Sad to say goodby to my old favorite tire and hello to the Michelin Road 5 Trail

[ballisticexchris]

I really wanted to use my Super Tenere for all terrain adventures. The honest reality is it's simply too heavy of a bike to have fun on when the pavement ends. I have been riding off road and on since I was a young kid. I do not have a natural talent for it. The days of riding hard core off highway miles are no longer enjoyable for me. When I bought this bike I had a plan "B" in my back pocket. I'm sad and happy to say that now my Super Tenere is going to be a pavement queen.

I am so thankful to have my lightweight dual sport for real adventure riding. When the Beta wears out then I'll decide wether to get another dual sport or just truck my bike to the trail. The Beta is a blast as long as the miles stay under 300 in a day.

I have already had a good taste of almost a 200 mile off road day on the Super Tenere and it sucked. Taking a huge and heavy bike though deep sand, rocks, ruts, etc is not my idea of an adventure. For me it was torture. While I have the skills to keep the bike upright, I had to ask myself why? Not to mention I'm not budgeted for major off road bike damage on this machine. So far the few tip overs have cost me a lot of money and time in repair.

So on to the new tires. Manufacturers have come a long way in really good soft compound hyper sport tires that require little warm up to stick to the road. I decided to compromise and go with arguably the best sport touring tire I could find. I have used Michelin Pilot's exclusively on my Ninja for my full ownership. They just came out with the new Road 5 Trail for the big adventure bikes a few years back.

Expensive but I'm sure I will be happy with it on the pavement. It has a Shore A hardness of around 65 in the center and 60 on the sides when tire is cold in the garage. So nice and sticky!!

 

[~TABASCO~]

They will stick like glue on the tarmac !

 

[moto.monk]

Once you make the switch to touring or sports tires you wont want to go back. I have 600 miles on my sport attack 3 and they insane in the twisties.

 

[ballisticexchris]

Thank you guys. I'm excited for a new chapter in my riding. I look forward to trying these out.

 

[Sierra1]

So, are they 90/10 or 95/5 tires? They look just like the GT version, but it says they're for large adventure bikes. I'm assuming it's a compound difference?

 

[WJBertrand]

The Michelin Road series were my favorite tires on my ST1300. Grippy enough to drag faring bits in the corners and lasted 10K+ miles.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[ballisticexchris]

So, are they 90/10 or 95/5 tires? They look just like the GT version, but it says they're for large adventure bikes. I'm assuming it's a compound difference?

So here is the deal Robert. These are 100% street tires. Michelin makes 2 versions of this tire that will fit the rear wheel and one version that fits the front wheel of the Super Tenere. The GT touring version does not come in Super Tenere sizes.

Road 5 Trail Front/Rear comes in 110/80 R19 59V and 150/70 R17 69V

Standard Road 5 comes in 150/70R17 69(W) for the rear only

I'm not quite sure why the rear Road Trail rear costs almost 50.00 more than the standard one. What I do know is Michelin recommends the "Trail" version for the Super Tenere. I'm going to call Michelin USA tomorrow to find out just out of curiosity. I bet you are correct that it's a compound difference. These are some of the softest street tires I have ever spooned on.

 

[Cantab]

I ran a couple of sets on the BKing i used to have , was always a bit unsure cranking over in the wet (obviously not peg scraping) but it was fine.
Got around 10,000kms from them per set , my mate who fitted them always likes the Michelins as they are soft to spoon on.
Prolly go this way or T31 Bridgys next tyre change.

 

[Longdog Cymru]

I have had Michelin PR5 Trails on my SuperTen since last summer. They are truly great tyres in hot and dry conditions but also, and more importantly here in U.K., they are brilliant in cold and wet conditions too, you will love them!

 

[Cycledude]

The stock Bridgestone probably would have been a better choice.

 

[ballisticexchris]

The stock Bridgestone probably would have been a better choice.

Other than being a hard compound, the OEM's were not a bad all around tire. They were pretty comfortable. I'm going back to what I'm used to. I have to say I was always impressed with the Michelin Pilots on my Ninja. It was the deciding factor for me.

 

[Skytower]

Loved the Road 4 and 5 on my BMW K1200RS!

 

[Thrasherg]

Running those same tyres on my super tenere and love them, was grounding out in some corners, so recently fitted shorter rear suspension dog bones, which lifted the rear of the bike about an inch and gives a bit more ground clearance in the corners, loving the tyres.. Don't know how long they will last, but they handle superbly.. Haven't ridden in dirt with them, they are obviously not intended for dirt use, so wouldn't expect them to do well in that environment.. If you only ride on tarmac I am sure you will like these tyres..

Gary

 

[Skytower]

Don't know how long they will last, but they handle superbly.. Haven't ridden in dirt with them, they are obviously not intended for dirt use, so wouldn't expect them to do well in that environment.. If you only ride on tarmac I am sure you will like these tyres..

Road 5s are squirrely on sand, but so are the stock tires :shrugs:

 

[ballisticexchris]

Running those same tyres on my super tenere and love them, was grounding out in some corners, so recently fitted shorter rear suspension dog bones, which lifted the rear of the bike about an inch and gives a bit more ground clearance in the corners, loving the tyres.. Don't know how long they will last, but they handle superbly.. Haven't ridden in dirt with them, they are obviously not intended for dirt use, so wouldn't expect them to do well in that environment.. If you only ride on tarmac I am sure you will like these tyres..

Gary

Hi Gary, I have the shorter raised dogbones as well. I will also be lightening up the gear I carry. I have a pretty heavy top bag with off road recovery gear. Winch, carabiners, spare tubes, etc.....

 

[tntmo]

I realistically do less than 10% of my miles off road, sometimes I go though a set of tires with considerably less than that. If I knew I had a big road trip coming up, I would love to try some stickier street rubber on the big beast. It would still be able to go a few miles down a graded gravel road to get to campgrounds or whatever.

Hope they meet or exceed your expectations.

 

[Boris]

The trail version have a slightly different carcass. As detail via the link, here https://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?threads/road-5-trail.25170/#post-348844

 

[Cantab]

I realistically do less than 10% of my miles off road, sometimes I go though a set of tires with considerably less than that. If I knew I had a big road trip coming up, I would love to try some stickier street rubber on the big beast. It would still be able to go a few miles down a graded gravel road to get to campgrounds or whatever.

Hope they meet or exceed your expectations.

Down here in NZ theres a few motorbike rallies that require you to go on a gravel road to a campsite no big deal, 90% are road bikes , some of the sportbikes have Pirelli SuperCorsas or Q3 Dunlops and manage. i had a Suzuki BKing with Road5s and they were ok for short distance gravel work. ( BKing was 235kg DRY )

 

[tntmo]

Down here in NZ theres a few motorbike rallies that require you to go on a gravel road to a campsite no big deal, 90% are road bikes , some of the sportbikes have Pirelli SuperCorsas or Q3 Dunlops and manage. i had a Suzuki BKing with Road5s and they were ok for short distance gravel work. ( BKing was 235kg DRY )

Yeah, I have ridden my Yamaha FZ6 on many miles of gravel roads. I have a Kymco Scooter that I have done some of the local truck trails with. Knobby tires and off road suspension is nice but you can get in more places than you'd think. Sometimes getting out of those places is the tricky part.

 

[ballisticexchris]

The trail version have a slightly different carcass. As detail via the link, here https://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?threads/road-5-trail.25170/#post-348844

Thank you Boris! I actually called Michelin USA and they confirmed a different carcass as well as a different compound for the heavier ADV bikes. I can't wait to scrub these in and enjoy a ride without the ear plugs I needed with the Anakee Wilds.