Background
Most of my riding is communtering, with the odd two-up weekend trip thrown in. The route I take to/from work is the ScenicSuburbanSuicideSlalom - mostly backstreets where possible, with lots of corners, some of which are off-camber, 'traffic calming measures' (funny - the traffic still seems rabidly insane to me!), and variable road surfaces. I ride in all weathers. While I sometimes ride - ahem - in a way that might be frowned upon, I don't generally ride like a crazed loon on 'upside-down b'. The road is not a racetrack.
After some experimenting, I have found that riding with my tyres at or close to the recommended pressures (36/42) works best, as it gives the best feel, good grip, the carcases don't crack, and the treads wear more evenly.
On other bikes, I've previously tried Shinko Podiums, the older Azaros (AV35/36), Bridgestone BT012/020, Pirelli Dragons, and (briefly) Avon Azaro AV49SP/AV46ST. This bike had BT020s front and rear, which were OK (damned with faint praise!) but wore a little unevenly, and the front tyre was most uninspiring (see comments below).
Requirements
I don't measure mileage; if I get a year or so out of a pair of tyres, I'm happy. I want a tyre that gives me confidence to lean, that doesn't feel nervous on some surfaces such as wet roads or coarse-chip seal, and that grips well. I don't need race tyres (the road is not a racetrack!) and I'm not interested in saving money by buying some hard, cheapo tyres that last forever. Been there, done that, with a tyre that lasted more than 4 years.
The previous tyres were disappointing; they were near-new when I bought the bike, and lasted just under a year after buying it. The front BT020 was almost bald on the right, and the rear was bald in patches. The front was horrid for wandering on coarse-chip seal, for buzzing (the tread blocks wore unevenly), and didn't feel good when cornering.
The Azaros
As mentioned, I've had the Azaros before, on my VTR1000. Although sceptical, Kerry assured me I'd love them, and he was right. Despite this, a lower cost than the last set I bought ($475 fitted) and a 1000km satisfaction guarantee, I was still sceptical. I'd heard a lot about Metzeler Z6s, and wanted those. But almost as soon as I rode off on the new Azaros (AV49-SP front, AV46-ST rear), I was pleased. The ride was much softer than with the Bridgestones, due to the Azaro's soft carcases. The steering effort was much less, due to the sports profile of the front tyre.
As Avon uses a kind of wax rather than silicon as a mould-release, the tyres took very little scrubbing in, and were not slippery at all during the process.
I've now done a few hundred kilometres, and the tyres still look newish. The rear one still has small 'chicken strips', and the front quite large ones, but I don't care. I'm getting more and more confident about leaning on them, but the only way the rear ones are going to disappear completely is on a track, or riding at stupid speeds on my communtering route.
The tyres grip well in the wet, feel very good, aren't particularly affected by road surface irregularities or type of seal, and have boosted my cornering confidence quite markedly.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by zadok
Bookmarks