This weekend I bought new shoes for the VFR12: Michelin PR3's. I must say after about 300 miles I am very favorably impressed with these tires. My last two sets were PP2CT's which lasted 4000 and 5500 miles respectively, not sure why the second set lasted so much longer. It was time to try something new and PR3's were getting good press.
The turn in response is very linear, whereas the PP's required more countersteer effort to initiate a turn and hold the line, this despite the more rounded profile of the front tire. So much so that I reduced the front sag by 2.5 mm to compensate.
Another thing I noticed was the tire compliance on bumps, they absorbed the sharp edge bumps better than the PP and was particularly noticeable when leaned over. This combined with my optimized front and rear suspension produced a very comfy yet stable and controlled ride.
I've not yet encountered any wet roads or rain so the wet performance is still TBD but if reports are any indication, they should be quite good. In the dry, the grip is outstanding and provides a high degree of confidence in the front end, perhaps even more so than the PP but then again I usually end up comparing the feeling of the new tires to the feeling of the old tires just prior to changing them. New tires always seem to feel good.
Time will tell how they perform over the longer haul and their durability, but if I can get 5500 miles from PP's, then I should easily top that with these PR3's. These tires get a big :fing02: from me so far.
I am a michelin fan from the get go after trying so many other brands, Bridgestones on the old girl for the first 2 years I had her they cupped alot, then the oem dunlop 207s that came with it were pure crap, z6 metzlers inspired confidence then I would get a big slip right when I was leaned over the most totally destroying my confidence no feel for when it was comming either so I panned those too. Then I found michelin pilot roads and loved them - the orginals were great, I put on two sets before trying pilot powers and loved the powers too they turned in so great. I used about 6 sets of powers on the old girl and 2 sets of the 2 ct powers which to me did not feel so good, they lasted about 30% less too. I actually cooked a set of powers so bad in 2500 miles I limped it to Medford OR for the last 100 miles with it slipping in every tight right hand corner. Freaking nor cal roads got me riding faster then they could handle with 3 givi bags and my fat ass on there they just over heated and gave up the ghoast. I went back to pr2's and they never slipped on me ever either, I push them hard too.
I got the 1200 last year after the old girl got ran off the road and totalled and they came with roadsmarts from dunlop, boy they were just like z6's felt great then all of a suddent they would slip, not much to get them to the edge it has a shallow profile I dont like, and it hopped comming out of tight corners with the gas on. Back to PR2 and that big ass 190/55 on the back is a monster I had a hell of a time reaching the edge on those but man they feel great and they also last 5k for me which is awsome! I go on these 4.5k trips alot so I always start out with a new set of tires first. I have yet to try the pr3's but really they dont seem like a major shift from the pr2's just more sipes really the compounds are the same just a bit wider on the edge with the soft stuff so I would hazard that they dont last as long as the pr2's.
Radar had a set on when we rode to california last month and he loved them pr3's they road well and wore well too, he had them scrubbed edge to edge front and back too and rode 2up the entire trip with his girl, no problems keeping up and I had to struggle to keep up when he was leading so I would be glad to buy a set - but with PR2s $40 cheaper a set I will stick with those for now like I said I love PR2's.
Did you go with a 190/50 or did you go with a 190/55 cause I looked and could not find a set of pr3's with the 55 profile? The PR2 190/55 has a profile just like a power does with a tall crown on my 1200.
[image: View Post]HispanicSlammer, on 11 September 2011 - 09:56 PM, said:
Did you go with a 190/50 or did you go with a 190/55 cause I looked and could not find a set of pr3's with the 55 profile? The PR2 190/55 has a profile just like a power does with a tall crown on my 1200.
I went with 190/55 which is the prescribed tire size. They were/are difficult to come by, but that situation may be easing by now.
I've had the PR2s for the last two seasons and been pleased with them. This spring, I slapped on a half worn rear PR1 I had in my garage leftover from awhile back, and now that it's toast, I'll be getting a new PR3 rear in the spring, and the front PR2 should last at least for the entire 2012 season methinks.
For longevity and cost, and decent grip for an ST tire, they have my vote!
