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| HONDA SLR 650 Click here to read more comments about this bike! |
BOT, 19.08.2008 |
My SLR 650 came from it's shop shod in Cougar tyres, a mismatched pair of road and on/off road tryes. They were quite horrible. I still rode around on them for 4,000 miles before getting round to putting on branded tyres. My love of Bridgestone tyres started when I got my first bike with tubeless tyres. You have to accept this review then as being somewhat biased as I have always liked Bridgestone and I am well known for brand loyalty
I'd talked with a few friends about which tyres to fit onto the SLR and of course everyone has thier own opinions. One chap who enjoys much off-roading suggested the Continentals as they have a proper "knobbly" tread pattern and fair well in the mud. Another suggested Avon Gripsters as they gave good grip and good mileage. He strongly warned me off Bridgestone claiming poor grip and heavy wear. I looked around this here net and came to realise that tyre choice among the "quality" manufacturers is based mostly on opinion and brand loyalty rather than cold hard facts. And like all these other reviewers I stuck with what I know, especially as the Bridgestones were well priced.
I do a bit of off-road riding. Not really serious mud-plugging as the SLR is really a road bike with off-road ideas and is too heavy to be pulling out of boggy marshes. I ride those farmtracks and natty little shortcuts that abound my area, occasionally tackling a muddy stream or rocky path. One particular track is made up of broken rocks that jar and bounce the bike. On the cheap nasty tyres I was always pleasantly suprised how well they gripped and smoothed the rubble. When I got the new tyres fitted I excitedly went to this track fully expecting to glide effortlessly across the stones. Hmmm. Though the road riding was without question much more stable and controlled, the off road stones felt like each one was attacking my bike and my spine. These tyres were very very hard. The bike was skittering across the top of the stones and the engine was jumping under power with it. Not happy.
This state of affairs continued and I left the rocky road for more comfortable dirt tracks. I then had a 2-up trip to Wales which warmed the tryes and plenty of normal commuting. I went back to the rocky road about 1,000 miles and 1 month later and behold!, the tyres are superb! I have checked the pressures to see if this caused the difference but they were the same as ever. It seems this tyre (perhaps all tyres) need a little time to soften up.
These are mostly on, semi off road tyres. The pattern is chunky but with large areas of contact for the road. They perform averagely in the wet and well in the dry, but then so do most tyres. It is deepest darkest winter at the time of writing abut I have noticed the tyres don't warm up much in use. I am used to more sporty road tyres though so I guess it's all relative. Hopefully the cool running will help them last longer. As for mileage, only time will tell. I'll add to this page these details when I know them!.
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| HONDA CBR 1000 RR FIREBLADE 2008 - Click here to read more comments about this bike! |
1000RR, 19.08.2008 |
Interestingly the use of Qualifiers marks the first time since the original CBR900RR that Dunlops have been fitted as OEM equipment to a literbike CBR. About half the 1000s imported will be shod with the Dunlops, the other half with Bridgestones. While the rear Qualifier sticks like flypaper to Laguna's pavement even under the brutal acceleration the CBR offers, the front Qualifier-as we've experienced with other OEM variants of the same tire-is a bit numb on front-end feedback at full lean. For the afternoon sessions the bikes were fitted with Dunlop's new D211 GP race tires, which feature the company's N-Tec construction and a dual-compound rear tread. Mounting the huge-diameter rear tires (stock on the CBR is a 190/50; most race tires are 55 series) significantly changes gearing. On the original '04 1000 that definitely hurt performance, and the '06 second-generation 1000 was less, but still noticeably, affected. The new CBR didn't seem to be bothered at all with the swap in rubber, accelerating with the same immediacy in the same gears from each of Laguna's turns.
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| HONDA CBR 1000 RR FIREBLADE 2006 - Click here to read more comments about this bike! |
biket, 19.08.2008 |
So far I'm very happy with the Michelin Pilot Power tires. They grip well and feel like they allow the bike to achieve a higher lean angle. A new Pilot Power with a dual compound called a "2CT" is available and in the beloved 190/55 size for the rear.
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| HONDA CB 125 T Click here to read more comments about this bike! |
william dunlop, 18.06.2008 |
all i can say is for a 125 tyre it holds the road great i would not shop anywhere else for performance or price
william dunlop cb125t
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| HONDA 1000 VARADERO 2003- Click here to read more comments about this bike! |
Varador, 28.11.2007 |
Well? we have been enjoying a nice ride out from our club yesterday, which took the ODO for another 400 km. All kinds of roads, including gravel, and cobblestones; but also nice tarmac roads with tight twisty bents. We also managed to do some high speed motorway cruising up to an (in The Netherlands? ) very illegal 180 km/h. The bike showed a remarkable straight on stability; even under a strong head- and side wind.
What to say more as a huge ?WOW?? Even I could not expect to be that much impressed by any tyre. The last tyre which gave me a ?WOW? feeling was the good old Michelin T66X on twisty mountain roads; so George (Gepol), here is your real T66X succesor!
Although the Anakees I used as successor to the T66X where also very good, the steering of this new Conti is really up to another level. I have tested Dero?s on Bridgestone?s, on Pilot Road, on Metzelers, but I never felt such an improvement in the steering behaviour as with this new Conti Trail Attack.
If you look at the tyre in a diagonal cross-section, you will notice that the running surface is very much curved. In comparing with the (also brand new) Anakees under Karinda?s Dero the straight-on line is almost a full 2 centimetres (1 inch) smaller as on the Anakee.
And that shows! I never trusted to take some corners with the velocity I now did on the Conti and I never have done some cornering under such a steep angle. The best description I could think of is the feeling if you are cutting corners with a razorblade! It did not take long to ride the Trail Attack on to the edge of the running surface?! No 'chicken strips' here!
So, in the dry, on gravel and cobblestone paved roads the Conti Trail Attack performs very well. That good, that I do trust to make the statement that this tyre is at this moment the best available for our Varadero!
The only thing we could not test was the performance on the wet. Although this summer has started of as one of the wet ever, we did not have any rain during yesterdays ride out. The air temperature was around 17 degrees Celsius so I recon that road performance will only increase if the air temperature rises?
I do doubt that the Trail Attack will last as long as my last set of H version Anakees? The Trail Attack just invites to play!
Another thing: this tyre does not come cheap. The price tag is rated somewhere between the Michelin Anakee and the Michelin Pilot Road.
We will keep you posted. Next month we will have a ride out in to the German Black Forrest and the Austrian / German Alps on which we will see how the Attack performs under stress full situations. We will keep you posted!
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