[sarnali]

I've run Pilot Roads on a few different bikes and come away impressed. I think Michelin is putting out about the best street tires available for sport touring or fast street riding. Good grip in the wet and decent milage, I'd use them on my bonnie if they made an appropriate size.

 

[50268]

Michelin Pilot Power or Road your choice. Depends on the bike/riding style. Pirelli Scorpions are nice also.

I do not recommend Dunlop if you can buy either of the above instead.

 

[35377]

I just put a set of Pilot Powers on my SuperHawk about 2000 miles ago. Love 'em! Best handling tires so far (on the street, anyway - haven't done a track day with them yet). Better handling and grip than previous Michelin Pilot Sports or Pilot Roads (Much better than OEM Dunlops). Interestingly, the Pilot Powers are as good in heavy rain as the Pilot Roads, though by looking at them you'd swear the Powers are a hydroplane waiting to happen!



The Pilot Powers have a much faster summer warm-up than the Pilot Sports - can't speak for winter yet, but I swear that if the temperature was consistently below 40F the Pilot Sports wouldn't warm up no matter how fast or long you rode! Pilot Roads were much better in that regard, and I have high hopes for the Pilot Powers.



The Powers seem to be wearing well too - wouldn't be surprised to get about the same mileage as I did with the Pilot Roads (4000 - 5000 miles + two track days and no burnouts). They squared off a bit on a recent 500 mile trip that involved some not-so-tight two-lane roads, but rounded out again after some hard work on the tight stuff.



To sum up: Good price (buy a front/rear set from Competition Accessories for $235), stick like glue, wear like iron, good in the rain, look cool! Any doubt that we're living in the Golden Age of Motorcycling?

 

[Marcos_Peguero_1]

I sell tires here in Dominican Republic, and the best tires are Michelins, I have tried almost all tires and get feedback from customers.



Michelins powers and road are the best tire on the market, good grip and wear.



014 are good also but dont last that long as power.





Dunlop 208, are so bad that I dont sell them anymore.



Power is the best tire at this moment with the 014.

 

[55024]

Haven't had a chance to try the Powers yet, but I ran the older Pilot Sports on everything I could. Great tires. The best street tires going, as far as I'm concerned. I"ll have 'em on the new bikes, as soon as I need replacements.

 

[jbilodeau]

Forget the 208's the qualifiers are the best tires Dunlop makes. A little better on the track than the powers, for the street it is a toss up.

 

[minglet]

I ride Pilot Powers on several bikes(Busa, GSXR1000 and Honda CBR600) and have replaced all of the OE tires with them. Riding all bikes on both street and track, the tires have excellent grip and wear plus they look the part. Best overall tire in my experience.

 

[Buzglyd]

What are you doing with the tires there? Tie a rope through it and hang it from a tree so tourists can swing into the lagoon?

 

[48454]

pilot powers have far outlasted my oem batleaxes (6k and the carcas was about to show on my speed triple, just started shoping for new ones after 9000 miles. Wear bars are about a 32nd from the tread surface on the rear, the front still has 3/16 in anyhoo. not that the front really touches that often... grip is great hot, cold, dry and wet. I have lost traction on some painted lines cornering hard a few times, but the tire grabs again progresively enough so there is no real scare. I will definitely be buying another set.

 

[36284]

Nobody's got any love for Metzlers? M-1? M-3?

 

[8845]

I put the Michelin Pilot Powers on my Suzuki RGV 250 last year and they have been excellent tires so far. The Pilots not only grip quite well, they're comfortable over many kinds of road surfaces. I bought them because of rave reviews from fellow riders, and the set of Michelin Pilots I put on my car.

 

[davidhaner]

I've got pilot powers on my sv650s. They're just plain great. They're awesome in the rain, although as a previous poster said they don't look the part at all.

 

[sconley]

...I've been riding for 16 years and have done thousands of miles of track day riding with race compound tires, but it wasn't until this spring that I put on Pilot Powers... About 300 miles into them I unintentionally scuffed my knee on a public road (actually, it was the outside of my shin)... I love the Pilot Powers, they give a lot of confidence and when they do start to let go it isn't catastrophic. I just wish they would import the dual compound tires into the states...

 

[jibosch]

I am going to differ from most of you, respectfully, but on my 2001 Buell M2 Cyclone, with 25,000 miles of urban riding that I have on it, while they do work much better than the Dunlop 208's, they also have a very harsh ride, so much so, that I have checked the tire presure with two different electronic gauges, to see if I was overinflated. I run 32 at the front and 36 at the rear. The cyclone weighs about 500lbs., and I weigh about 230lbs. After these Powers wear out, I have about 1000 miles on them, which I am hoping will be soon, I am going back to the Pirelli Diablo on the rear and the Pirelli Diablo Corsa 3 on the front, or perhaps the new Metzeler M-3's. [The Buell's 170 section rear was not available in the Corsa range, during my last purchase]. The Pirelli's grip just as good as the Pilot Powers, in my opinion, perhaps the Corsas grip even better, but the ride is not so bone jarring, and they are much more confidence inspiring on curves and when braking, to me. I have no doubt that the Michelin's are a great tire, but it is not working on my rig!

 

[Cathar]

I tried the Metzeler M1's a while back. I didn't realise but they come in an OEM and Generic compound. The first set I put on were the OEM compound (for some Honda I think), and they were great. Very sticky, went great at a track day. Beautiful, controllable power-drifting on the rear.



Got a nail through the rear, and put another M1 on it, and it was horrible. Slid about like crazy, would spin up out of corners with almost no provocation, and developed a weird ripple wear pattern on the edge of the tyre. In short, it was downright dangerous.



That's when I dug a little deeper and found a few people who had similar experiences, and found out about the different OEM and Generic compounds, even though the tyres were all still called M-1's.



The experience put me off the M-1's and I never tried them since. I do want to try the M-3's though, but they're only just starting to become available here.

 

[BruceF]

I've got a roadtec Z6 on the rear and a sporttec M3 on the front[ I know , don't mix] , I've got a Blackbird[no steering dampner], and the M3 really improved the front end handling, the problem is that I only got 3200 miles of the rear[and not much more from the frt Z6], I'd go with the Pilot if I could get better mileage and the same stick

 

[seruzawa]

Speaking of tyres, I've gotten nearly 12K out those AV77s you talked me into and there's still some tread left. That's 3K more than the D205s I was using. Plus, there's no cupping and they stick pretty darn well for sportouring tyres, even in the rain.



So long Dunlop.

 

[sarnali]

Always glad to hep' a brutha' out.......

 

[Rude374]

Guys just be careful with those Powers at the track. They seem fine for recreational track riders but when you try to push them to race pace they will let go. I know a few guys who have high-sided trying to keep up with us WERA guys on race take offs.



Just my $0.02



Rude

 

[32849]

thanks for saying that. i had the same response to some of the posts up above when people talked about using them for track days. there really is no perfect all around tire. the michelin street tires and the dunlop qualifier will get real greasy after about 5 laps.

consider just having a set of 209 gp or other dot race tire for track days.