I'm getting toward the end of my 1st set of PR3s and they have been fantastic. ..at the current wear rate I'll probably get another 1000 miles or so before I need to replace them which should put me around the 4500 - 5000 mile range for the set; which is really good for me!
Fantastic tire in my opinion, and I'm running the 55 profile in the rear.
I have had the PR3s on my 12 for the past 3 or 4 months and love the hell out of them, they inspire confidence in the twisties and if they last as long as the PR2s on my CBX {22 months, 9500 miles & counting}, I am going to be a very happy camper. :fing02:
I used PR2's for many miles on my old FJR1300 and used to get 6-7k miles out of a rear.
I've got my first set of PR3's on the VFR, having ditched the OEM Bridgestones at 4.5k miles as seriously horrible in the wet..
I've now done 5.5k on them and they have been fabulous. I'm off to France in a couple of weeks time too and have no need to change them before I go, as there's plenty of tread left. I reckon I'll easily get 7.5-8k miles out of these.
I had no problem getting the 55 profile here in the UK, but then it is a popular size!
I love the PR2 on the rear of my vtec and will gobble up all the leftover PR2's I can find while they pour the new PR3 into the market! In fact my local buddy just sold me a new PR2 rear for $132. :rolleyes:
I do run the PP front though as I like, want, need that quicker tip-in that they offer over the rounder profile of the PR2.
I'm sure next year I'll try a 3 on the rear. :tour:
Bought a set of the PR3's before my 2000+ mile trip. During the 300 mile or so pre-trip scrub in, I was astounded at the handling improvement over the OEM tires, but simply fell in love with the PR3's during the trip. Confidence inspiring in dry, downright sticky in the 90+ temps and water displacing par excellence in pouring rain, exceptional ride... even under full touring load, and seemingly with nary a compromise.
Two Thumbs up. A MUST BUY. (and yes get the difficult to source 55 profile! )
Just finished off a set of PR3's on my 7th gen. I had burned up 2 sets of PR2's on it previously. My personal conclusion: the PR3's are hands-down the better tire, at least for this bike. They lasted about 9,000kms and were not flat-spotted at all until a 700km highway run back from Virginia/West Virginia at about 7500kms. (They could go another 1000kms I'm sure.) No cupping until the very end of life, and even then very, very minimal. The PR2's on this bike cupped earlier (say 5-6000kms) and also flat-spotted quicker. Dry traction is equal to the PR2's (as far as I can tell) and although I don't ride fast in the wet, they were good there. Overall mileage is better than the PR2's (on this bike at least) if you can believe it. I certainly did not expect that, but for me it's the case. For 30 bucks more a set, it is a no brainer for me to get PR3's. In fact I have a set sitting beside me waiting to get mounted this weekend.
For reference, I ran many, many sets of PR2's on my 6th gen and absolutely loved them, for all the same reasons. Never ran a set of PR3's on it. YMMV.
[edit: I forgot to mention that 3,000 of the kms were 2-up fully loaded.]
[image: View Post]Baileyrock, on 17 September 2011 - 10:26 AM, said:
I love the PR2 on the rear of my vtec and will gobble up all the leftover PR2's I can find while they pour the new PR3 into the market! In fact my local buddy just sold me a new PR2 rear for $132. :rolleyes:
I do run the PP front though as I like, want, need that quicker tip-in that they offer over the rounder profile of the PR2.
I'm sure next year I'll try a 3 on the rear. :tour:
BR
On the Aprilia Futura (my OTHER "road sports" bike; virtually a One Liter Italian VFR) the hot set-up is supposed to be the Pilot Power 2CT front and Pilot Road 2CT rear, precisely for the quicker turn-in that you mention. Apparently it's not ONLY the steeper profile, but also that the PP is much lighter, thus lower rotating mass, hence less gyroscopic effect and easier turn-in.
On my Futura, I've tried PR2s front & rear and PP2s front & rear, but not the "hot" combination. The Roads are pretty good all around tires, especially in the wet, and I got about 5500 miles on the rears, but the turn-in was pretty sedate. The Powers, on the other hand, stick like glue and beg to dive into corners, but it looks like I'll only get 4000 on the rear.
