We are getting away from the focus here. Most of us will never ride to the limit of the tires we have. If you're honestly concerned with the traction limits of your tires on the street, (not off pavement), then take a hard look at how you are riding on the street. If you're trying to out corner anyone, regardless of terrain, unless it's in competition, that's just juvenile. Public roads and trails are not a place to race your buddy or see how fast you can take a corner, even by yourself.
In respect to auto cross/solo II and slip angles, (yes, I spent several seasons running E Mod class), if you're slipping, you're taking the slow way around the course. You should know that. Fast is driving to the limit of your traction, not beyond.
This conversation is all about street riding and tire longevity, Nothing you can buy makes you a safer rider. Only YOU make you a safer rider. No tire you can currently buy for your Super Ten will require you to be easy on the throttle to maintain traction.l
Experience? Sure, I've only done a couple of moto track days. I've done a lot of car track days, solo II autocross and a couple of solo I races. Riding on the track is not riding on the street. Different principles and techniques. If you're still riding brake in, throttle out on the street, you are doing it wrong. That said, the track is an excellent place to teach a wide variety of skills. From threshold braking to slip angles and to really show someone how much traction they can get while leaned over. Nothing beats 32' one way of clean pavement with corner workers flagging hazards to allow you to find the full potential of yourself and the bike/car.
MSF type courses, I've done several intermediate level courses over the last decade. Haven't done one for at least 3 years now.
Dirt, no races, (wife has a bunch of trophies for hare scrambles and other dirt events), some minor off road riding on trails as a kid, I ride the odd forest road/fire road/gravel roads now. Comfort level varies with the road. I might be doing 70 on gravel in Northern Nevada or 40 on dirt in Southern California, or 25 in wet mud/gravel in Arkansas or 20-30 in sand in Utah. I'm not a great sand rider, Tires and bike depend on some of this, but all of those numbers are on 600 lb fully loaded bikes, FJR and S10. I don't take panniers off to go ride anywhere except to the shop for warranty work or a valve adjust that I didn't want to do myself. Rarely have I had more than one bike in the garage at a time, but I've owned everything from a '40 HD with a extended springer front end, Honda CX-500, Cagiva 650 Alazura, Yamaha FZ-1, FJR1300 and the Super Ten along with a hand ful of other odd offs that I didn't keep as long.
No moto races. Never saw the appeal in moto racing or watching it. I'd rather be off by myself enjoying the ride than battling it out next to other riders. Especially doing the same loop. I ride to go places. I rarely do day rides. I have no 'favorite roads' that I regularly ride. I ride 20-40k a year most years. Lifetime miles are probably only about 400k or so.
I've ridden 150cc scooters all around Egypt in 11 days. Pavement mostly, some sand and marginal conditions, full day of pouring rain included. I've ridden 400cc dual sports from Cusco to Machu Picchu in Peru, (as close as you can get before you have to take the train). That was paved from asphalt to cobblestones and dirt from gravel to full on mud, but mostly packed dirt with some hideous construction zones and fast moving water crossings thrown in for extra fun. One water crossing was pushing the cars and busses down stream with basketball size rocks bouncing thru the water. We waited 4 hours until it was only pushing the cars around and baseball size rocks were bouncing thru to ride the 14-18" deep crossing at that point. At least on pavement under the water. Road hadn't washed out, the river was just flowing over it due to massive rain the previous 9 days.
I've also ridden in a couple dozen endurance rallies. Motorcycle scavenger hunts of a sort where you're riding 1000 to 1650 miles in a 24-36 hour period as a minimum number of miles. Mostly in the Western US, so lots of gravel and dirt roads and widely divergent back roads. These are not interstate tire burners, but bonus locations all over the map that take you to odd little spots in out of the way places. Earthquake Fault signs in NV, the edge of the Salton Sea in CA, Mud pots miles and miles down dirt roads, Mountain passes on twisty roads, fast two lane highways, crossing Death Valley, then detour up a desert canyon road and over a mountain pass on rough dirt/gravel two track. You can expect every road condition ever to be experienced on these events. You can pick and choose too, but if you want the points, you ride to the ones with higher difficulty for the higher points. I also rode the Iron Butt Rally in '13, 11 days, around 10k miles for me as well as a 10 day MERA rally where I covered over 10k in the ten days and rode over 12k in two weeks from when I left home to returning home. On the same set of tires, btw.
Here's the thing. If you ride less than 10k miles a year, just politely bow out of this thread. You don't ride enough to understand what the conversation is about. Just put on what ever tires you like best and ride the way you like to ride and enjoy yourself.
When someone tells me they replace their tires every year, regardless of if they are worn out or not. You know, for safety. That pretty much ends the conversation for me. I sometimes go thru 4 sets of tires in a year. And that's tires that I'm hopefully getting at least 10k from, but not always. A shit tire lasts me less than 7k and I won't waste my time buying that tire ever again.
I am a PACE rider. I manage my speed with the throttle, not the brakes. I set my speed before the corner and maintain a steady speed thru the corner. I'm not slowing down that much on pavement. I'm not hanging off, but in the fun twisties I will shift my body weight, weight the pegs and use other techniques to maximize traction and maintain speed w/o moving out of my lane. I'm never riding 10/10ths on the street. Maybe 6-7/10ths max, usually less. I've never tried to see how fast I could take a corner on the street. That's what the track is for. IMHO, if you're dragging hard parts on the street, you're out riding your envelope. Can I do that? Sure. And yes, I've dragged hard parts on the street. For me that's a wake up call to take it down a notch or two.
Safety is about the nut behind the bars. Don't fool yourself into believing anything else makes you safer. Yes, there are things you can put on your bike that make what you like to do with your bike easier. That doesn't make it safer. It makes it easier for you to be safe, but it's still up to you to be safe.
