jaytee Posted November 18, 2007 Share Posted November 18, 2007 Howdy! Since the tire is fairly new I thought I'd post my impressions. I bought this bike with 900 miles on the odometer and the original stock tires (2 years old). The rear showed noticable shouldering from freeway travels by ~3500mi, and was hitting the wear-bars at 4200mi. I ordered my Pilot Road 2's from American Motorcycle Tire in Arizona. The rear tire cost $168 and the front tire cost $132. Shipping was a reasonable $14 for a total of $313 shipped ground. I received the tires from an air-mail delivery service (even though I ordered and paid for Ground) the next business day. Odd, but nice! I took both wheels off (the back is OH-SO easy, the front not-so-much-so) and went to Malcom Smith Motorsports in Riverside to have them mounted. $52 later, both tires were mounted up. Since we are in the middle of a SoCal heat wave, I decided to try the tires out on our mountin loop. A buddy and I rode to Redlands, then up the back side of Big Bear lake, riding the Rim of the World past Arrowhead lake and back down the mountain for a total of 170 miles, roughly split 50% freeway, 50% mountain roads. Preasure: 36lbs front and rear Weight: 190lbs w/o gear, no luggage Temperature: 50's-60's sunny Road Conditions: Dry, smooth with granular texture (typical well-maintained alpine roads) Altitude: 500ft - 8000ft+ Initial Impressions: 1. Fresh tires are a bit squirly in the muck of overwatered residential streets 2. These ride a little bit harsher on uneven freeway pavement than the stock ones did 3. Stopping power was fine, although the feedback seemed a little less 4. Side to side transition was excellent. No doubt this was enhanced by the move from a slightly 'shouldered' rear tire to a new round tire. 5. I never overpowered the tires even in a straight line. 6. They drop into sharp turns with precision - I rarely had to alter my line. 7. They changed lines in mid-turn comfortrably and without drama. Although I have a scant 200 miles on these tires, my initial impressions are mostly favorable. Aside from a slightly harsher ride on the freeway, these tires do not seem to compromise performance with an unloaded bike in either a straight line (acceleration and braking) or in the twisties (quickly assuming the proper lean angle, and transitioning side to side). My concerns about stopping traction seemed to be unfounded and the softer compound on the sides for iffy road surfaces in the mountains gave me peace of mind, if nothing else. Many times I accelerated nearly as hard as this boxer twin would let me from a lean, and nothing ever got unsettled or loose. The main reason for me to move to this tire is to increase the number of miles I can get before the tire shoulders out while retaining the sport tire performance leanded over. The jury is still out on the longevity, but out of the box they seem to do the trick with this bike. I'm Happy so far. JT Link to comment
Firefight911 Posted November 18, 2007 Share Posted November 18, 2007 Well written and objective review! Looking forward to some updates as time goes on. Oh, wait. I sold my ST. How do they respond to braking while leaned over? Does the bike remain stable or does it want to stand up? Maintain its line? Link to comment
jaytee Posted November 19, 2007 Author Share Posted November 19, 2007 Well written and objective review! How do they respond to braking while leaned over? Does the bike remain stable or does it want to stand up? Maintain its line? Thanks! The stock tires wanted to stand right up - rather abruptly and violently, actually. The Pilot Road 2's seem to respond well to very easy braking inputs leaned over. they tend to scrub off a little speed as opposed to rapidly jerking the bike into a wider line. I found I could trail brake a little with confidence with the PR2's where as I didnt dare do it with stock tires. But that difference may have been the fairly noticeable wear on the old tires rather than the PR2's being anything special. That being said, you couldnt pay me enough to put another set of those stock tires on. JT Link to comment
bobanddianne Posted November 19, 2007 Share Posted November 19, 2007 JT, We'll have to share our tire experiences. I've been content with the original Pilot Road tires that came with '07 R1200RT. On Tuesday, the 20th, we will have a Pilot Road 2 put on the rear and a Pilot Power put on the front during our 12,000 mile maintanence. Looking forward to seeing how close our relative evaluations are. Look forward to seeing you out on the road soon, Link to comment
