Michelin Power One
New for 2009, say hello to the Michelin Power One race tire.
Throwing a bit of a wrench in the test were the Michelin Power One tires – in both a good and bad way. The set we had on Day 1 at Streets of Willow produced a strange vibration and hopping from the front end. Enough that anytime it was straight up and down, especially when leaned just slightly to the left, it would bounce like a rabbit in heat, enough to blur the gauge cluster and have the front brake reservoir flopping all over the place, the motorcycle a handful to hang onto. There’s no question something was off. It should be noted that this was the first time we’ve EVER had any problem with a Michelin tire of any kind and could have easily been a result of shipping damage, thus it’s hard to say if it was even Michelin's fault.
As a result, it made the conclusions drawn from the first day somewhat irrelevant. The saving grace was that once you leaned further into the corner the vibration vent away, thus it didn’t affect mid-corner speed or even the outright lap times that much. And as a result its best time of 1:22.38 was only 0.64 seconds off the pace. Though, in this tightly-knit field, that equated to fourth spot. This is why, for all fairness, we’re going to focus on the results from Day 2 at Willow Springs to compare the hard numbers, as the second set of tires performed flawlessly.
The first thing one notices about the Power One is how quickly the front end steers, the motorcycle turning before the thought in one's brain is even complete. Thankfully there’s little-to-no high-speed instability as a result. Outright rider feel and feedback from the front end is impressive, though it’s really the profile and shape that takes the longest to get used to. One quickly finds themselves picking the bike up mid-corner as the triangular profile is so drastic that turning at the same time as I had on the other tires would have ran me straight off the inside of the track. Carcass feel is also solid and in the same realm as the Dunlops, though a bit more forgiving, especially at lean where they will still soak up some of the smaller bumps, whereas the GP-As sent each and every imperfection straight though the bike and to the rider.
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.
Having a look at the fastest corners first, specifically Turn 8 at Willow Springs, this unquestionably turned out to be the biggest struggle for the French rubber. With an exit speed of 116.70 mph, nearly 4 mph down on the top-ranking Pirellis, it was in the same realm as the used Avons. In the slow stuff, on the other hand, the Michelin’s exit speed was top of the pile – 73.19 mph exiting Turn 4. Interesting that it would top one and not the other, but this comes down to heat and resulting wheel-spin. As the Michelins got hot in the ultra-high-speed sections they would spin the tire more than some of the others, but in the slower Turn 4 they did very well.
This is also replicated when looking at the individual corner times, the Michelins quickest all the way from Turn 2 through Turn 6 – which makes up the slower corners on the track – but lost time from Turn 7 through the exit of Turn 1 – the fast corners of Willow. But the real eye-opener comes when you compare how much time they actually lost in the fast stuff and how close they ended up overall.
From Turn 9 through the start/finish they lost nearly 0.5 seconds to the top-ranking pair, but in terms of outright lap times they were merely 0.01 seconds from being the best – 1:27.64 compared to 1:27.63 posted by both the Bridgestones and Dunlops. Hence, if drive-grip in the faster sections of Willow had been up to par with the leaders, there’s no question the Michelins would be top of the heap – by a healthy margin.
As for the weight of the Michelins, they were right in the middle. Up front we saw 9-lb, 5.3-oz, which was toward the back, but not by much. While out back they tipped the scales at 13-lb, 3.9-oz, proving to be one of the lighter tires. But considering the gap from top to bottom is roughly 1-lb up front and 9-oz out back, no one is really gaining or losing much here.
Not much tread here, Exactly why the Michelin provided slick-like grip levels in some areas.
Taking into consideration the data as well as my impressions of the tires, it all comes down to profile design and front tire verses rear tire grip. The Power Ones had utterly amazing front end feel and feedback, combined with loads of outright grip and a very triangular profile. This equated to a fast-steering and confidence-inspiring front tire that got through the infield almost a second quicker than the rest. But mix in a rear that would overheat and slide in the high-speed sections and the playing field was leveled as a result.
As for wear? The Michelins held up well to the abuse at both tracks, though better at Streets of Willow, where it posted its quickest time on the final lap and was able to lay down a competitive lap time despite a massive vibration up front. As for the Big Track, it made a solid three laps before showing rear end warnings, sliding a good deal in the fast stuff – Turn 8 and Turn 9. It was still quickest on lap four, though I recall a big tire-smoking Turn 8 slide in the process, while it continued to keep falling off on lap five.
Factoring in this and looking at how insanely close the final lap times were, once again we were amazed at how the design and construction of a tire can really effect different parts of the track, yet the end result be nearly the same as a totally different tire. Just goes to show, there’s more than one way to go around the track fast.
