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.
The
Shinko 003 Stealth is its Shinko’s premium sport tire offering. It only costs $1 more than a set of 005 Advances making it the second-least expensive tire in this test. With such a minimal price gap we wonder why anyone would opt for the base-level Advance tire. However after logging a fair number of miles we realize there are some key differences that make the Stealth yet another potential option for a sport rider.
Upon weighing each tire we learned that the front hoop is the second-heaviest (9 lb 11.6 oz), meanwhile the drive tire came in at 14 lb 0.8 oz which positioned it as the third-heaviest behind the Shinko Advance and Michelin Pilot Power 2CT. Visually the shape of these tires is even flatter than the Advances. When mounted onto wheels the Stealth’s appear wider than any other tires. In fact, it’s odd how large the front tire looks.
While this maximizes the tire contact patch and puts the most rubber to the pavement it also adversely affects the way the bike turns with the Stealth’s offering the slowest and most heavy steering feel. It’s so different that it takes a bit of time to become acclimated with the peculiar handling. Since the tires have such a large contact patch it isn’t a surprise that the Stealth’s offer decent warm-up times comparable to that of the name brands.
In contrast to the Advance’s stiff carcass, the Stealth features a much more flexible body front and rear. Bump absorption ranked highly and the tires generally delivered a very good ride. The carcass felt similar to the premium grade Avon VP2s (Group A) but didn’t deliver as much feel—especially up front. We were however very impressed by how much feel the rear tire offered. This made it easy to control the backend of the motorcycle under power sliding off a corner. Even though side grip was higher than the Advance it still ranked toward the back of the entire field. Traction levels also fell off at the track as tire temperature increased.
The Shinko 003 Stealth’s feature an unusually flat and wide profile which adversely affects steering and overall handling.
According to the Kinelogix data acquisition report, we clocked a best lap time of 1’28.77 at the Streets. This was just over two seconds behind the top finisher in the B Group (Bridgestone BT-016). With the added number of straightaways at the big track the lap time disparity was just over a second (compared to BT-016) with a fastest lap of 1’36.71.
With its humongous contact patch drive grip was excellent, delivering more grip off the corner than even the B Group’s Michelin Pilot Power 2CT. But when braking hard the front tire would squirm and ranked toward the back of the field in terms of stability. We however, wouldn’t term it “bad” and chalk it up to a matter of rider preference.
Riders looking for a flexible and forgiving tire with good straight-line performance need to look no further than the 003 Stealth. We especially appreciated the elevated feel from the back tire which made it fun to power slide on track. The only real flaw is these tires adversely affect steering which makes the motorcycle more difficult to pilot during cornering maneuvers.
RIDER NOTES:
“The front tire feels significantly different than the others. Steering felt very heavy and turn-in was slow. It takes time to get use to how much more slowly the bike tips into a corner. The tire flexes a lot and builds good heat right away. Rear tire drive grip was excellent but edge grip is lacking. Rear tire feel is unreal though which makes it easy to spin up the rear tire at will. Traction did fall off and the rear tire felt greasy after just a few laps.”
The
Shinko 003 Stealth is available at
Motorcycle Superstore.
Front Tire MSRP: $102.95 - $105.95
Rear Tire MSRP: $139.95 - $182.95
