Michelin Road 5 end of life review

[SPman]

Running PR4's on the XJR and the FZ1, Ran PR3s before that, so will go to road 5's when the 4's time is up, which is soon I hope. Arthritis in the hands and wrists is making riding less pleasurable these days, espec on the bigger bikes, so the tiddlers ( X7 and CB350) are getting more use for local riding.
Interestingly, I'm running Michelin Pilot Sport 4s on the car, as well, and are well pleased with them - good feel, good grip and, so far, look like they're wearing well, if a tad noisy.....

[Blackbird]

Running PR4's on the XJR and the FZ1, Ran PR3s before that, so will go to road 5's when the 4's time is up, which is soon I hope. Arthritis in the hands and wrists is making riding less pleasurable these days, espec on the bigger bikes, so the tiddlers ( X7 and CB350) are getting more use for local riding.
Interestingly, I'm running Michelin Pilot Sport 4s on the car, as well, and are well pleased with them - good feel, good grip and, so far, look like they're wearing well, if a tad noisy.....

Yep, I've always had a good run from the PR series and the Road 5 really blurs the lines between a pure sport tyre and a sport-touring one. I'm making the 320 km round trip to Boyds in Hamilton tomorrow to have a new pair fitted. The delay was due to them being out of stock for a while and also lockdown restrictions. What this meant is that I rode with them a lot longer than I would normally do but at close to 12,000 km, they have still kept their profile pretty well, even if they are down to their wear bars. I know that Caspernz is well pleased with the life he's getting from the Power 5's on his 'busa so it seems that even pure sport tyres can last well.

[1/32 man]

As an old newbie I have done a years riding on my Triumph Street Twin. I got it with 3300km and soon after fitted a set of Metzler Road tec 1's.
These seemed to be a great improvemnet in my inexperienced mind but twelve months and 7000 more km I am looking at a replacement set.....you know, for when the time comes.
The bike is 200kg and I am 80kg in my riding kit....so any suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks in advance.

[Blackbird]

As an old newbie I have done a years riding on my Triumph Street Twin. I got it with 3300km and soon after fitted a set of Metzler Road tec 1's.
These seemed to be a great improvemnet in my inexperienced mind but twelve months and 7000 more km I am looking at a replacement set.....you know, for when the time comes.
The bike is 200kg and I am 80kg in my riding kit....so any suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks in advance.

Depends how you ride and what you want from a tyre. If you choose the application properly, any of the major brands have performance capabilities beyond the talents of most riders. It's just a question of personal choice based on "feel" after that. If you're happy with your Roadtec 01, that's fine as it's a good all round tyre. If you fancy trying something else, there's plenty of discussion on this thread and the original Road 5 review. We're spoiled for choice these days.

[F5 Dave]

It's like the dreaded oil threads. More opinions than types of oil.

Some bikes suit certain profiles or what the rider likes. When tyres wear the bike feels a bit meh

New tyres and the bike flicks around easy and the change seems more pronounced so watch for that bias.

My Toury bikes like my Tiger loved the old Road 2s. I tried BT23s and disliked them just for handling, but another bike might have suited them, or how I like it to feel.

[SaferRides]

There is now a Roadtec 01 SE with less tread on the shoulders to increase dry grip. This and the Road 5 were the top rated tyres in last year's comparison test in Motorrad magazine. They did test the GT version of the Road 5, which surprised me as the test bikes were BMW F900 tourers.

It seems that the standard Road 5 has a relatively soft carcass, so despite what Michelin say, I am unsure whether the GT version will be a better choice for the R1.

Maybe I should try the new Roadtec 01 SE, but they don't seem to be available in NZ?



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[caspernz]

There is now a Roadtec 01 SE with less tread on the shoulders to increase dry grip. This and the Road 5 were the top rated tyres in last year's comparison test in Motorrad magazine. They did test the GT version of the Road 5, which surprised me as the test bikes were BMW F900 tourers.

It seems that the standard Road 5 has a relatively soft carcass, so despite what Michelin say, I am unsure whether the GT version will be a better choice for the R1.

Maybe I should try the new Roadtec 01 SE, but they don't seem to be available in NZ?



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For your R1 there's no need for a GT version of Road 5, it simply isn't heavy enough to warrant the GT spec. Just as an aside, I've run Road 5 GT on my FJR, and it's now sitting on the standard Road 5. Wear life is looking to end up being about the same as the GT, but the ride is noticeably nicer on the standard Road 5. But then I'm only a slow rider

[Gremlin]

The bike is 200kg and I am 80kg in my riding kit....so any suggestions would be welcome.

Tyres are extremely subjective, what one person can like, another person can hate. It's going back to circa 07-08 but illustrates perfectly. Myself and another guy were riding the same bikes on the same tyres. He loved the edgy feeling the tyres gave him, I hated it.

