okey dokey let's talk tires...

[2and3cylinders]

T32 f&r with about 7k miles (maybe closer to 8?) and a LOT of stabbing

Today's somber holiday ride mileage...

[Ride365]

Never had much luck with Dunlop tires, although I'm sure much better now than in the past.

[larolco]

Anyone tried the Dunlop Mutant? It's an M+S rated tire. My Sportmax stockers are done and I'm headed into the winter on a commuter bike in the Pacific North We(s)t. This bike will inevitably see snow at some point through the winter and big rain more days than not until April. I'm one of those weird riders who actually puts on more miles in the winter than the summer (summer is dirt bike season). If no one has tried them, I might be willing to be a test case. 

Edited October 29, 2022 by larolco

[oregonian]

Local shop is putting them on a bunch of different naked bikes with great results.  

Should work well on the Tracer.  They look cool.

[Grumpy Goat]

9 hours ago, larolco said:

Anyone tried the Dunlop Mutant? It's an M+S rated tire. My Sportmax stockers are done and I'm headed into the winter on a commuter bike in the Pacific North We(s)t. This bike will inevitably see snow at some point through the winter and big rain more days than not until April. I'm one of those weird riders who actually puts on more miles in the winter than the summer (summer is dirt bike season). If no one has tried them, I might be willing to be a test case. 

Friend of mine who rides a hell of a lot every year put a set on his RS and said that while they were not a bad tire, he found no reason to deviate from his Roadsmart IVs, which he went back to when the Mutants wore out. He is a fairly conservative rider who has been riding non-stop for over 50 years at least, in a touring style and values good solid handling, quick warm-up, good grip in all weathers, even wear, and longevity in his tires. Much as I do. Dunlop USA listens to his feedback regularly and has worked with him as a trusted consumer tester. Knowing the RS IV and the RS III as we on my RS Forum do, I suspect that the Mutants are not as good.

That said, riding style makes a big difference in tire performance so YMMV.

[larolco]

The RS IV and the Mutant are almost the same cost per set. The RS III is about a hundred bucks less. My thinking with the Mutants is that I might run them only in the winter and swap them out for something more sport-oriented in the summer. I do my own mounting/balancing, so it's really just a cost in time for me to do that. Running two sets of tires does cost twice as much initially, of course, but it will balance out over time as they will last twice as long. For the type of riding I do in the winter, M+S tires make sense, both in compound and tread pattern. The RS III/IV don't provide that. That way, I get the right tire for the season. 

I'd never run Dunlops prior to purchasing the Tracer (Bridgestone, Metzler, Michelin, Shinko, Heidenau, Pirelli I've all tried on various bikes, and probably more manufacturers I cannot recall) and had heard not-so-good reports on the Dunlops, but I liked the Sportmax that came stock on the Tracer. After I got acquainted with them, I found them consistent and reliable and they lasted well. There are no chicken strips on those spent tires. I'm willing to try out another Dunlop. It's just a matter of which one.

So far, two second-hand reports on the Mutants, but nothing first-hand. 

[Grumpy Goat]

7 hours ago, larolco said:

I'd never run Dunlops prior to purchasing the Tracer (Bridgestone, Metzler, Michelin, Shinko, Heidenau, Pirelli I've all tried on various bikes, and probably more manufacturers I cannot recall) and had heard not-so-good reports on the Dunlops, but I liked the Sportmax that came stock on the Tracer. ...

Unlike you, I disliked the Dunlop Sportmax D222 that came with my Tracer 900 GT. It contributed to handlebar shake / wobble at 40 mph which was cured by installing the Dunlop RS III. Only other tire I had experience with on the current bikes (and they were excellent) are the Michelin Pilot Road 3 / 4.

[larolco]

15 hours ago, Grumpy Goat said:

Unlike you, I disliked the Dunlop Sportmax D222 that came with my Tracer 900 GT. It contributed to handlebar shake / wobble at 40 mph which was cured by installing the Dunlop RS III. Only other tire I had experience with on the current bikes (and they were excellent) are the Michelin Pilot Road 3 / 4.

No shake for me with the Sportmax D222. I can put that thing on cruise and check Tracer900  forum posts if I want, and that's on spent tires. No hands necessary. Did you have the shake/wobble from day one, or did it develop over time? If a wear issue, there are lots more variables than tire type that factor into a tire's wearing. Style of riding, road temp/surface, air pressure, balancing, trueness, load, etc. Maybe your front was defective if it shook from the get-go? I do know that many bash stock tires as a rule of thumb (not saying that's your case). Maybe it's part of a desire to personalize a bike in some ways, and perhaps some other psychological stuff going on related to establishing oneself in a community. So, even though I've asked for opinions, I'm still leery of them without some context provided.

I think you are in Houston, though I see a maple leaf in the avatar, so maybe very different environmental variables which could explain a lot. For me, the D222 has been an acceptable tire, but I can see I have digressed here. This is not about the stock tire. I was hoping that someone who rides in a temperate rainforest and rides with similar variables might have tried the Mutants. In any case, I'm not mounting D222s again, but something else Dunlop. 

[Grumpy Goat]

5 hours ago, larolco said:

No shake for me with the Sportmax D222. I can put that thing on cruise and check Tracer900  forum posts if I want, and that's on spent tires. No hands necessary. Did you have the shake/wobble from day one, or did it develop over time?

I got the bike second hand with 2700 miles on it (IIRC) and noticed it not too long afterwards. My experience is all in my video. No problem with the D222 on the rear ... the original tire is still there and bike since has more than 11k miles on it. I am Canadian living in Houston.

