WORDS & PHOTOS
RAYMOND HERON
SUPER
COMMUTER
fter covering more than 16,000km
of commuting, touring and spirited
riding, the mismatched set of tyres
on my Yamaha MT-07 were starting to
resemble glazed doughnuts. But with
so many makes, models and variants of
doughnut out there, how do you know
which delicious crème filled morsels you
should run on your bike?
Hang on, I think I’m getting my
metaphors mixed up...
You see, It’s all about priorities, and as
I’m 85% commuter and 15% weekend
warrior, I need something that can handle
all year round riding. It’s reasonably easy
to find something sticky for summer
riding, but finding something that can
handle the twisties as well as heavy rain,
surface water, freezing mornings and
commuter miles is a completely different
kettle of fish. I’m not quite sure where
I’m going with these doughnut and fish
analogies...
Anyway, one solution to the puzzle is
Michelin’s Pilot Road series of tyres,
A new set of tyres on your
ride is like an instant bike
upgrade. Ray Heron takes you
through the first 48 hours
with Michelin’s Road 5s.
and its latest Road 5 offering caught my
attention.
These new tyres come with some bold
statements from the Michelin marketing
team. Firstly, Michelin is saying the R5
tyres get better in the wet as they wear,
and are better when worn than a set
of Pilot Road 4 tyres, which the Road 5
replaces.
In addition to the dual compounds used
both front and rear, they come equipped
with huge rain channels and water wells
that are wider at the base than they are
at the surface. They also have massive
contact patches on the shoulders, with
very few grooves in them for water
management, meaning the tyres will
offer good cornering grip – perfect for
fast summer riding. This is what had
me interested, the promise of big grip
in corners, with the harder compound
in the centre of the tyres offering more
motorway kilometres – the best of both
worlds for those of us with just one bike
to rule them all.
KIWI RIDER 29