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Thread: Lightning Tires

  1. #11
    Senior Member Cooter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pitcherman View Post
    It may seem cheaper in the beginning. I used to run the pilot power 2CT and I would go through about 3 rears for every 1 road 5 I go through. So you may find it would be cheaper in the long haul to run a sport touring tire. I can’t argue with the grip the 2CT was certainly more confidence inspiring in a turn, but I found that the limit of either tire was way beyond anything considered sensible riding on the street.

    Good thing about tires, they’re not really a long tern investment so you’ll have plenty of opportunity to change them.
    The Michelin Pilot Road 5 is a 2CT tire as well. 2 CT stands for Two Compound Tire, a harder longer wearing rubber in the middle and softer grippier rubber on the sides. So far I have been VERY impressed and would not hesitate to do a track day on them.

  2. #12
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    Thanks, Cooter, though I'm getting a little uncomfortable with all this talk about harder longer rubbers...

  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cooter View Post
    The Michelin Pilot Road 5 is a 2CT tire as well. 2 CT stands for Two Compound Tire, a harder longer wearing rubber in the middle and softer grippier rubber on the sides. So far I have been VERY impressed and would not hesitate to do a track day on them.
    Correct. I believe the compounds are slightly different on the Road 5 from the Pilot power, but the same technology.

  4. #14
    Senior Member Cooter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pitcherman View Post
    Correct. I believe the compounds are slightly different on the Road 5 from the Pilot power, but the same technology.
    Yup.

  5. #15
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    Thanks, yeah I've read quite a bit about the different brands' compounds and tire lines, and endless reviews. It seems a lot of the better values are out of stock (shocker), but the conti sport attack's are in stock, inexpensive, and had good reviews. They're single compound but have some kind of variable heat treatment to get the center of the tire to last a little longer. Who knows how big of a difference this makes, but at $200 a pair I think it's worth a shot. I really wanted to go dunlop, but the roadsmart and roadsport were out of stock in my size, and the Q3+ sportmax are a bit out of my price range.
    Last edited by RidetheLightning; 08-29-2021 at 03:28 PM.

  6. #16
    Senior Member Cooter's Avatar
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    I've had plenty of Buells that had Conti's on them. Not my favorite, but still a very good tire. Like I said, it's pretty hard to get a 'bad' tire from any decent tire brand today/

  7. #17
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    There is a big rubber shortage, it's only going to get worse for anything that has rubber in it.

  8. #18
    Senior Member 06xbss's Avatar
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    If you liked the grip/handling of the Power 3, you should definitely look into the road 5. It took me almost 8000 miles to get to the wear bars and I never had any issues with grip. They didn't care if it was wet, dry, hot or cool/cold.

  9. #19
    Senior Member Mesozoic's Avatar
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    I live in Tucson and ride year round... commute to work often on my Buells and hit the local twisties all the time, whether it's 100+ or 40F outside. Admittedly, I do have heated grips on my XB. I also routinely make trips up to Phoenix and will ride all over Arizona when some friends are game for a 3-day trip.

    I had a set of Battlax S21s on my 1125CR and I wore them out very quickly. I normally keep the pressures at 36/39 front/rear, but they squared out quickly with some of the long pavement rides I put them through. I wouldn't run them again. I'm now running the Battlax BT023 sport touring tires and I like them a lot. They have the same traction in my environment (no track time) and wear significantly better, although I'm making a conscious effort to ride the twisty way home every day.

    For the XB12Ss I've settled on Michelin Pilot Road 2 with the 2CT compound. They endure well enough although if I'm unable to find them I wouldn't hesitate to gravitate towards the Battlax BT023 for this bike as well.

  10. #20
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    I never push the tires to the limits the bikes and tires have more than I have skills. That said 3000’miles in 7 years on the SS with pilot power 2 Ct and under 35 the rear seems like it is greasy for the first few miles so it waits for the warmer weather. On the XT Pirelli angels were new when I bought the bike two and a half years ago about 2500 miles and they look good and I don’t know if it is the bike or the tires but the XT takes more effort to turn wants to right itself more than the SS but heated grips and the tire works on cold pavement better.
    Shinkos on blasts so far and Dunlops one set of Pirelli for three blocks cause they looked new on an 01 the date stamp was 18/04 must have been a special blast could spin the rear tire at 30mph in third gear with just a twist of the throttle.
    When I got the pilot’s I thought I would ride a lot more. Any tire car or bike shouldn’t last much over 5 years if you get to 20 percent put new ones on.
    If you’re running the snot out of it get the best you can afford your life depends on it.


    Last edited by cvc; 02-24-2022 at 03:04 PM.

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