 

[larolco]

I watched the video and it inspired me to repeat the experiment on the way home from work today. Sure enough, the wobble is there. (75 km/h)

I haven't used the cruise on this bike since it was fairly new and, back then, no wobble. I'm at 25 thousand kms now (yes, these are old tires), so, this has developed over time and your theory about cupping makes sense. In the real world, though, for me, this is not an issue. I don't ever use cruise, and if I do, it would be at fairly high speeds where the wobble would not happen. Still, an interesting discussion.

Mutants are on the way. I plan to use them as winter tires. We'll see how they perform. Probably, being a little more blocky in tread pattern, they will cup more than the RS and D222. It's all a trade-off.

[Wintersdark]

On 10/31/2022 at 9:38 PM, larolco said:

I watched the video and it inspired me to repeat the experiment on the way home from work today. Sure enough, the wobble is there. (75 km/h)

I haven't used the cruise on this bike since it was fairly new and, back then, no wobble. I'm at 25 thousand kms now (yes, these are old tires), so, this has developed over time and your theory about cupping makes sense. In the real world, though, for me, this is not an issue. I don't ever use cruise, and if I do, it would be at fairly high speeds where the wobble would not happen. Still, an interesting discussion.

Mutants are on the way. I plan to use them as winter tires. We'll see how they perform. Probably, being a little more blocky in tread pattern, they will cup more than the RS and D222. It's all a trade-off.

I'm interested in how they perform, though I'm curious - if you're planning on using them as a set of pure winter tires, why not just order a set of actual winter tires?  Anlas' Wintergrips are excellent, and there's a few UK sellers who'll ship worldwide (and ebay, too). 

I rode mine back to your neck of the woods last October (including through snow in Roger's Pass) - they're *outstanding* in BC winters.  Excellent grip even on icy pavement and light snow.  

 

[larolco]

16 minutes ago, Wintersdark said:

I'm interested in how they perform, though I'm curious - if you're planning on using them as a set of pure winter tires, why not just order a set of actual winter tires?  Anlas' Wintergrips are excellent, and there's a few UK sellers who'll ship worldwide (and ebay, too). 

I rode mine back to your neck of the woods last October (including through snow in Roger's Pass) - they're *outstanding* in BC winters.  Excellent grip even on icy pavement and light snow.  

 

The Mutants are rated M+S. I'm more interested in temperature rating than tread. Winters here are mostly rain, with occasional ice/snow, so I don't really need "pure" winter tires. These seem to fit the bill for the conditions I encounter on the coast. 

Honestly, I don't know much about the Anlas. Maybe I'll try those out next time round. 

[Lone Wolf]

On 10/31/2022 at 8:38 PM, larolco said:

...the wobble is there. I'm at 25 thousand kms now (yes, these are old tires), so, this has developed over time and your theory about cupping makes sense.

As tires wear, they can go out of balance as well as the cupping. The rubber "goes away" and they are not going to retain the balance they had when new. An out of balance tire can cause wobble & shake.

If you change your own tires, just for giggles check the balance before you pull the old tire off rim and it may be a learning experience. Just one of the reasons why new tires feel so awesome, plus the profile isn't jacked by wear on the sides (V-pattern) or flat spot for those who do a lot of straight line riding, resulting in odd turn in due to squared profile.

Edited November 5, 2022 by Lone Wolf

[Wintersdark]

1 hour ago, larolco said:

The Mutants are rated M+S. I'm more interested in temperature rating than tread. Winters here are mostly rain, with occasional ice/snow, so I don't really need "pure" winter tires. These seem to fit the bill for the conditions I encounter on the coast. 

Honestly, I don't know much about the Anlas. Maybe I'll try those out next time round. 

So, M+S ratings are more about tread type than temperature compatibility, which is why I was asking above. That they're designed for use in soupy sorts of terrain (hence, mud and snow). For example, the stock Tenere 700 tires, the Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR's, are M+S rated - and they're horrible in the cold. Like PVC tubes.  Way, way worse than a set of Michelin Roads. This of course does not mean all M+S tires are bad in the cold, just that an M+S rating doesn't mean they'll be good in the cold.  This is why I'm really interested in how they work out for you - if they're good in the cold and wet, that's great.

Meanwhile, the Anlas Wintergrips - which have the mountain & snowflake symbol - are designed for cold temperatures first and foremost and come with a warning not to run them above 13C due to rapid wear.  

I'm a BC boy myself (even lived in Langley for a few years) so I'm very aware of the winters there.  

My experience so far in BC winters is the Anlas tires are outstanding, but frankly I'd just run Road 4/5/6 tires year round as they're just SO good in wet and temps down to around -5C, as weather is more cool and wet vs crazy cold and snowy/icy.  I'd only go to the winters if I was planning on riding in snow and ice too.  Here, I have to contend with riding down to around -25C, where non-winter tires just don't work well at all.  

These are the Wintergrips (on my trip last Oct, horseshoe bay ferry terminal).  They're really great up to about 180kph, but start to feel sketchy after that.  If you follow the guidelines about temperature (read: don't run them in the summer) they get great mileage.  These have about 5000km's on them here.  

[Warchild]

I gave the Bridgestone T32 tires a tryout this past summer on the S1000XR, knowing that I would have a lot of unfortunate desert straight-lining. They were nonetheless superb, all the way until tread separation. They were brilliant in the Nevada mountain twisties. I expected the BMW's 165hp inline-4 would melt the T32's in short order, but 5860 miles was a pretty fair run. Going to put a set on the Tracer over the winter.