Newsletter Sign Up

MotoUSA Magazine

2009 DOT Race Tire Shootout Photo Gallery

Motorycle-USA puts the latest and greatest DOT race rubber to the test to see who makes the best sticky buns these days. Read the full test in our 2009 DOT Race Tire Shootout.

The Suzuki proved to be the perfect bike for the test, always on point throughout.

The latest generation of Dunlop's Sportmax GP-A.

Dunlop's Sportmax features one of the most treaded designs of the test, though this takes nothing away from overall grip as we quickly found out.

Avon Extreme's VP2 showed up to face off against the big boys in our 2009 edition of the Tire Shootout.

Avon's Extreme race rubber features a very sparse tread pattern, probably the least of the group. Good in the dry but we wouldn't want to be caught out on them in the wet

Bridgestone Battlax BT003 race rubber fared far better in our test than anyone had expected.

In the ballpark with the Avons for the least amount of tread, in the dry the Bridgestones performed right on par with the big boys.

New for 2009, say hello to the Michelin Power One race tire.

Not much tread here, Exactly why the Michelin provided slick-like grip levels in some areas.

Pirelli's Diablo SC rubber came into our test as one of the early favorites.

An angular tread patter graces the Diablo rubber, though like the rest of the group most of the tire is basically a slick with next to no groves.

Kamal Amer from Kinelogix was on hand for our 2009 DOT Race Tire Shootout.

For data acquisition we enlisted the help of Amer and his Kinelogix system.

Amer fitted the Suzuki with loads of parameters to give the most accurate possible comparison.

We opted to use our slightly-modded 2009 GSX-R1000 for the 2009 DOT Race Tire Shootout.

The Suzuki provided a known and stable baseline motorcycle.

A base setup was found at each track on control tires with the bike before testing began.

2009 DOT Race Tire Shootout

Full-lean edge-grip on the Avons wasn't too far off the mark.

But corner-exit grip wasn't on par with the competition.

Drive-grip was ample and allowed easy lofting of the front wheel without even trying.

A damaged tire on Day 1 caused some skewed results at Streets of Willow, but come Day 2 at the big track the ample front grip of the Power One really shined.

Five sets of DOT-spec race rubber set to be put to the test in 100-plus degree heat at the infamous Willow Springs.

Five sets of the latest and greatest DOT race rubber were put to the test and the outcome was... Surprising!

Tires get baked for 35 min. each.

On the warmers and ready to hit the track for out 2009 DOT Race Tire Shootout.

Catalyst Reaction’s Dave Moss was our main tech for the shootout.

Our '09 Suzuki was fitting with a full LeoVince exhaust for some added power.

Big thanks to Moss who put in some serious overtime to make this happen!

Chris McGuire fits the Avons, which he found to feature a very soft carcass and literally just fall on the rims.

As you can see the rider was kept totaly blind to which tire they would be on for the entire test.

Full-speed during one of the 5-lap runs at Willow Springs on our GSX-R.

Day 2 at Willow Spring saw the true potential of the Michelin Power Ones as they were a mere 0.01 seconds off the top two. Talk about a tightly-knit pack!