I like spirited curve riding......as do most all of us. I have always ridden on nothing but sport tires such as Pilot Powers, Pirelli Corsa III, Bridgestone BTO16 etc. My reasoning was to have as much grip as possible to reduce the chance of a tire slip leading to disaster. Makes sense, right? The down side obviously was cost as the rear tires would be done in anywhere between 2200 to 2800 miles under agressive riding. My clear favorite for outright performance is the Q2 from Dunlop, and I still use these on my CBR, which no longer sees as much street duty.
This year I picked up a Kawasaki Ninja 1000. Got disgusted when the BT016's that came on the bike were quickly worn away. So I decided to try a set of Pilot Road 2 since they were on sale for 270 a set shipped, (190 / 55 rear). I did so thinking that the big Ninja would not be ridden hard and I could always pull out the CBR when I wanted something to ride in anger.
Today I headed out solo on the Ninja, with the mindset that this would be a day of relaxed riding. Later I ran into Jay, a frequent riding buddy who has a GSX-R 750. I like riding with Jay and we headed up one of my favorite routes together. I figured if he pushed the pace I would let him go since I was on sport touring tires and not the usual super sport rubber. We started out somewhat easy but Jay started ramping up the pace little by little. I figured I would stay with him until I felt the tires start to move a little, at which point I would let Jay go, (he was on Power Pures). Within a few minutes we were riding at a good clip and I was amazed at how much grip these tires provided. I stayed right with Jay and we ran as fast as I was willing to go on a public road. Not once did I feel the tires slip or slide and I had them inflated to 34 / 40 cold. This on a big bike that weighs 500 pound wet and makes a lot of torque. They now have 1000 miles and show very little wear. By now the rear would be half gone if these were Q2's.
These are excellent tires with enough grip for any sane level street riding. Looking forward to seeing how they do in the wet. I expect to get a lot miles out of these based on how they are wearing.
This year I picked up a Kawasaki Ninja 1000. Got disgusted when the BT016's that came on the bike were quickly worn away. So I decided to try a set of Pilot Road 2 since they were on sale for 270 a set shipped, (190 / 55 rear). I did so thinking that the big Ninja would not be ridden hard and I could always pull out the CBR when I wanted something to ride in anger.
Today I headed out solo on the Ninja, with the mindset that this would be a day of relaxed riding. Later I ran into Jay, a frequent riding buddy who has a GSX-R 750. I like riding with Jay and we headed up one of my favorite routes together. I figured if he pushed the pace I would let him go since I was on sport touring tires and not the usual super sport rubber. We started out somewhat easy but Jay started ramping up the pace little by little. I figured I would stay with him until I felt the tires start to move a little, at which point I would let Jay go, (he was on Power Pures). Within a few minutes we were riding at a good clip and I was amazed at how much grip these tires provided. I stayed right with Jay and we ran as fast as I was willing to go on a public road. Not once did I feel the tires slip or slide and I had them inflated to 34 / 40 cold. This on a big bike that weighs 500 pound wet and makes a lot of torque. They now have 1000 miles and show very little wear. By now the rear would be half gone if these were Q2's.
These are excellent tires with enough grip for any sane level street riding. Looking forward to seeing how they do in the wet. I expect to get a lot miles out of these based on how they are wearing.