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2010 Street Motorcycle Tire Comparison Photo Gallery

Waheed tests out Dunlop’s Sportmax Q2 tire.

We review the latest DOT-legal street bike motorcycle tires to determine which tire is the best on the road and racetrack. Read the tire shootout in the 2010 Street Motorcycle Tire Comparison test.

Out of the 10 tires we tested you simply can’t pick a bad tire. Yes there are some substantial differences between each model yet they still deliver a high-level of performance for your street or sportbike.

Shinko 005 Advance tires.

Tread pattern of the Shinko 005 Advance rear tire. Note the relatively flat profile.

Shinko 003 Stealth tires.

The tread pattern of the Shinko 003 Stealth rear tire looks similar in design to the Michelin Pilot Power One 2CT. Note the relatively flat profile.

Michelin Pilot Power 2CT tires.

Tread pattern of the dual-compound Michelin Pilot Power 2CT rear tire.

Pirelli Diablo Rosso tires.

The tread pattern of the Pirelli Diablo Rosso rear tire features no tread on the very shoulder of the tire.

Bridgestone Battlax BT-016 tires.

The rear Bridgestone BT-016 tire uses five separate compound zones.

Avon VP2 Supersport tires.

Similarly to other tires in Group A the Avon VP2 Supersport features no tread sipes on the shoulder of the rear tire.

Michelin Pilot Power One 2CT tires.

The Michelin Pilot Power One 2CT rear tire features a tread pattern similar to Shinko’s 003 Stealth.

Bridgestone Battlax BT-003RS tires.

The BT-003RS tire is modeled after Bridgestone’s BT-003 DOT road racing tire.

Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP tires.

The Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP looks virtually identical to the DOT-legal road racing tire.

Dunlop Sportmax Q2 tires.

The Dunlop Sportmax Q2 tire also looks virtually identical to its road race tire.

We tested 10 sets of the latest road-legal street and sportbike tires to help you decide what might be the best rubber to sling on your bike.

Waheed and Atlas look over the data with the assistance of Kamal Amer from Kinelogix. Check out his website at kinelogix.com to see how he can help you with data acquisition equipment for your racebike.

Dave Moss from Catalyst Reaction Suspension Tuning (www.feelthetrack.com) assisted us with our tire test. You’ll be hard pressed to find a suspension and chassis tuner more knowledgeable than Moss.

Kinelogix fitted its GPS-enabled Track Day Data Logger to help us acquire data during our test.

Waheed doing work at the Streets aboard our Honda CBR1000RR tire test bike.

Dunlop’s recently released Sportmax Q2 is simply an amazing motorcycle tire both on the street and racetrack.

The Michelin Pilot Power One 2CTs served up fantastic grip but were slightly softer feeling than the rest of the A Group tires with exception of the Avons.

A close up view of the Michelin Pilot Power One 2CT rear tire. We tested the non-race version which can be identified by looking at the circle on the sidewall of the tire. No letter marking means that it is a non-race tire.

We used Honda’s CBR1000RR as a test mule due to its fantastically balanced chassis.

The Shinko 003 Stealth’s feature an unusually flat and wide profile which adversely affects steering and overall handling.

Waheed puts in laps on the Michelin Pilot Power One 2CT street tire.

Motorcycle-USA.com undertakes its inaugural street tire shootout in order to assist you in your buying decision.

Willow Springs ultra-fast Big Track is an excellent place to test tires due to its high-speed layout.

Waheed prepares to go out on another set of mystery tires (Avon VP2 Supersport) at Willow Springs.

Tire testing. It’s a rough job but…

Each of the tires were pre-heated for 20 minutes before heading out on track.

Chris McGuire from CT Racing helped us mount and balance the test tires.

Dave Moss from Catalyst Reaction Suspension Tuning and Chris McGuire from CT Racing assist us with our street tire comparison.

Waheed puts the Shinko 003 Stealth tire through its paces at Willow Springs International Raceway.

The Shinko 003 Stealth features a very flat tire profile front and rear. This makes the motorcycle turn-in very slowly as compared to the other tires.

Even though they are the second least expensive tires in this test the Shinko 003 Stealths offer a adequate amount of grip for trackdays.

With track temperatures in excess of 130 degrees tires were subjected to the utmost extreme use.

The Dunlop Sportmax Q2s serve up authentic race-grade levels of performance.

The Bridgestone BT-003RS were the second most affordable tire in the premium A Group.

Putting in laps at the Streets on Bridgestone’s BT-003RS motorcycle tire.

Performance aside, the Dunlop Q2 is a fantastic value.

If price wasn’t an factor, Waheed’s favorite tire would be Pirelli’s Diablo Supercorsa SP as it felt the most like a race tire than any of the others.