GAmedic
Registered
Bike: '11 Hayabusa. Stock chain and sprockets. Only mods are slip ons, shorty levers, rearsets, and steering stabilizer.
Riding style: majority commute. Mildly aggressive mountain trips. Couple of high speed interstate runs less than 150mph.
So, most all of you know I ride my bike every day because I dont own a car at the moment. For this reason, I need the best tires I can get that will perform in all weather and last as long as possible. I bought my bike this year at the end of April and it had 88xx miles on it. I turned 21,000 this past Sunday. I am currently averaging 2100 miles a month on the bike give or take. Some people do that many miles in a year. When I bought the bike, it had almost bald OE Battlax tires. I've never had anything good to say about Battlax tires. I knew PR4s were what I wanted; until I heard about the Road 5s that had recently come out.
I read up on the Road 5s and one of the claims Michelin had was these tires would have the same wet traction after 3k miles as PR4s have new. Well, I'm sold on them so I placed my order for the 5s. Had fresh rubber mounted and I hit the road. Did a proper tire break in so I took it easy for roughly the first 250 miles. Tires did great for the break in period. Time for mountain trips.
Took my first couple of mountain trips very easy going because I had some depression demons to fight along the way. Tires did great. After I conquered those demons, I let loose the monster that had been itching to scream up the mountain. These tires stuck like glue and never once let me down. The bike kept screaming for more lean angle but due to not having my race suit, I played it safe. Then came some wet weather....
Up until now, I had been adamant about not riding in the rain. When you're left with only having a bike, I put my big girl panties on and got to it. Rain suit on and I head out. The wet traction was impressive. Light rain? No problem. Moderate rain? Keep it coming. Heavy rain with 1" of standing water on the interstate? Slow and steady with no loss of traction.
Several thousand miles in, the dual compound of the tires start to show which is kinda cool to see. Still no traction issues at all. At this point, I'm pretty confident in their all weather performance and will now point my focus on longevity. I've never gotten more than maybe 8k miles out of a set so I wanted to see if I could get that from these.
8,000 miles.....9,000 miles.....10,000 miles in and I'm just starting to consider a new pair. I'm impressed with the mileage so far. Due to finances at the time and the loss of one of my dogs, I had to delay a tire purchase for the front. Finally got my replacement tire for the front and still delayed due to work.
11,539.4 miles and the front has been replaced. The tread depth did get pretty low which is always a definite concern. However, I wanted to stretch it out to see it's full capability. The rear tire will likely see another 2,000 miles due to having a good bit of tread left. Normally, I swap them out at the same time. However, I'm going to see what the max mileage is for the rear. I will be ordering the rear tire next payday to have it ready.
Michelin has never let me down on anything I've owned and this is surely no exception. For what it's worth to the tech savvy guys, I took a couple of measurements.
New front tire: 9.4lbs and 6.5" of total contact surface area of tread from sidewall to sidewall.
Used front tire: 8.0lbs and 6.25" of total contact surface area of tread from sidewall to sidewall.
The tire lost 1.4lbs of rubber and only an average 1/4" of contact surface area.
I'll keep this thread active until I get the rear replaced and post mileage and other measurements. These tires have for sure paid for themselves. I'll also update as winter rolls in to see how they perform in cold weather.
Riding style: majority commute. Mildly aggressive mountain trips. Couple of high speed interstate runs less than 150mph.
So, most all of you know I ride my bike every day because I dont own a car at the moment. For this reason, I need the best tires I can get that will perform in all weather and last as long as possible. I bought my bike this year at the end of April and it had 88xx miles on it. I turned 21,000 this past Sunday. I am currently averaging 2100 miles a month on the bike give or take. Some people do that many miles in a year. When I bought the bike, it had almost bald OE Battlax tires. I've never had anything good to say about Battlax tires. I knew PR4s were what I wanted; until I heard about the Road 5s that had recently come out.
I read up on the Road 5s and one of the claims Michelin had was these tires would have the same wet traction after 3k miles as PR4s have new. Well, I'm sold on them so I placed my order for the 5s. Had fresh rubber mounted and I hit the road. Did a proper tire break in so I took it easy for roughly the first 250 miles. Tires did great for the break in period. Time for mountain trips.
Took my first couple of mountain trips very easy going because I had some depression demons to fight along the way. Tires did great. After I conquered those demons, I let loose the monster that had been itching to scream up the mountain. These tires stuck like glue and never once let me down. The bike kept screaming for more lean angle but due to not having my race suit, I played it safe. Then came some wet weather....
Up until now, I had been adamant about not riding in the rain. When you're left with only having a bike, I put my big girl panties on and got to it. Rain suit on and I head out. The wet traction was impressive. Light rain? No problem. Moderate rain? Keep it coming. Heavy rain with 1" of standing water on the interstate? Slow and steady with no loss of traction.
Several thousand miles in, the dual compound of the tires start to show which is kinda cool to see. Still no traction issues at all. At this point, I'm pretty confident in their all weather performance and will now point my focus on longevity. I've never gotten more than maybe 8k miles out of a set so I wanted to see if I could get that from these.
8,000 miles.....9,000 miles.....10,000 miles in and I'm just starting to consider a new pair. I'm impressed with the mileage so far. Due to finances at the time and the loss of one of my dogs, I had to delay a tire purchase for the front. Finally got my replacement tire for the front and still delayed due to work.
11,539.4 miles and the front has been replaced. The tread depth did get pretty low which is always a definite concern. However, I wanted to stretch it out to see it's full capability. The rear tire will likely see another 2,000 miles due to having a good bit of tread left. Normally, I swap them out at the same time. However, I'm going to see what the max mileage is for the rear. I will be ordering the rear tire next payday to have it ready.
Michelin has never let me down on anything I've owned and this is surely no exception. For what it's worth to the tech savvy guys, I took a couple of measurements.
New front tire: 9.4lbs and 6.5" of total contact surface area of tread from sidewall to sidewall.
Used front tire: 8.0lbs and 6.25" of total contact surface area of tread from sidewall to sidewall.
The tire lost 1.4lbs of rubber and only an average 1/4" of contact surface area.
I'll keep this thread active until I get the rear replaced and post mileage and other measurements. These tires have for sure paid for themselves. I'll also update as winter rolls in to see how they perform in cold weather.