Michelin in general are softer tyres, ie, the Metzeler usually had a stiffer carcass, this can make the tyre squirm a little more, especially in 2up applications etc. Some people don't mind this, others hate it. The PR5 is so soft, you actually stand a good chance of wearing out the front tyre before the rear one (I did this on a R1200GSA). Obviously something like the Road 5 is a road/touring tyre. For bikes like the R1200GSA, its the most sporty rubber available for the 19/17 combo it runs. I really would equate the rubber to sport bike rubber, such is the level of performance (in my adventure bike mindset of course). It also has the shortest tyre life of the Road range... fancy that.

I'm a Michelin fan boy, I love them, I've run every version of the Roads from the original 1 all the way through to 5, both in Trail and Road - in some versions the Road had a better profile than the Trail, millimetres in it, but it was useful enough. However, you may well hate them... so, only you know whether it's going to suit you. Hell, it's just tyres, run them, if you think something else is better, put a set on...

[1/32 man]

Thanks for those thoughts and comments.
I will ponder my choices.....

[release_the_bees]

It's interesting to read others' reviews.

I'm on my fourth set of Road 5s (three on the Street Triple and one on the R3).

The dry grip, wet grip, longevity combo is very impressive. Its hard to say a bad word about them to be honest. The only downside I've found is that the occasional gravel road ride tends to fill the sipes up with small stones more than other tyres, but that's a small complaint given the fact that is outside of their intended use.

In terms of grip, it's way more than I need for the road. From experience, when I've pushed things a bit more than I should have, I've touched the peg feelers down once or twice without the slightest hint of the tyres running out of grip. I'm confident that I'd fully run out of ground clearance before running out of tyres.

The wear is also really good. I've consistently got around 20,000 km out of a set on the Street Triple. As mentioned above, it seems to be the outside of the front that wears out first for me, with still plenty of life left in the centre of the tyre. I got 30,000 km out of a Road 3 on the R3 before, so it will be interesting to see how the Road 5 compares on that machine.

[Blackbird]

It's interesting to read others' reviews.

I'm on my fourth set of Road 5s (three on the Street Triple and one on the R3)...........

Good stuff! My only slight concern is the run of punctures I had on the GSX-S 1000 with them, but nothing on the 790. I've read about other people getting the odd puncture with them but there's no hard evidence that they're worse than any other sport touring tyre in this respect. Boyds in Hamilton put a new set on the 790 last week. Even though the old ones had generally kept a good profile, the new ones were far more twitchy, particularly in corner setups. I think most of that is due to muscle memory in knowing how your bike handles on the older tyres and the new ones required far less countersteering effort. It wasn't until a good half way home that I realised my inputs were matching the new tyres and that muscle memory had adapted to the new feel.

[Gremlin]

In terms of grip, it's way more than I need for the road. From experience, when I've pushed things a bit more than I should have, I've touched the peg feelers down once or twice without the slightest hint of the tyres running out of grip. I'm confident that I'd fully run out of ground clearance before running out of tyres.

This is perhaps the biggest issue with the Road 5. If anything, they're too good in the wet. You end up with an almost unrealistic expectation of how tyres work in the wet, and especially when you switch from anything like Road 5s to knobbly tyres, there are a few moments and slides as your brain re-adjusts

[SaferRides]

I have just fitted a set to the R1, after having to wait until the border opened so that I could get a 190/55 from Hamilton as there were none in Auckland. I did think about fitting another PR4 to the rear until I measured the front tread and found it was down to an even 2mm and starting to flatten on the right shoulder. So given that a set of PR4 from a dealer in Auckland was going to cost more than Boyds price for the Road 5, it was an easy decision.

The 190/55 rear is a big tyre. I had to move the chain guard sideways to slide the tyre forward in the swingarm, and the bike leans even further than before on the sidestand. Some engineering may be required.

I went for a short ride this afternoon on some favourite North Waikato roads to scrub them in. First impressions are that they turn in more easily than the PR4, but still have the same, stable feel once leaned over. They seem to be even more compliant than the PR4 and are barely affected by surface changes. I expect some experimentation with tyre pressures will be worthwhile.

Even though I didn't use much of the grippy rubber on the shoulders, they certainly feel as though they have more grip than the PR4. So the first impressions are very positive, but still early days.

[James Deuce]

Tyres are black and round and I'm so old that any modern tyre is a marvel. I just put Bridgestone S22s on the Versys after a set of PR2s. The PR2s last a long time but at 5 years old I thought I should probably change for the sake of it. The new tyres are being tyres. They hold air and ensure that the horrible screechy sound of alloy wheels on tarmac doesn't happen.

[F5 Dave]

So old. Gimmie a break Jim.

The accommodating crew at TSS swapped out std tyres on my 765 from new to S22 as I liked the way they made the old 675 handle. They are a thousand clicks from worn I guess, and the will be replaced with same again. Can't fault them even if they will only do 7000, or maybe 8 if pushed, I don't really care.::