Motorbike Tyres
At the Intermot exhibition, held in the German city of Cologne, Nankang Rubber Tire has shown off its first-ever motorcycle tyre. Aimed at the growing sport touring segment, the radial Roadiac WF-1 is said to be the product of three years’ intensive joint development work between Nankang and Delticom/Pnebo.
International motorcycle traveller Sam Manicom launched his latest book at The Ace Café on the North Circular Road, Stonebridge on 18 September, with his Gripster tyre supplier Avon in attendance. Manicom has used Avon rubber for the majority of the 250,000 miles covered during his time on the road around the world, so it was fitting that the tyre-manufacturer should attend his book launch with a show vehicle and a series of tyre displays. Avon representatives were also on hand to discuss the entire Avon range, though the focus was undoubtedly on Avon’s adventure bike tyres – the Gripster and Distanzia.
Bridgestone’s Battlax BT-023 tyre has been voted “the best sports-touring all-rounder” by Bike magazine six months after its launch. Bike, Britain’s best-selling motorcycle magazine, fitted sport-touring tyres from many leading manufacturers to its fleet of bikes and compared them, with Bridgestone coming out on top.
The road legal descendent of Dunlop’s successful D211 GP motorcycle race tyre has been making waves since its introduction in late 2009, report Goodyear Dunlop representatives. “Echoing the success of the D211 GP race tyre,” states Dunlop, the GP Racer D211 has been adopted both on track days and by one-make national championships across the globe in 2010. As mid-season passes, the tyre is being run in the PromoSport Cup and the WERC series in France, the Yamaha R6 Cup in Germany, the Italian Superstock 600 championship, the Dubai 600 and 1000 Superstock Championships and the Ducati 848 Cup and Harley Davidson Cup in the UK. In Australia, the slick version (GP Racer D211 Slick) is used for the National Superbike Championship.
Avon Tyres’ Storm 2 Ultra sports-touring tyre has received praise from a round-the-world adventure and one of Britain’s leading motorcycle magazines. Mick Høy from Denmark is in the middle of a round-the-world adventure on his 1996 Honda VFR750 and he has good reason to appreciate the qualities of the new-for-2010 Storm 2 Ultra. “Back home in Denmark I can get around 10-12,000km (6210 – 7452 miles) from one rear tyre,” he comments. “During my travels through Africa from Spain I did 19,827km (12,312 miles) on one rear Storm 2 Ultra – crazy, but true! And the VFR weighs 450 kilos when fully loaded.
As National Motorcycle Week kicks off, TyreSafe is warning riders that continuous upright riding on fast straight routes can harm their bikes’ tyres. Long journeys on motorways can cause the meeting of the tyre’s sidewall and tread to ‘square-off’, which gives a feeling of loss of grip when the bike is used on winding roads, according to the safety association. Often on long journeys motorcyclists switch from the motorway to fast A- and B-roads, without knowing their bikes’ handling may be compromised.
The Isle of Man’s low emissions TT Zero race – for electric motorbikes – saw the majority of riders choose to use Pirelli’s Diablo Superbike ‘slick’ race tyres, with machines shod with the Italian manufacturer’s rubber taking all three podium places. The MotoCzysz machine swept to a dominant win over the testing 37-mile Mountain course at the hands of pilot Mark Miller, travelling at an average speed of 96.82mph. The machine hit 135mph at the Sulby Speed Trap and finished the race in 23 minutes 22 seconds. Pirelli says the Diablo tyre’s low rolling resistance was “essential in this power sapping electric race”.
Bridgestone has released details of fresh bike tyre fitments in the Sport-touring segment, as the recently launched Battlax BT-023 receives approval on popular models. The BT-023 rear and BT-020 front mix has now been approved for bikes such as the BMW R1200GS and the Kawasaki KLV1000. This newly approved dual fitment allows bikers currently riding on BT-020s the option to replace rear tyres with the BT-023 when the rear BT-020 is phased out in June.
Pirelli Motorcycle has launched what is says is the first motorcycle tyre riders can customise with their own initials, name, individual words or whole messages. According to the company, consumers that wish to stamp their own mark on their tyres can also reproduce images and logos, which can then be applied to the tyres’ sidewalls with special labels created by the rider. The sides of the new Diablo Rosso Corsa tyres were designed to accommodate the adhesive labels that anyone can design on Pirelli’s website and receive at home.
Tiffany Coates has developed a reputation as the "most journeyed" female motorcyclist, travelling long distances on her trusty BMW R80 GS. Her latest oddyssey was a 17,000 mile overland trip, riding on Metzeler tyres, and detailed in the latest edition of Bike Tyrestores' weekly e-mail magazine.
Ed Wilson is set to take over as Michelin UK commercial director moto on 1 June, according to Bike Tyrestore’s latest customer newsletter. Wilson will take the reins from Olivier Gros who has reportedly moved onto “new challenges” and moves from a position with Michelin Fleet Solutions in the company’s truck tyre department.
Michelin continues to promote the weight advantages it says its Power Pure motorcycle tyre offers to sportsbike riders – the French giant says that a set of the tyres in sizes 120/70 ZR 17 and 190/50 ZR 17 saves two pounds (around 900 grams) in weight compared to tyres produced in the same category by four of Michelin’s major brand competitors. In the promotion, motorcyclists buying and fitting a pair of Michelin Power Pure tyres between 1 May and 30 June will receive a free Michelin Man digital pressure gauge, and have a chance to win one of 20 Akrapovic slip-on exhausts, making their bikes lighter still.
PT Multistrada Arah Sarana Tbk, the Indonesian tyre manufacturer, reportedly achieved record tyre sales in the first quarter of 2010. Local news sources quoted “a source familiar with the matter” as saying Multistrada sold 1.5 million passenger car tyres in the first three months of 2010, with motorcycle tyres sales totally over 600,000 units. These figures are more than fifth up on the same period last year when the company sold 1.2 million of car tyres and half as many motorbike tyres (300,000 units). Multistrada produces the Achilles, Corsa, and Strada brands.
Independent tread wear testing carried out by safety and quality specialist DEKRA has delivered a positive result for Dunlop’s new SportSmart motorcycle tyre. The Dunlop tyre was testing against Michelin’s Power Pure tyres, Pirelli’s Diablo Rosso and Bridgestone’s BT016 at DEKRA’s Narbonne Test Centre in France during January and February. During the testing staff from the centre rode 2009 model Suzuki GSX-R1000 bikes over a 4480 kilometre selection of open roads in southwest France – 15 per cent motorway and 85 per cent open and city roads, of which 45 per cent were twisting mountain roads – in order to compress the effects of many weeks of hard European sports riding into a considerably shorter time span.
A motorcycle tyre that combines race-quality grip in the dry, total confidence in the wet and wear rates that never compromise sporting satisfaction is said to have been an elusive wish for street and occasional track day riders. That is, according to Dunlop, until now. The company claims to have realised these qualities in its new SportSmart, a tyre it describes as creating a “new benchmark of handling and confidence, irrespective of road conditions – dry racetrack or wet country lane.” Dunlop adds the SportSmart is designed to deliver its highest levels of performance while putting in the hard touring miles and riders can thus expect to achieve noticeably more mileage from SportsSmart than they would with other hypersport tyres; indeed, during testing performed by Dekra in January 2010, using a 2009 model Suzuki GSX-R 1000 fitted with 120/70ZR17 and 190/50ZR17 tyres, the SportSmart reportedly delivered 20 per cent better mileage compared to Michelin’s Power Pure, 30 per cent better mileage than the Pirelli Diablo Rosso and 40 per cent better mileage than Bridgestone’s Battlax BT-016.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
