Riding a new course – Michelin unveils moto innovations
This year Michelin is releasing no less than six new motorcycle tyre lines: The Power Super Sport, Pilot Power 3, Anakee III and Anakee Wild, plus the Pilot Street and Pilot Street Radial. The last two of these are of particular interest due to the strategic approach they represent.
In the two years that followed the 2011 introduction of the Pilot Road 3 sport touring tyre, the French manufacturer has entirely renewed its motorcycle tyre portfolio. Michelin describes the latest arrivals as six tyres that are each dedicated to a specific purpose while all sharing one thing in common – being designed to “deliver the most complete performance combination.” Unlike the two members of the ‘Power’ product family introduced last year, the track-only Power Slick and the 95 per cent track-oriented Power Cup, the newest members of the ‘Pilot’ range are either exclusively (as in the case of the Pilot Road 3) or primarily intended for use on normal roads.
Pierre Fraisse, Michelin’s director of two-wheel development, shares that the new Pilot Power 3 was designed with 85 per cent road use in mind. He adds that the new tyre shares no common features with its predecessor; every detail in its construction has been changed. The border area between design for race and road use is occupied by the Pilot Super Sport, which Michelin has designed for 50 per cent track and 50 per cent road use. The 50/50 ratio also applies to the Anakee Wild, however in this case the tyre is designed for 50 per cent road use and 50 per cent off-road. The Anakee Wild was introduced to counter a swerve towards on-road behaviour with the latest generation Anakee III, which Michelin designed as a 90 per cent road tyre. Rounding out the sextet of new tyres are the Pilot Street and Pilot Street radial, which Michelin says are intended for small utility bikes of around 250 to 300cc.
Strong contribution to brand image
The French tyre maker presented the six new tyres to international media in late March, and during the proceedings Hubert Hannezo, the man in charge of two-wheel tyres at Michelin for the past nine years, described the tyre maker as “the brand that understands what riders want.” Fraisse adds that this applies to all segments of the motorcycle market, and therefore it is no surprise that Michelin has extended its ‘Total Performance’ concept to the motorcycle segment and claims the optimisation of factors such as safety, handling mileage and riding enjoyment without compromising in other areas. A commitment to Total Performance in the two-wheel business is important – Hannezo points out that even though only around 1,000 people within the Michelin group are employed in the motorcycle business and it represents just a small part of the company’s entire business, motorcycle tyres nevertheless deliver a “strong contribution to brand image.”
This is why the manufacturer always points out, even in the case of sport-oriented rubber such as the Power Super Sport and Pilot Power 3, that mileage and safety remain firmly in view during product development. Some rear sizes in both ranges feature 2CT+, the latest generation two-compound technology: this employs a soft compound on the shoulders and a harder rubber on the tread as well as another hard compound under the soft rubber on the shoulders. The result is greater rigidity when leaning and enhanced stability at angles, especially when accelerating sharply. Other qualities remain as before: The softer compound is responsible for grip when cornering while the harder is there to withstand sudden acceleration and braking and to extend mileage.
In reference to the Power Super Sport, Christophe Duc, Michelin’s global marketing director for motorcycle and scooter tyres, also shares that this particular tyre’s casing is approximately 12 per cent more rigid than that used in the Pilot Power 3; this means air pressure can be reduced from 2.1 bar to 1.7 bar (without tyre warmers) or 1.5 bar (with tyre warmers) in order to allow for fast track laps. Reducing air pressure markedly increases the contact patch and ultimately provides greater stability when accelerating out of corners. Other key benefits the Power Super Sport offers can be seen in the results of Michelin-commissioned Dekra tests in which the tyre was put up against key competitors. Despite achieving the same lap times as the Pirelli Diablo Rosso Corsa and Metzeler Racetec Interact K3, the Power Super Sport gave around double the mileage as the other tyres.
On the topic of mileage, Michelin promises a 20 per cent improvement over the previous generation tyre with the Pilot Power 3, as well as delivering in other key areas such as improved handling, cornering stability and wet braking. The use of 2CT+ technology in the rear tyre gives a higher silica component in the centre tread and more carbon black in the shoulders, while the tyre has been given a new profile. According to product developer Tommy Maussin, this last quality is characterised by a 15 per cent groove ratio at a lean angle of 30 degrees. Maussin describes the tyre’s void ratio of 10 per cent as “average” – void ratio is 7.5 per cent in total for the Power Super Sport and 12 per cent at a 30 degree lean angle.
The reason behind this is that with an average groove ratio on wet roads the priority is to disperse water from the contact patch and thus enhance safety. And while on the subject of wet performance, Dekra tests pitting the new Pilot Power 3 against Bridgestone’s Battlax Hypersport S20, Pirelli’s Diablo Rosso 2 and Dunlop’s SportSmart show that during wet braking from 50km/h to a standstill, the Michelin tyre stopped between almost two and close to three metres sooner than its rivals.
Performance measurements against main competitors were also carried out for the Anakee III – in this case, in regards to mileage. Jean-Francois Roziere, who is charge of trail tyre product development at Michelin, shares that in comparison with Bridgestone’s Battle Wing, Dunlop’s Trail Max TR91 and Metzeler’s Tourace EXP, the Anakee III wins out in this area by between 10 and 25 per cent. “Admittedly though, our main development goal was to fulfill BMW’s original equipment requirements for the R 1200 GS,” adds Roziere’s colleague Stéphane Brihat, who oversees trail tyre marketing. “And first and foremost that meant stability.” Incidentally, it is safe to say that Michelin succeeded in pleasing its OEM customer, as it reports that 80 per cent of bikes in this model series produced this year will be factory fitted with the Michelin tyre.
Hope for the future
Each of the recently presented tyres were developed with Michelin’s ‘Total Performance’ concept in mind and along with the Anakee Wild, which will be released later this year, two further models were previewed – and the strategic approach accompanying the pair is very interesting. The two tyres, the cross-ply Pilot Street and the Pilot Street Radial, are intended for smaller bikes of around 250 to 300cc. This all sounds like pretty standard stuff, but the concept behind the two tyres is a little less so. They are primarily aimed at newly-mobile customers in emerging markets; tyre purchasers that have traded up from a bicycle to a moped, and further down the track will look to purchasing a larger motorcycle or possibly even a car. Fitted with Michelin tyres, of course.
Hubert Hannezo shares that this development has been observed in countries like Brazil, where new registrations within the 250/300cc segment have trebled over the past ten years. Hannezo says the same also applies to this segment in Asian markets such as Indonesia or China. For him, these “new markets” represent “hope for the industry’s future,” Hannezo told Tyres & Accessories. Even though Michelin must “do battle” with local Asian manufacturers within this target segment, Hannezo has faith in the charisma a global brand such as Michelin offers, and he also notes that local suppliers there “don’t yet realise the advantages that can be gained through motorcycle radials.” Demand in these countries is certain to increase in hand with improvements in transport infrastructure, it is only a question of time before this happens. “And perhaps in ten years’ time it’s all be about 600cc bikes,” he opines.
In contrast, he anticipates little in the way of major growth impulse within the established European motorcycle tyre markets. On the contrary: The average age of motorcyclists is increasing and the younger generation mostly have other things on their minds – smartphones and gaming consoles have a much higher pull factor than the stigmatised as dangerous motorcycle. Therefore, while the low sellout of replacement market motorcycle tyres in Europe during March 2013 probably had more to do with the weather than long-term market developments, what Michelin aims to achieve through its Pilot Street and Pilot Street Radial is nevertheless logical.
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