Michelin Pilot Road 3

Excellent for first few tkm's. Terrible when worn >50% – Had already two sets of them on my Kawasaki ER6F. When PR3 are new - stunning tire! Heaps of dry/wet grip, great on corners and remarkable on the brakes. When achieved 50% of tread wear suddenly rear one's side tread starts disappearing. It happened after couple hundred of kms on twisties. Twice I ended up finishing my trips with bold sides of tires with 3 mm in the middle tread, including forced tire replacement on Great Ocean Road. I trusted Michelin for years (Pilot Power series) so I gave them a second chance and fitted them again and exactly the same happened. Front one had to be replaced as well cause didn't have enough tread on one side. Handling became horrible, couple times was checking the bike and tires pressure but everything was good. Surprisingly most of km's done on highways - not a racetrack - and Ninja 650 is not 200 HP hyperpowerful bike! Most probably the side of tire is overheating and doesn't cooperate well with Australian tarmac. Grip when new, wet grip when new. high mileage on straight but if you like corners you may expect abnormal (for a tourist tire) side wear.

PR3s from new to worn – After 25 years on bikes, I've worn out a few sets under various conditions. The past few years on my GSX750F Suzuki, otherwise known as a Katana, I've worn out Michelin Pilot Road 2s, Power Pures and now onto Pilot Road 3s. My sizes are 120/70-17 and 160/60-17. Pilot Road 2s got around 16-18000 kms, Power Pures no more than 7000 kms, and the Pilot Road 3s run to around 10-12000 kms. Awesome feel and grip from the get-go. Done a few racetrack sessions with PR3s and they do ok, but then my bike doesn't top the 100hp mark.

For the most part, my usage is 50% commuting, with say 40% touring and maybe 10% hard riding or racetrack use.

As a 24/7 rider in all weather, this tyre suits me, as it provides excellent grip and feedback under wet conditions, allowing me to confidently ride thru on days when I'm tripping around the countryside.

I know some folks don't like the odd appearance of the PR3s due to the many sipes and grooves, all I can say it that the tyre works and works very well! Awesome grip and feedback under all conditions, especially in the wet. Nothing wrong with the tyre as such, but Michelin's claim of longer life over the PR2s is wrong.

PR3s are standing up very well – In May 2011, with winter just over the horizon, my old girl, an ’05 Honda CBR1100XX Super Blackbird was ready for some new rubber. This particular ‘Bird, which puts about 112 kW through the back wheel, is quite heavy on rear tyres when ridden hard. Even with a judicious throttle hand, the ‘Bird has only been getting at most around 10,000 kays from Bridgestone BT020s and 021s at the rear end, and 10,000 to 15,000 at he other end of the bike. My dismay at the poor dry road performance of the BT021s, both front and rear and the sphincter-tightening moments I’d experienced at times in the wet, convinced me a change of brand was needed. I was in search of a tyre which would perform well on both wet and dry roads, and perhaps give me longer service than the Bridgies.

Having been impressed with the performance of a set of Michelin Pilot Road 2s on the Honda SP-2 I had acquired six months earlier and taken to a few track days, and having read some good opinions of the Michelin Pilot Road 3s, I decided to take a punt on them and test Michelin’s claims for its “latest-generation 2CT dual-compound technology” (soft compound on the shoulders of the tyre and harder compound in the centre) and “Michelin X-Sipe Technology” (of which more later). Peter at Tyres for Bikes fitted a front 120/70ZR17 and a 180/55ZR17 at the rear and balanced them for $550.00.

Since May (it’s now early January), the PR3s have seen about 8,400 kms of riding, varying from a wet track day at Barbagallo to some fast-ish country runs (mostly on dry roads) of over 500kms interspersed with some suburban plodding, always including some enthusiastic acceleration to get well clear of the cagers – and of course, just for the fun!

So how are the PR3s standing up so far, at the point where the Bridgies were usually starting to look and feel very well-knackered?

Firstly, I must say that the PR3s are wearing well. So far we seem to have pretty even wear across the tread on both tyres. I thought the ‘sipes’(the small grooves in the tyre tread), particularly on the front tyre, looked a bit fragile at first, but they appear to be resisting scalloping very creditably. The rears have had a good workout and look to be standing up well with no sign of squaring off and heaps of rubber remaining across the tread.

While the Blackbird is no frisky sports bike at 225kg dry, I’ve noticed that she turns in much more easily now and holds a line better on the PR3s than she ever did on the BTs or on the OEM Dunlop 205s she was delivered with. Over the past six months too, I’ve been continually surprised at how much stick I can confidently give her out of corners without fear of breaking traction. The side compound is really playing its part here, I guess. At Barbagallo on a wet track when the PR3s only had about 3,000 kays on them, these tyres engendered so much confidence that after a couple of sessions I found myself dragging the peg at the sweeping right-hander at the Basin and in Turn 7 onto the pit straight. Even in the wet the drive out of corners was a revelation, with only a couple of bum-clenchers as the ‘Bird hit her power band at 7,000 in third gear. The performance at Barbagallo, a nice even, grippy surface, has been pretty much repeated on our sometimes less-than-billiard-table-smooth country roads. I’d like to try these tyres on a bike with more modern suspension, as I feel they have a lot more to give than the ‘Bird’s 1996 suspension setup is able to take advantage of.

Braking performance on the PR3s has also shown some improvement. While I haven’t so far had to come to any sphincter stops (touch wood), my personal testing has shown that the ‘Bird pulls up pretty smartly on these tyres and tracks well .I’m beginning to feel also that the PR3s are a tyre I want to be on when things get urgent on a wet road. I haven’t compared stopping distances in any scientific way, but we all know when the rubber between us and the road is making us feel safe and when it isn’t; and the PR3s make me feel safe when hitting the stoppers, whether on wet or dry tarmac.

Of course no tyre is going to give its best unless it has reached its optimum operating temperature. I haven’t taken particular note of how long the PR3s take to reach this point. I always give my tyres time to get some heat in them, and the PR3s don’t seem to take inordinately long to get to a good temperature.

The much-trumpeted ‘sipes’ (see above) are supposed to work to drain water away from the contact patch more efficiently than ‘ordinary’ tyre tread. Go to the Michelin web site to see some cute animations – if animations are your thing! (www.michelinmotorcycle.com).

With summer upon us the PR3s are going to have to face the ultimate test of extremely hot WA roads. These tyres are a European design and I’ve certainly heard some scepticism expressed about their ability to survive in our summer climate. Time will tell I guess, but so far I’ve been sufficiently impressed with the Michelin Pilot Road 3s to shell out for a set on my little CB400; putting only about 35 kW to the road and with a kerb weight of about 190 odd kgs, she just finished writing off a set of OEM Dunlop 204s in a mere 12,000 kays. My experience with the PR3s on the Blackbird gives me confidence that they will do much better on the 400 than the Dunlops. This will also give me a chance to evaluate the PR3s as a tyre for the urban jungle.

Meanwhile, stay tuned for another report at the end of summer. By then I hope to have the whole story for you. Wet road performance, wear rate (so far)