The Michelin Power One 2CT rear tire features a tread pattern similar to Shinko’s 003 Stealth.
The next tire in Group A is the
Michelin Power One 2CT. The Power One is the French rubber company’s top-of-the-line DOT-labeled racing tire that is also available in a specifically designed street/trackday construction which we tested.
Although visually it appears nearly identical to the full-on race version it’s not. To confirm the difference you have you need to look at the sidewall of the tires. There will be a circle and if it is blank inside then it’s the street/trackday version. If there is a letter (A, B, C or V) then it is a race-only version.
Looking at the tire spec chart shows that the Michelins are the most expensive tires in the test ($383.98 at
Motorcycle-Superstore.com). That’s a whopping $134 more than the class-leading Dunlop Q2s. Weight-wise the Power One front tire was 9 lb 5.2 oz (third-lightest in Group A) while the rear was also third-lightest in this group at 13 lb 3.2 oz.
The carcass felt more flexible than the rest of the tires in Group A. This gave it a little more “mushy” feel which helped absorb bumps. However when we loaded the front tire under hard braking the rubber offered good rigidity balance which gave the rider confidence to use the brakes aggressively. Although the profile of the tire doesn’t appear quite as sharp as say the Q2s, surprisingly the bike steers much more aggressively than other tires. It’s actually a great attribute and enhances the overall turn-in handling of the motorcycle. It just takes a few laps/miles to get use to it. The tires also arrived at operating temperature quickly and on par with the rest of the A Group tires with exception of the Avons.
In terms of grip the Powers seemed to lack just a hair of outright grip as compared to all the tires with exception of the Avons. Don’t get us wrong, grip is still at a very high-level especially for a street tire. You can still go hard into the corners hard and trail brake deep but when you were aggressive with the throttle on corner exit the rear tire had a tendency to squirm and spin. It is important to note however that when it did slide it was very predictable and offered a high-level of feedback which made it easy to control.
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.
At the Streets we were able to achieve a best lap time of 1’24.47. This was nearly a second ahead of the Bridgestone BT-00RS but less than a second slower than the class-leading Pirelli Supercorsa SP. At the big track the Power One bested all the tires with exception of the Pirelli.
I know we’re starting to sound like a broken record here, but the Michelin Power Ones are a great tire. They heat-up fast, make the bike steer a bit sharper (without compromising stability) and provide excellent traction and feel. Problem is the outright traction isn’t quite at a level of the SP, Q2 or BT-003RS—however, it is very close. If they could just get the price down we’d have no problem purchasing a set for our bike.
RIDER NOTES:
“Front tire is extremely precise and steers quickly. It took some time to get use to how quick it turned-in. Side and drive grip was good as was feel but not quite as good as the Q2. But it was close. It’s almost like splitting hairs these tires are all that close. The tires warmed up just as fast. Carcass felt a bit softer than Avons and delivered an excellent ride.”
The
Michelin Pilot Power One 2CT is available at
Motorcycle Superstore.
Front Tire MSRP: $209.95 - $247.95
Rear Tire MSRP: $343.95 - $367.95
