hey just noticed dunlop coming out with the "RoadSmart"

[islandstar]

I've got just over 6,000 miles on the front/rear set of roadsmarts and the fronts look great. The rears are just reaching the wear bars. Tire pressure is 41lbs front/rear. I ride hwy and twisties. Relatively hard on the twisties. Approx. 60% hwy and 40% twisties.

Roads are well maintained, typically concrete slab hwy and asphalt in the mountains.

The rear shows very pronounced cupping. Not so on the fronts. Tires still feel planted on hard twisties but a little "wander" feeling on the rain grooves ( sort of that feeling you got a flat tire ). Very little rain riding and below freezing riding on them. No comment available.

I'll try the spare set of Bridgestone's for the rear and continue with the Roadsmart on the front next.

 

[kwslhs]

6500 - but great tires. Now running a set of PR2s.

I need more mileage.

 

[Pete in PA]

Just had my first rides on the Roadsmarts and I like them. VERY good at absorbing road bumps, NEEDED HERE IN PA.

 

[saaz]

Similar experience to kxslhs. Great tyres, but with a dual compund rear I was at least expecting the Roadsmarts to equal or outlast the Avon Storms and Z6s. At 9000kms they are done. PR2 are on back order here, Avons not around for a while in the ST11 sizes so Continental Roadattacks in ST13 sizes going on. I am not expecting the best life but they will be interesting.

 

[HwT]

My Storms will need replacing shortly and I'm leaning toward Roadsmarts because of the positive reports. I liked the Storm's handling and, in particular, I liked their much softer ride than the original Bridgestones. I live in a mountainous area in Newfoundland so there are lots of twisties but they're often very rough. The Storms generally gave better handling and a much better ride but there is more weave on rough sweepers and occasionally a bit of high speed weave. I had some correspondence with Avon last year as they won't recommend the Storm for the ST1300. I was told that they were working on a better rear tire to combat the weave but to date it hasn't materialized. However, checking the Dunlop site, they don't recommend the Roadsmarts for the ST1300 either. Some comments about the sidewall stiffness of the Road Smarts being much greater than the Storms lead me to believe that stability and handling will be better but at the expense of ride. Can anybody provide input on this? Also, has anybody any experience with the effect of fitting the swing arm pivot / frame / engine stiffening kit that Honda used for retrofitting early European bikes and all police bikes? I'm thinking of making the modification to improve rough corner handling.

 

[Carl_T]

In my opinion the Road Smart front can be troublesome and not up to what the Road Smart rear is.

From what you are saying about conditions and effects, it seems you would likely be happiest with the old original Pilot Road tires (the newer PR2 has good stick but is much faster steering than the former Pilot Road). I see Ron Ayres still sells original Pilot Roads so they are available. They are noisy due to tread pattern, but are a solid slower turn in tire. Beyond that, probably the Metzler Z6 (possibly with an 880 rear) would likely have the solidity your looking for. The front Z6 used to stick tight for me over the rough back roads around here in places where I would slide the front some on the original Bridgestones when I had the ST.

 

[gary_hackathorn]

I just replaced a set of Roadsmarts on my St 1300. I got just shy of 8,000 miles. At 7,300 miles the front tire had 3 mm and the rear tire had 2 mm of tread. I may have pushed them another 1,000 miles but I am going a 2,000 + mile trip in a few weeks I decided to switch out now so I would have good rubber on the trip.

I am a fairly conservative rider. I ride on the street so they back tire squared off. The front tire as fairly round. I had hopped that the harder center rubber would last longer than the OEM Bridgestone. The original tires also lasted about 8,000 miles. So I am going to try the Metzler Roadtec Z6 tires this time. I liked them on my V65 Magna.

The Dunlops were fine tires. I just wish they had lasted a few thousand miles longer.

 

[JWallace]

6500 - but great tires. Now running a set of PR2s.

I need more mileage.

I definitely like the "sport" in my ST: cornering, acceleration. Three years ago I put new Roadsmart 3's, front and rear, on my'06 ST. Smooth as silk, great handling. Now, at 9,000, I can see the webbing on the front tire. I thought for sure I would get at least 12k miles out of these. What is a better tire for this riding style? Also, any recommendations for online tire dealers?

 

[caldercay]

yea, I had a "Road Smart" on the 2003 ...

Can you say "oxymoron" ...

Never again ...