Best tires for street riding?

Tires are like computers, technology advances so rapidly that what you had as a premium tire last year may be old school this year.

That's the case with Michelin's infamous Pilot Power line. The Pilot Power as well as the PP2ct is old school today. Bridgestone now has the BTO16 & BTOO3. Both are excellent tires!

Dunlop has the new Qualifier 2 which from all accounts could be the very best street tire available today. Professional riders say the Q2 is 3 seconds a lap faster than the standard Q. 3 seconds a lap is a huge improvement. Dunlop also has the Sportmax NT11 which wins all the races in the NW. Pure race tire but gives vicious grip. Every serious racer seems to run this tire in the NW.

The Pilot Power tires were as good as you could buy 3 years ago but they are not even close to the current crop of tires. Pirelli is another tire you should not overlook. Michelin has a new tire as well but I've not read any reviews. I believe it's called the Race One?

Your new busa came with Bridgestone BTO15's which is an outstanding tire in it's own right. I have romped them at the track on a number of occasions and in my humble opinion are superior to the PP as well as the PP2ct. The BTO16 is a step up from the 15 (single compound) with it's tripple compound rear and dual compound front. If you look closely at the PP2ct you'll notice the soft rubber on the outside edge of the tire is less than an inch wide.

Here is a properly spanked BTO15
DSC02038.jpg


Here is a properly spanked BTO16
BTO167-12-09024.jpg


This is the cross section profile of the infamous PP2ct's. Notice how thin the sticky rubber is along the edge.
pilotpowerct2schema.jpg


This is the cross section profile of Bridgestones BTO16. As you can see, there is a huge improvement!
Front
StoneFrontDual.gif


Rear
StoneRearTriple.gif


:beerchug:
 
Ok just throwing these out there for feedback purposes, Michalin hpx, Pirelli diablo corsa 3, pirelli angels, shinko 005s or 009s. And 190/50 or 190/55? Thanks for the info on the bridgestones tufbusa, they will be a strong consideration...
 
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My busa never sees the track and I swaped my tires to the Pilot Road 2s which are also a dual compound tire and love them so far.
I run PP 2CTs on my Ducati but tires last me 3500 +/- on my Duc.
Id be afraid the PP2CTs would not last to long on the heavier busa.
Either way I like Michelins.
 
I have seen good reviews on Michelin pilot road 2s. But keep in mind these are touring tires.

I have little confidence in Michelin's street tires. I have seen more crashes on Michelin street tires than all the other tires combined.
 
Any one know about shinko 005's? They look like they are not to bad... Im just doing my homework seeing whats out there
 
Any one know about shinko 005's? They look like they are not to bad... Im just doing my homework seeing whats out there
only place I have seen a shinko used for hard riding is the drag strip..

I have not seen a single one at a track day... not 1

any tire is a compromise between mileage and grip..

BT016 (great tire, bit short on mileage if you beat on them)
Pirelli Corsa 3 (great tire but $$)
BT003 or 002 (the tires I have been using at track - GLUE)

BT002RS
DSCN4106.JPG
 
I like the Pirelli Diablo - nice price and decent life (5k-6k beating on the rear pretty good). The Corsa III's are real nice but about double the cost of the Diablo.
 
i am awaiting for the results from use of the race one, but still love my pp2cts
What I read about the Power1 is that they were released only because of their backing out of the racing program. The tires were only for the teams they sponsored at the time and now that they dropped all of that, they are releasing the tire to the masses... (true or not? beats me but boy do they have a selection of tires for track days out there)
 
I've just replaced my old PP2ct with Pirelli Rosso, i can tell u it warms up really fast and its really grippy, dont know much about the milage as they are just new. The PP2ct is great on the corners but seems a bit nervous because of its sharp profile.
 
mMy r1 was very heavily moded, and had much more acceleration then my busa stock, but that will be changing when I get into moding the busa as the busa makes more power. Im
simple looking for better tires as im not a fan of the stock ones... All i was saying was I liked the feel of the power pilots vs the stock busa tires.

r1 was very heavily moded, and had much more acceleration then my busa stock,???
 
Any one know about shinko 005's? They look like they are not to bad... Im just doing my homework seeing whats out there

I am no Mr. Bogus on a Busa, but so far, everything I have thrown at my 005's, they have not let me down. I am very happy wth them. Hit some good horseshoes on my way to the Dragon at around 50 mph and they dug in with no problem. I have no complaints.
 
I ride the slab commuting for most of my miles. I got
10k miles out of my Pilot Powers and I just ponied
up for some Pilot Road 2's. Not too many twisties in
Nebraska.
 
I spend alot of time on the highway and a few back roads, here is ct there is not many twisties nor a track at least to my knowledge.So far what im getting from this thread is that the pp 2ct, BT016, and pirelli corsa 3 are the most popular. It seems that the choice is more or less a matter of preference when it comes to this topic... just want something kick ass that will be grippy and decent if i am in the rain, which is not all that often ha
 
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I ride the slab commuting for most of my miles. I got
10k miles out of my Pilot Powers and I just ponied
up for some Pilot Road 2's. Not too many twisties in
Nebraska.

These are supposed to be good rain tires. That was
also part of the decision.
 
These are supposed to be good rain tires. That was
also part of the decision.

PR 2's are excellent in the rain! I ran into a hard rain the last 100 miles coming back from Cinncinati in August and pushed them quite hard up to 110 or so. Felt very secure except when on the throttle crossing the dotted lines-no tire grips there. :whistle:
 
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