Avon Bike Tyres Closing on 100 Years

Coming up to the centenary of its entrance into motorcycle tyre production, Avon Motorcycle Tyres has reported a “successful year in 2009”, despite the UK suffering at the hands of a world-wide recession. The brand believes the breadth of its motorcycle tyre range, offering both performance and “value for money” oriented ranges, has helped it weather the storm. Speaking of storms, the brand closed the year by releasing a successor to its popular Storm ST family of sports-touring tyres at the International Motorcycle and Scooter show at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, in November. The new Storm 2 Ultra builds on the performance of the Storm ST and, says Avon, improves upon it in a number of areas. Developed from the award-winning Storm ST tyre, the company says the new Storm 2 Ultra offers more mileage and improved grip in all weathers and road conditions. The company also signalled its intentions for the coming year with the announcement in December that it would Avon Tyres has announced that it will be utilising what it terms “eco-friendly” or “clean oil” in its tyres from 2010. According to the manufacturer, the new tyres will be “eco-friendly with no effect on grip and indeed, in the case of some high-performance range tyres, will actually have increased levels of grip.”

In terms of the new addition to the Storm ST range, the company states that the multi-compound Super Rich Silica (SRS) treads give rear tyres an extra 12 per cent mileage over the original Storm ST. Meanwhile changes incorporated in the zero-degree belting system, and modifications to the dynamic stresses within the carcass itself have increased mechanical grip. This allows for improved traction in both wet and dry conditions, while also enhancing the handling and overall ride comfort. The tyre’s predecessor won praise from readers of both Motor Cycle News and RiDE magazine for both performance and cost effectiveness, and Avon states that it hopes to build on this praise with the new model.

The Storm 2 Ultra fits a wide variety of machines from naked 600/1000cc machines through to sportsbikes of all capacities and the 1000-1400cc ‘hyperbike’ class, such as the Suzuki Hayabusa, Kawasaki ZZR1400 and used machines such as the Honda CBR1100XX Super Blackbird. Avon Tyres hosted a unique launch event where 10 readers of RiDE magazine could compare and contrast the new tyre with what they had used before. Each reader was impressed with the performance and feedback given by the new tyre.

High Performance Range

Sitting at the high-performance end of the scale are the impressive Avon VP2 family. Derived from the popular Viper sports tyres, the VP2s come in a range of sizes and compounds to suit any road sports machine or track day bike. Heading the family is the VP2 Xtreme. These are recommended for track day use and offer superb dry weather performance thanks to their super-sticky compound. High silica content allows quick warm-up times as well as the option of not using tyre warmers.

In 2009 MCN chose the Avon VP2 Xtreme as its control tyre for its Bike of the Year test, while triple British champion and Macau GP winner Mike ‘Spike’ Edwards uses VP2s for his trackday and coaching sessions. He says: ““The Avon VP2s are very good tyres. I did three track days on mine and there was still life left in them. A lot of people tend to ‘go with the flow’ and run the brands of tyre that they see out there racing. At trackdays they see me on the Avons and they don’t know what to make of it, but when they see how fast I go on them it changes their minds! The grip is great and there’s plenty of longevity in them.”

Rob Jones, chief instructor for Castle Combe Race Circuit uses a set of VP2 Xtremes on his Ducati 996 race bike: “I’ve long been a fan of Avon’s sports tyres. I’ve raced a lot on rival brands but I feel the front-end feedback on the VP2s is even better than on a current rival’s race tyre. I see many people using what is literally race tyres on the road or track day, when something like the VP2 is all they would ever need as it would work over a broader temperature range and would be longer lasting. The VP2s are perfect for people’s needs on the road and on trackdays and they’re priced reasonably too.”

For road and some trackday use, the VP2 Supersport offers performance on the road with a carcass designed to keep even the twitchiest sports machine stable at all speeds while keeping the precise handling characteristics of a supersport machine. For more road-biased performance tyre, the VP2 Sport retains the stability and handling of the VP2 Supersport but high silica content helps the tyre get to operating temperature quickly, offering super wet-grip performance while the Tri-compound gives enhanced durability even on today’s latest litre-class superbikes.

