Z900RS Tyre Recommendations

[black-k1]

mikey_b said:

Krikkit said:

It's all about perception, if you ride a sporty tyre it warms up really quickly and feels great, which inspires more confidence in the less-experienced.

Modern tyres are mostly about feel anyway - the same class of tyre between brands has very little performance difference, it's all about personal preference for the feel of the thing.

I'm not sure that first sentence is really true. All tyres have an optimal working termperature, and a sporty tyre's will be higher than a road tyre's. Therefore, you have to ride the sporty tyre a bit harder to make it up come up to temp properly, which isn't always easily possible on the road. Whereas the road tyre's optimal working temperature is lower to start with, so reaches it more easily. Late-generation road tyres have plenty of grip to get the pegs down anyway.

Obviously this is taking a bit to the extreme - but look how careful an F1 driver has to be when they get the green flag after following the safety car for a few laps. The tyres have cooled down and no longer work properly, and they slide and wheelspin like crazy until they warm up again. Obviously there will be a smaller difference between two road-legal bike tyres, but for any given temperature there will be a difference in the grip levels between sporty and road tyre, and it's not necessarily the same way around as you'd initially think.

Sports tyres take longer to get heat into them and need to get hotter to operate correctly which is why sports touring tyres risk over heating if used at pace on track days.

[SteveKTMer]

black-k1 said:

mikey_b said:

Krikkit said:

It's all about perception, if you ride a sporty tyre it warms up really quickly and feels great, which inspires more confidence in the less-experienced.

Modern tyres are mostly about feel anyway - the same class of tyre between brands has very little performance difference, it's all about personal preference for the feel of the thing.

I'm not sure that first sentence is really true. All tyres have an optimal working termperature, and a sporty tyre's will be higher than a road tyre's. Therefore, you have to ride the sporty tyre a bit harder to make it up come up to temp properly, which isn't always easily possible on the road. Whereas the road tyre's optimal working temperature is lower to start with, so reaches it more easily. Late-generation road tyres have plenty of grip to get the pegs down anyway.

Obviously this is taking a bit to the extreme - but look how careful an F1 driver has to be when they get the green flag after following the safety car for a few laps. The tyres have cooled down and no longer work properly, and they slide and wheelspin like crazy until they warm up again. Obviously there will be a smaller difference between two road-legal bike tyres, but for any given temperature there will be a difference in the grip levels between sporty and road tyre, and it's not necessarily the same way around as you'd initially think.

Sports tyres take longer to get heat into them and need to get hotter to operate correctly which is why sports touring tyres risk over heating if used at pace on track days.

That is true for pure sport or track day tyres but all the road based tyres heat up really easily these days. I remember buying a pair of the original Michelin 2ct tyres for my zx6r in about 2009 and being amazed that they were warm after a short ride in the rain.

[Biker 1]

Update: I went for the Michelin Road 6. Fitted 4 weeks ago. I scrubbed them in before going on holiday. Got back a couple of days ago & the weather has been perfect for doing some shakedown rides. What a difference!! Ride quality so much smoother & more compliant. Confidence inspiring warm up & grip. I'm seriously impressed, although I haven't tested in the wet & am a fair weather biker anyway.....
They are probably not for track days or R1 riders, but for fast A road blasts in the real world, these tyres are IMO excellent.