Michelin Pilot Road 2
Michelin Pilot Road 2
CW EVALUATION
Two, two, two tires in one
IT’S A REAL CONUNDRUM-AND NO, WE’RE not referring to an item used for safe sex. We’re talking about the challenge of finding tires sticky enough to allow go-for-it corner-carving yet durable enough not to become bald as cue balls in the middle long before wearing out on the sides. This has been an ongoing source of frustration for riders who like to tear up the twisties on occasion but spend the rest of their time riding much more vertically.
Michelin appears to have a welcome solution with its new Pilot Road 2, a sport-touring tire built with the company’s Two Compound Technology (2CT) that puts comparatively soft rubber on the shoulders and a harder compound in the middle. Michelin introduced this technology in 2005 on its Power Race competition tire and expanded it last year with the Pilot Power 2CT supersport tire.
While both those tires are aimed more at racing and track days, the Road 2 is, as its name suggests, road-oriented. The shoulder compounds are formulated for the lean angles and corner speeds an aggressive rider is likely to achieve on
backroads; the center has moredurable rubber better able to stand up to the everyday forces of acceleration and braking that wear out a tire’s midsection. Michelin also designed the Road 2 to excel in wet weather, a trait many highperformance tires lack.
Senior Editor Paul Dean tried the Road 2s during the tire’s world press launch in France, sampling them on an 80-plus-mile stretch of fabulous mountain twisties aboard a Honda Interceptor, a KTM Super Duke and a Voxan Black Magic. He also participated in a wet-track comparison between the Road 2 and the single-compound Pilot Road on a Suzuki Bandit 1250. In both environments, he came away very impressed.
On the mountain roads, the dual-compound Michelins exhibited tenacious grip, with quick, easy turn-in and exceptional stability at full lean. Dean felt that the Road 2s improved the overall handling of all three of those machines, which already are terrific backroaders.
Equally impressive was the wet-road performance. The test was conducted on a flat, tight course paved with asphalt of different textures and lined with sprinklers that keep the surface saturated with water. On the single-
compound tires, the Bandit’s throttle could barely be opened without spinning the rear tire uncontrollably, and any lean angle greater than a few degrees would slide the front end. But with the Road 2s, Dean was able to ride significantly faster, bettering lap times by more than 30 percent.
We can’t speak to the longevity of the Road 2s, as we haven’t yet been able to log miles on them back home in California. But the prospect of combining excellent grip with good tread life is very enticing. Perhaps Michelin puts it best: “Pilot Road 2 tires reconcile the irreconcilable.” □
DETAILS
Michelin North America R0. Box 19001 Greenville, SC 29602 866/866-6605 www.michelin-us.com Price...$125 to $190 Àjps A Great backroad handling A Excellent stabil ▲ G