Off-road and classic tyres

Two-wheeled travel writer Sam Manicom swears by Avons and has covered more than 125,000 miles on his trusty BMW R80 GS shod exclusively with Avon Gripsters. He says: “With all the varied conditions that I was riding in, you need a tyre that will deal with them all and still give you good tyre life and excellent handling under the ‘normal’ conditions you expect to face. This could be loose sand, gravel, stone, dirt, mud, pot-holes or normal Tarmac. The Gripsters were superb, and the best mileage I got from a rear tyre was 10,000 while the best from a front was a staggering 21,000 miles! On my adventures I only suffered eight punctures in eight years. The only major problem was how to store four-year’s worth of tyres at a time, but thankfully my sister looked after them for me and sent them to me when I needed them. She would also fill them full of treats and sweets that I couldn’t get wherever I was in the world, so they were almost like ‘Red Cross tyres’ which were a joy to receive!”

As well as on and off-road, Avon participates strongly in the world of classic bike tyres, as demonstrated at the 2009 Goodwood Revival. At this legendary event, the top 10 finishers were all shod with Avon rubber, while the top five were utilising a new race version of the 100/90-19 Roadrider on the rear with an AM20 front.

Avon Tyres has a long and distinguished history in motorcycle racing on two and three wheels. Avon manufactured its first motorcycle tyre in 1911 and since then champions such as Geoff Duke, John Surtees, Mike Hailwood and Barry Sheene have used and won on Avon. More recently Avon riders have won 13 Supersport and four Production class championships, as well as Isle of Man TT victories on both three and two wheels. In 2009 Avon Tyres won again at the Isle of Man TT races with legendary sidecar ace Dave Molyneux and passenger Dan Sayle. Their Suzuki outfit was shod with Avon rubber and these tyres helped ‘Moly’ take his tally of TT wins to 14.

With the popularity of custom motorcycles at an all-time high, Avon is still the only choice for the serious custom builder. 2009’s ‘World Championship of Bike Building’ winner ran on Avon tyres. Bike builder Dave Cook and his ‘Rambler’ motorcycle won the championship with the bike shod with Cobra tyres. Other jaw-dropping machines run on Avons, including Allen Millyard’s Viper V10. This 500bhp, eight-litre beast cracked 200mph in the hands of Motor Cycle News testers and runs on Avon Venom tyres.

Eco-friendly oil for Avon Tyres in 2010

From January 2010, all new motorcycle tyres sold in the European Union have to be made with clean, eco-friendly oil, which features very low levels of PAH (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons). Avon has completed this conversion and says that its tyres will comply with regulations introduced by the European Parliament concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH).  In fact, all Avon tyres sold from January will be made with eco-friendly oil, including the new Avon Storm 2 Ultras, which made their debut recently at the Carole Nash International Motorcycle and Scooter Show.

Avon’s technical product manager for motorcycle tyres, Peter McNally said: “We’ve been working hard with the change to ‘clean oil’ over the last two years because, if we want to sell tyres in Europe next year, we have to make this change. Using clean oil has led us to redevelop some of the compounds in our tyres. In the majority of cases, the grip levels have been unaffected, but in the case of our high-performance Avon VP2 Xtremes, grip levels have actually been increased.”

Avon’s global motorcycle sales manager Graham Matcham said: “Although the requirement for clean oil tyres is currently only required for European markets, all Avon motorcycle tyres will be manufactured to this new specification. This is a reflection of our ongoing commitment to higher levels of performance matched to a sensitivity regarding the environment.”

The new Storm 2 Ultra comes in the following sizes: Fronts AV 55s; 110/70ZR17, 110/80ZR18, 120/60ZR17, 120/70ZR17, 120/70ZR18 and 130/70ZR17 fronts. Rear AV56s include 150/70ZR17, 150/70ZR18, 160/60ZR17, 160/70ZR17, 160/60ZR18, 170/60ZR17, 180/55ZR17, 190/50ZR17 and 200/50ZR17.