The Powers are the second stickiest tires I've ever ridden; my 750 Dorsoduro has Pirelli Corsa IIIs. I swear if you put your hand on those when they're warm, you have to pry it off.
The OEM Battlax 21s that came on the bike are just OK. Significantly, they don't like to run at pressures any higher than the label, and they don't turn-in smoothy at low speeds (which is really distracting). I'm tempted to drop the forks a few millimeters to see if that helps, cause I really don't want to replace both tires yet. Before I do that, however, is there a softer compound Bridgestone that's equivalent to the Power Pilot that I can try on the front? Will the BT-016 work??
[image: View Post]eastbowl2, on 27 September 2011 - 09:37 PM, said:
...
[edit: I forgot to mention that 3,000 of the kms were 2-up fully loaded.]
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the reason you got better mileage with this last set is that you road two up for 3000km. OK, so your thinking WTF?! :huh: he should have go LESS mileage riding 2-up. My personal experience is that the mileage is affected more by the right hand than the weight on the back seat. I would venture to guess that because of your significant other (notice I didn't say GIRLfriend...not that there is any thing wrong with that...) on the back, there was a lot less application of Deep throttle and compression braking, since it makes for an lot of flopping around back there.
Michelin might have found a way to squeak another 1-2% better mileage out of the PR3, and I will remain a Doubting Thomas that it can be much better than that until I try a set for myself. That may take awhile because the PP/PR2 combo is cheaper and so darn good that I prolly won't change until the price spread is virtually nil. One thing is for sure, I won't stop putting PP in the front as long as they are available. I am of the opinion that dual compounds in the front suck. The sides grind down and you end up with horrible feeling tip-in. Just to make matters worse you're stuck with that crappy feeling for 15,000km unless you dump the fronts when they are half used. Better to have that wonderful 'new front tire' feel every 7500km or so. Of course if you don't lean the bike over much... :ph34r:
Looks like Dunlop's losing customers in droves every year as riders discover how much better tires Michelin makes, especially with the PRs. I wonder if Dunlop will suddenly come up with a surprise soon to end the exodus away from their products...
[image: View Post]Beck, on 01 October 2011 - 03:16 PM, said:
Looks like Dunlop's losing customers in droves every year as riders discover how much better tires Michelin makes, especially with the PRs. I wonder if Dunlop will suddenly come up with a surprise soon to end the exodus away from their products...
Beck
95 VFR
Good point. They lost ME - I had planned to replace my stock tires with RoadSmart's, but decided to give the PR3's a shot when i realized the Dunlops were only dual compound on the rear. I must say I am very pleased after the first week. Work was slow this week so i ran up into the foothills of north Georgia; the tires were very stable and confidence inspiring in the turns.I'm getting used to the odd look of the sipes, that and the fact that the front tire looks backwards when mounted.
[image: View Post]DDO-VFR, on 01 October 2011 - 02:14 PM, said:
[image: View Post]eastbowl2, on 27 September 2011 - 09:37 PM, said:
...
[edit: I forgot to mention that 3,000 of the kms were 2-up fully loaded.]
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the reason you got better mileage with this last set is that you road two up for 3000km. OK, so your thinking WTF?! :huh: he should have go LESS mileage riding 2-up. My personal experience is that the mileage is affected more by the right hand than the weight on the back seat. I would venture to guess that because of your significant other (notice I didn't say GIRLfriend...not that there is any thing wrong with that...) on the back, there was a lot less application of Deep throttle and compression braking, since it makes for an lot of flopping around back there.
Brian
Generally, you're right, I do run slower with the wife on board. Not pedestrian slow, but sensibly slower. But you may be right about the wear rate being better with a passenger. My next set will give me some more data points. I will say though, that for whatever reason, this set of PR3's did wear more evenly, with less cupping, than the 2 sets of PR2's I've run through on the 7th gen. Again, it was only my first set so time will tell if this is typical or not.
End of thread · 17 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 21 Oct 2011