Michelin Road 6

[SaferRides]

I fitted a set of these to the R1 last April. They've now covered 11,000 km during all 4 seasons and now is probably a good time to post a few comments.

Like me, you may have assumed the Road 6 is simply an evolution of the 5, as they look similar. But they feel very different on the R1. The front now uses Michelin's 2CT+ construction, which has the softer shoulder compound underlaid by the harder centre rubber.

It feels more stable when braking, especially trail braking into a corner, and also under cornering loads. The steering is still light though.

The rear now uses a silica compound on the shoulders and you no longer feel the transition onto the softer, carbon black rubber as you lean. Maybe slightly less grip when dry but I don't push hard enough for this to be an issue.

Both tyres have worn evenly with very little wear on the front and the shoulders on both tyres holding their shape, unlike the Road 5. The rear is down to 2.5 mm in the centre after a recent trip around Northland in quite warm weather. I'd guess it will be down to the wear bars at about 14,000 km.

Very happy with the tyres. The rear moves a little under power on tar snakes and shiny bitumen when it's warm, but all tyres do that in my experience. Otherwise no issues with grip on the variety of road surfaces and conditions typical of NZ roads.







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https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250319/54ea60d5e3ac35ecd344f26947d2a378.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250319/c2f2503090588fa4fa896983b7c587df.jpg

[Laava]

Wow, how the fuck does anyone get that much out of a rear tyre? I dont think I have had a rear last longer than 7000km, ever!
And I have had Road 6’s as well on mu Multistradas…

[release_the_bees]

Wow, how the fuck does anyone get that much out of a rear tyre? I dont think I have had a rear last longer than 7000km, ever!
And I have had Road 6’s as well on mu Multistradas…It doesn't surprise me. I consistently got 20,000km out of a set of Road 5s on the Street Triple and 30,000 kms out of a front on my R3 (20,000km out of the rear). Those tyres may be pricy, but they get incredible mileage.

Even with six track days, I got 16,000 kms out of my most recent set of Road 5s on the R3.

I'm currently using hypersport tyres on both bikes now, because due to reduced riding time, the tyres were lasting forever between changes. (Also, I needed new tyres around the time of the Michelin tyre shortage and wanted to try something different.)

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[roogazza]

I only do about 4000 kms a year.
R6's are bloody brilliant sticky wise and bonus is , they last !

I keep the pressure up on the gsx1400. 36/39 .

Just checked, yes , I've done about 5000kms on this set. They look like new !
:msn-wink::laugh::rolleyes:

[SaferRides]

Yeah, I was very surprised how much longer the Roads last after only using sports tyres for years. If anything, I ride faster now as not much seems to unsettle the Road 6. Definitely could do with a suspension upgrade though.

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[R650R]

Wow, how the fuck does anyone get that much out of a rear tyre? I dont think I have had a rear last longer than 7000km, ever!
And I have had Road 6’s as well on mu Multistradas…

What tyre pressures do you run?

TA is prob spending lot of km on good motorway surface getting to and from the twistys so that prob helps.

[SaferRides]

TA is prob spending lot of km on good motorway surface getting to and from the twistys so that prob helps.
True. Often half the ride.

The recent 1,500 km trip around Northland wore about a mm from the rear. If that was typical wear, the rear would last about 7,500 km.

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[SaferRides]

I checked the tread depth on the front. It has worn very evenly with 3 mm remaining in the centre and shoulders. Absolutely no sign of the typical Road 5 flattened shoulders.

The tread depth when new was 4.5 mm, so the front should last 20,000 km!!! A very different story to my Road 5 experience where the front usually wears out first.

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[Laava]

Wow, how the fuck does anyone get that much out of a rear tyre? I dont think I have had a rear last longer than 7000km, ever!
And I have had Road 6’s as well on mu Multistradas…
Decided to revisit this thread as I am the process of fitting a pair of road 6’s.
I had Continental sport attack fitted and did 7500 km on one front and two rears with the first just starting to chunk out the middle and the second I estimate has 100-500km max left. The front has worn the shoulders away completely. The rears did however retain their shape perfectly.

[Moise]

The front looks like my last Road 5 after 12,000 km.

Should be interesting, what are they going on?


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[Laava]

Ducati S4R

[SaferRides]

The rear is down to 1 mm after 14,000 km, so time for a new one. I could run it further but the puncture risk seems to increase as the tread wears. Tyre life seems about the same as the Road 5 although the shoulder compound hasn't worn nearly as much.



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[F5 Dave]

Well and 1.5mm is legal still yeah? Was 2mm at one stage. I tend to ditch mine by then as wet weather performance has to be less.

[Kickaha]

I could run it further but the puncture risk seems to increase as the tread wears.


The statistic in the industry often quoted was 90% of punctures in the last 10% of tyre life, whether it has a basis in fact I couldn't tell you, there's simply less material for something to penetrate

[Gremlin]

The statistic in the industry often quoted was 90% of punctures in the last 10% of tyre life, whether it has a basis in fact I couldn't tell you, there's simply less material for something to penetrate
And anything in the tyre and being forced into the compound is more likely to push all the way through.

