Dunlop Gets a Grip on Supersport Tyre Market With Qualifier II

The supersport market has become an increasingly demanding place, comments Dunlop. And increasingly powerful motorcycles with superior performance abilities require tyres than can meet the growing demands placed upon them while remaining practical for every day rider. The company’s replacement to its Qualifier range – logically named the Qualifier II – is claimed to do just this.

In bringing its new supersport tyre to market, Dunlop says it drew upon technology gained from race experience, specifically the MultiTread (MT) technology derived from its D211GP professional race tyre – a tyre that in 2008 was fitted to the winners of 63 global championship titles in more than 23 locations. Technology also seen on its Roadsmart tyre has also been designed into the Qualifier II. The result is, reports Dunlop, a tyre that offers an exceptional combination of wet/ dry grip, stability and handling; a tyre that warms up quickly and still manages to give outstanding durability and extended life.

The MT technology is intended to offer pure grip when it’s time to get ‘on the pace’ while retaining excellent traction and wet grip, says Dunlop. Therefore, it comments that the resulting tyre offers improved levels of feeling and feedback for the rider and inspires confidence with its stability through corners. The tread on the Qualifier II is directional, a design that should provide improved performance while reducing step wear. The rear tyre’s MT profile shapes are also designed to give an improved, more consistent contact area with the road surface and total feedback for the rider.

A new compounding mix has been used in the Qualifier II, one which Dunlop says enables a broader range of operating temperatures, faster-warm up times – even at low external temperatures, greater wet and dry road grip and high speed stability, with reduced tread wear. This compound, reports Dunlop, also offers improved grip in slippery conditions thanks to the presence of highly dispersible silica and the use of an optimised mixing process for a better bonding reaction with the polymers. Buried deep in the tyres are ultra fine carbon black particles, Dunlop states these particles are the key to enhanced grip, faster warm-up and a larger working temperature window.

Sharing the same technology as the Roadsmart, the new Qualifier II employs ‘Silica A’ traction compound on the centre section of the rear tyre and ‘Silica B’ lateral grip compound on the shoulder. What this means for the rider, says Dunlop, is exceptional traction in a straight line combined with even greater, confidence inspiring pure grip at angles between 35 and 55 degrees; all with no compromise on stability and tyre life. In combination with the tyre’s Jointless Belt rear tyre construction, this is intended to offer high-speed stability and shock absorption, increasing the tyre stiffness while maintaining the groove shapes.

The Qualifier II incorporates Dunlop’s Carcass Tension Control System (CTCS) technology, allowing specific areas of the tyre to be tensioned to different stiffness. This feature, the manufacturer adds, generates improvements in strain and stress distribution along the ply, enhanced contact patch distribution and increased tread edge stability. Dunlop reports that for the rider these features equate to huge benefits to the suspension capabilities and the overall ride and a more stable contact patch, especially when leaning over, meaning high speed corners now come with more grip and more stability as standard.