bakerzdosen Posted November 19, 2007 Share Posted November 19, 2007 Weight: 190lbs w/o gear, no luggageDude, too much information. I know you said "heat wave, but even in California you could get arrested riding naked like that... Thanks for the review. They're on my list for my next tires once my Storms give up the ghost. Link to comment
jaytee Posted November 19, 2007 Author Share Posted November 19, 2007 Weight: 190lbs w/o gear, no luggageDude, too much information. I know you said "heat wave, but even in California you could get arrested riding naked like that... What's wrong with that???? Link to comment
jaytee Posted November 20, 2007 Author Share Posted November 20, 2007 Whoops! First time afoul of the site censors... I guess the nude hippie on a BMW was a bit too much hair Sorry... JT Link to comment
R4ND0M_AX3 Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 What tires did you have as stock? Dunlop, Metzler, or ???? Link to comment
jaytee Posted November 20, 2007 Author Share Posted November 20, 2007 What tires did you have as stock? Dunlop, Metzler, or ???? Stock tires were Dunlop's. I also had them as OEM tires on my Roadstar Warrior and hated them there too. The front tire cups like mad, and is very noisy when leaned over. The vertical grooves tend to grab the rain grooves on the freeway, and the rear gave up the ghost and shouldered off noticeably after only 3k miles. In a word, horrible. JT Link to comment
jaytee Posted November 20, 2007 Author Share Posted November 20, 2007 JT, We'll have to share our tire experiences. I've been content with the original Pilot Road tires that came with '07 R1200RT. On Tuesday, the 20th, we will have a Pilot Road 2 put on the rear and a Pilot Power put on the front during our 12,000 mile maintanence. Looking forward to seeing how close our relative evaluations are. Look forward to seeing you out on the road soon, Howdy! (p.s. the next slackers ride is up! ) I am courious why you opted for a Pilot power in the front with a Road 2 in the back? Figure that they both will wear out about the same time? JT Link to comment
bobanddianne Posted November 22, 2007 Share Posted November 22, 2007 After 12K on our new bike we replaced the original Road Pilot tires: Front Road Power Rear Road Pilot 2 We had the same good/excellent results as reported above by jaytee. Really solid, stick like glue, stay on line. You know, all the things we dream of happening when we ride. Noticably superior to the original Road Pilots in every regard... Plus, the front Road Power is SILENT... Yes, you heard me, Silent, even after testing for noise with my helmet chin piece flipped up. They certainly get our vote Link to comment
bobanddianne Posted November 24, 2007 Share Posted November 24, 2007 I am courious why you opted for a Pilot power in the front with a Road 2 in the back? Figure that they both will wear out about the same time? JT Exactly, because I have always worn out the rear before the front... Besides excellent traction, there is one extra unexpected feature that was included... The Road Power is Extremely Quiet. Link to comment
Todd_Z1 Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Jaytee, I have the Road Pilot Power up front and the Pilot 2 in back (K12S). I have about 500 miles on them including just about every surface and road condition you can imagine. These tires are simply amazing. They provide excellent traction and road feel. The only point I can't comment on is how they wear with respect to cupping at the end of life. I am very happy with them so far. Cheers! Link to comment
jaytee Posted November 27, 2007 Author Share Posted November 27, 2007 Jaytee, I have the Road Pilot Power up front and the Pilot 2 in back (K12S). I have about 500 miles on them including just about every surface and road condition you can imagine. These tires are simply amazing. They provide excellent traction and road feel. The only point I can't comment on is how they wear with respect to cupping at the end of life. I am very happy with them so far. Cheers! This is what I am curious about... I opted for Road 2's front and rear, mainly becasue I was worried about more cupping on the softer road powers... My 220's cupped really bad after only 3000 miles. But the Road 2's also have softer sides, sooo...... Road feel is wonderful, but I am sceptical about longer term wear patterns. We shall see. JT Link to comment
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