Last rear on the Hornet, I'm in the middle of the North Island, oh crap, pick up a puncture, get it properly repaired. Once home, realise I've picked up a second... short tyre life that <_<

[SaferRides]

Well and 1.5mm is legal still yeah? Was 2mm at one stage. I tend to ditch mine by then as wet weather performance has to be less.
Weird thing is it's not down to the wear bars but the gauge says 1 mm when I checked.


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[SaferRides]

If you look at the top of the photo, there are grooves with wear bars.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250708/0dfce98d71bb8941829e115fd8a35605.jpg

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[F5 Dave]

Hey, its had an amazing turn. Surprising longevity.
Time to get some steering precision back with a rounded tyre.

[SaferRides]

Hey, its had an amazing turn. Surprising longevity.
Time to get some steering precision back with a rounded tyre.The first set of tyres I fitted to the R1 were the Rosso Corsa. The rear barely made it to 5,000 kms. Great grip on dry roads and just OK when it rained.

I am tempted to fit a set of Michelin Power 6 next, but the front is only half worn and has kept its profile well.

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[SaferRides]

Hey, its had an amazing turn. Surprising longevity.
Time to get some steering precision back with a rounded tyre.Surprising the difference just a new rear has made. It feels absolutely neutral again - leans easily but easy to hold where you want it.

I'll watch the front for any sign of flattening of the right shoulder but it looks fine at the moment.

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[SaferRides]

The right shoulder on the front is now slightly flattened after 17,000 km. I only notice it when leaning further than the flat section, so I will probably replace it in the New Year.

To be fair, I have never had a front tyre not become flattened by 15,000 km. The Road 5 front was bad, the first set was replaced early because the front had flattened so much that it reached the wear bars.

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[R650R]

Went to inspect Road 6 rear only 2k of use so far hard to judge wear. One interesting thing I notice is if you look sideways on there is thin siping/ groove inside the tread. It just shows on last product page photo if you zoom right in. Guess it’s maybe to help harder middle section warm up or provide more feel??? Did find it a very stiff tyre at first

[SaferRides]

Went to inspect Road 6 rear only 2k of use so far hard to judge wear. One interesting thing I notice is if you look sideways on there is thin siping/ groove inside the tread. It just shows on last product page photo if you zoom right in. Guess it’s maybe to help harder middle section warm up or provide more feel??? Did find it a very stiff tyre at first

The Road 5 and 6 look very similar but they are not. The tread grooves and sipping is more complex, and one positive is the tread no longer collects stone chips, etc like the 5 did.

I'm not sure what the groove is that you've noticed. I read somewhere that the main grooves become wider when down to the last couple of mm tread depth - maybe that is what you can see? I'll have a look at my tyre at the weekend.

Just to prove how useless tyre reviews tend to be, most said that the Road 6 was a slight improvement on the 5. Maybe it was the bikes they rode, but the tyres feel quite different on the R1. I do miss the sticky shoulder compound on the 5 rear though.

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[SaferRides]

I'm not sure what you'd describe those marks as. They sre only on the centre tread grooves and will make them slightly larger when the tread wears that far. But it can't be easy to mold them and Michelin must have a good reason to make the effort.

They also come from new with rounded edges on the grooves, which is also in the why do they bother category.

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[Moise]

After a closer look in daylight, all of the tread grooves have them, but they are at varying depths!

I’ll do a search later. There must be a reason.


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[Gremlin]

... and one positive is the tread no longer collects stone chips, etc like the 5 did.
The Road 5 wore the worst of all the Road range and I've run everything from Pilot Road 1 up to 6 across 2 bikes.
The Road 5 rear in particular, ended up with a noticeable step between the two compounds (someone else observing the wear thought I'd been doing track days), with the soft edge compound wearing really badly. The front just went very triangular.

[SaferRides]

The Road 5 wore the worst of all the Road range and I've run everything from Pilot Road 1 up to 6 across 2 bikes.
The Road 5 rear in particular, ended up with a noticeable step between the two compounds (someone else observing the wear thought I'd been doing track days), with the soft edge compound wearing really badly. The front just went very triangular.Exactly. I saw a Road 5 rear where the shoulder compound was almost completely worn away. Even from new, I could feel the transition to the shoulder compound on the rear.

The front was the worst for me - the only time I have worn out a front before the rear. I made sure to keep the pressure above 36, especially in summer.

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[SaferRides]

I checked the rear tyre after riding through many kms of roadworks in the last few days. No stone chips in the tread and the tyre looks fine. Then I thought I'd check the tread depth as I have been making an effort to wear out this one faster.

It's almost exactly 5 mm over the whole tread after 3,500 km, which gives a projected life of 14,000 km, same as the last Road 6.

Maybe it will wear faster during the summer?

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