Put the first 100 mi. of break in time with RoadSmarts on my lightweight 650SV.
The front took about an ounce, but the rear better than double to balance. They go on like Metzlers with that steel belt, they like to fight some.
Mind you the following is just an initial impression from only 100 lousy miles of riding on them. I had Pilot Power sport tires on it before, so they are being compared to an exceptionally outstanding handling tire.
They are a bit lazier at turn in than the PP sport tires, but are still pretty good, about how I remember Metzler z-6 turn in to be. As good as any sport tour tire I've ridden on (no falling in like the 020 could be prone to), just not as good as the Pilot Powers. However the tip in is pleasantly linear all the way down to the tire's edge. That type of tip in would likely feel decently responsive on the ST would be my guess.
I took them on a good mix of new-ish blacktop, to gnarley, nasty back roads with gravel patches and even a dirt road that turned into a cow path like rocky surface.
Being Dunlop Sport Tour, I expected them to suck at running along a ridge edge, so I ran them down a bunch of edge traps about an inch high for a few miles and they pleasantly surprised me by being totally stable. I couldn't find a metal bridge to try out yet. Overall straight line stability seems excellent overall from slow to fast.
As I started progressively pushing them more, feedback seemed to be very good from the tires. I could easily tell what they were doing as far as tracking goes. I ran over a short strip of gravely sand under throttle and both wheels took to drifting a small bit, the feedback was clear, the expected re-grip was very smooth and predictable, no grabby twitching evident.
There's a nice isolated, open, highly visible, partly downhill second gear turn, where I took the tire down to the edge near the end of the ride. I felt the front squirm just a very small bit, where the Pilot Powers wouldn't have, so the jury is still out on ultimate grip. The grip appears to be very good overall though, but more time is needed before I can decide if it is as good as I like. The SV tends to want to push the front end first in general at smaller throttle openings no matter the tire, so that doesn't mean the Dunlop front is any sort of problem at this time.
On the other hand I took the bike through a set of known turns that would cause some small sliding over the choppy surface on a tire like the Bridgestone 020 and it held fast nicely.
I'll get to test them in the rain this weekend when I go to NH to visit with some Buds. I should have better than a thousand miles of back road curve strafing on them at the end of the weekend. So, I'll know if they stack up to the Z6, Pirrelli Strada, etc. or not when the weekend's done. Preliminary impression says they may be better, we'll see.
Notes from the Goat, no Lion spotted yet, these are better than the former Dunlop Sport Tour tires and look to be up to or perhaps better than the competition at first blush.
As to mileage, I won't be of any use at all, because I seem to toast tires around the 3,000 mi. mark, give or take some. The STradas on the Bandit have around 2800 on and look like they will be gone shortly, sigh.
