefit over standard sport-touring tires. The last straw was a recent weekend in Arkansas in which a guy riding behind him on a Beemer crashed on Hwy. 230. Then, on the way back, Tom slid on the same road, (he was running BT-021s). However, Rick and I did not (Pilot Powers). Tom is convinced that sport tires would have saved the BMW rider, and that he would not have experienced such a severe slide with sport tires. As I said, I believe sport-touring tires are fine and good for most situations, but if you are one who chooses to push a little more than most, a pure sport tire could be the difference between crashing and not crashing. Then there is the little thing about the differences in tire profile. :)

Then there is the little thing about the differences in tire profile. :) As long as we can agree that there were factors other than just the tires I think we are saying the same thing. Now if anyone can convince Dunlop to make the tires in the profiles that everyone else has embraced. :nforc: Maybe the D211 will be offered in 190/55 :(

You both bring up some very good points. I do agree with you Dan about when someone goes down the first thing they blame are the tires. I guess this is where we get our anti-Dunlop and Bridgestone people from. I've seen this happen so many times. Had the rider just properly warmed up the tire they probably would have never gone down.

You both bring up some very good points. I do agree with you Dan about when someone goes down the first thing they blame are the tires. I guess this is where we get our anti-Dunlop and Bridgestone people from. I've seen this happen so many times. Had the rider just properly warmed up the tire they probably would have never gone down. crash 1 at 40mphish I blame the gravel slung all over the road near a concrete factory (I didn't know there was a concrete factory around the turn) crash 2 at like um 2-5mph The cops says it was the oil in the road that I didn't see lol. He was right behind me as a made a left turn from a light and my back tire just came out and down I went lol

You both bring up some very good points. I do agree with you Dan about when someone goes down the first thing they blame are the tires. I guess this is where we get our anti-Dunlop and Bridgestone people from. I've seen this happen so many times. Had the rider just properly warmed up the tire they probably would have never gone down. I'm with you there.

I have often been tempted to save some cash by running sport touring tyres but the way I look at it its like insurance. You will never know if that little bit of difference in grip has saved you from a crash, but if you do, then at least you have given yourself the best chance. Given the huge financial and health risks that are at stake here I would say its money very well spent.

I have often been tempted to save some cash by running sport touring tyres but the way I look at it its like insurance. You will never know if that little bit of difference in grip has saved you from a crash, but if you do, then at least you have given yourself the best chance. Given the huge financial and health risks that are at stake here I would say its money very well spent. I am in agreement with you.

I had an 05 R6 I ran a Bridgestone BT020 on the rear and BT014 on the front and was happy with the setup. Now I have an 05 R1. I still run the BT014 on the front but for the rear i run the BT021. Its my first one but i really like it, performs real well on the edges for grip and will blister pretty good if you push it so it must be pretty soft compound on the edges, but the center is hard enough for pretty good mileage. Ive got 5k on it now and plan to get another 3-4 thousand before i need to replace it. :thumbup

I had an 05 R6 I ran a Bridgestone BT020 on the rear and BT014 on the front and was happy with the setup. Now I have an 05 R1. I still run the BT014 on the front but for the rear i run the BT021. Its my first one but i really like it, performs real well on the edges for grip and will blister pretty good if you push it so it must be pretty soft compound on the edges, but the center is hard enough for pretty good mileage. Ive got 5k on it now and plan to get another 3-4 thousand before i need to replace it. :thumbup Sounds like a pretty good setup. I know lots of guys who have run softer tires in front.