New Tires - Motorcycle-Journal Forums

**inspiron** · 07-07-2008, 05:17 AM

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m truly amazed how the choice of tires on a bike can affect the whole riding experience.

When I bought my Suzuki, it came with Bridgestone tires. During my first 4000 miles, I was just getting used to the bike, and not really giving much thought to the tires.

As the Bridgestones were down on the warning bars, the dealer recommended replacing them with Continental Road Attacks.

Riding away from the dealership was like riding a totally different bike! Suddenly, I felt more confidence and more connection to the bike – I could lean it into the curves and felt sure that it was going to stick to the street. It was a difference like night and day!

Over the next 2 seasons, I went through 2 sets of Road Attacks.

In 2006, the dealer recommended Metzeler Roadtec Z6, so I decided to try them. The Metzelers were, to me, almost as good as the Contis. There was the occasional second where I would lose confidence in the tires (hitting “tar snakes” on the road was often cause for my heart to miss a beat), but over the past 2 years (and almost 9,000 miles), the Metzelers never let me down.

After a bit more than 4,500 miles, I needed to replace my tires this past week. The front was down to less than 1mm of tread depth (the minimum required by law here), but the rear still had 2 – 3 mm.

I decided, after reading some magazine reviews, to switch back to the Conti Road Attack again. The replacement was expensive (it always is!) – I rode the bike into the dealership in the morning, and rode out in the afternoon on new tires. For this service, I paid $680: Front tire 120/70ZR17 - $205, rear 190/50ZR17 - $310, weights and other parts $14 – plus $145 (1.25 hours) labor.

I didn’t expect any major changes in performance or feeling – after all, I hardly noticed the switch from Conti to Metztler two years ago.

But this time … WOW!

The Metzeler Roadtec Z6 is a tire that wants to tip. I would often find myself leaning too far – I would enter the turn at a speed that was within my comfort zone, but the Metzelers were designed for higher speeds – the result was that my turning radius was smaller than the curve, meaning that I would have to correct in the middle.

The Conti’s, on the other hand, respond like an airplane. You put them at any angle, and they remain stable at that angle until you give them another input.

For my riding style, I will definitely stay with the Conti’s from now on.