Michelin Pilot Road 3s...I joined the club

[Pterodactyl_imp]

19.72% better rear. 22.81% better front.

Seriously though, I love the softer carcass of the PR3s. The Bridgies felt like rocks over sudden jolts. I also feel like turn in is a tad slower too but very stable in corners and more forgiving of mid-corner line changes. I haven't ridden much in the wet but it's nice to know they have that focus.

Like the great Winston Churchill, "I only believe statistics I have doctored myself".

However, that aside, in wet weather I have confidence that the PR3s are a good tyre and perform well within my wet weather envelope. As far as how good they are in the wet there are many reviews and comparisons published on the web. Below, for what it's worth, is a quote from AMCN, an Australian motorcycle magazine.

Quote:...... Michelin Pilot Road 3, is by far Australia’s top selling motorcycle tyre, and is, in fact, the biggest selling motorcycle tyre in the world. Michelin Pilot Road 3 brought unprecedented levels of wet weather performance and also introducd ‘siping’ to mainstream motorcycle tyre production. The wet weather performance advancement is completely unequivocal. Anybody that has ridden treacherous conditions on Pilot Road 3 will vouch for their amazing wet weather performance. I even rode in snowy conditions on Pilot Road 3 and felt safe doing so.

Not only is it the tread pattern in these tyres that helps to displace water, but also functional polymers in the rubber compound that have a chemically charged reaction with water, actually repelling water through a chemical reaction, effectively cutting straight through water film to the road surface below. Across their motorcycle and car tyre research departments Michelin have 1300 people working on compounds alone to come up with formulations like these.
There was a good comparison published, that I can't quickly locate now, with comparible products from Pirelli and other major manufacturers. In dry conditions the PR3s were not the top rated tyre in all respects but in the wet tests were outstanding.

Cheers