Last fall, Dunlop introduced it’s newest releases in hypersport rubber, the Q5 and Q5S, replacing the track focused Q4 and grippy but street oriented Q3+ in Dunlop’s lineup. Being curious, I purchased a set of Q5S out of my ridiculously abundant Road Dirt paycheck, spooned them on my Honda Superhawk and headed to The Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington.
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The red fuel injection warning light came on. The engine died. Time slowed.
In motorcycling physics, miles per hour equals radius. More speed means a wider circle. Cut throttle (or have sudden power loss) and your circle tightens immediately. Engine power that had been keeping me passing the tanker truck around the outside abruptly left like a girlfriend scorned, and my radius tightened towards the tanker truck on my right.
For the second year in a row, Road Dirt will be pitting two tire giants against each other in a head-to-head battle for sport touring tire supremacy. Last year, Dunlop’s Roadsmart IV easily won the test over Pirelli’s Angel GT with better dry handling, equal wet weather grip, better long term handling and a shocking 70% more tire life. Conversations with riders and comments from both of my readers asked about Michelins touring giant, the Road 6. So once again, I twisted the arm of my touring companion Dave “White Girl” Wensveen and convinced him to join me for another summer of testing.
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Road Dirt’s summer tire shootout is back.
Last spring, after Dave “White Girl” Wensveen and I grossly over caffeinated ourselves, our acute grasp of the obvious made us realize we had the exact same bike. I suggested that it would be a perfect test bed for tires. Two identical bikes, two identical riders, each following the other around all spring, summer and fall while testing and taking notes sounded like the ideal way to put to bed all of the heresy regarding tire performance.
Legends grow as they roll along. Like snowballs they gather hyperbole packed deep in layers until the truth is buried somewhere way beneath. Telling and retelling of ancient stories swell the past until they take on a life of their own, only resembling the original in hazy memory. Good days far removed become epic, the older I get the faster I was and ancient asphalt snakes become the Nurburgring.
Highway 129, i.e. The Tail Of The Dragon, is such legend. Its 318 curves in 11 miles are fact, but there is also some legend around this stretch of twisty tarmac. The Tree of Shame, that tree at the beginning whose bark is a mangled plastic fairing testament to poor decisions adds to the lore, attracting swarming moths of sporty pretenders on everything from Honda Groms to McLaren hypercars. They make the pilgrimage to ride The Dragon, to get the sticker, buy the refrigerator magnet and say they were there.
Riding Three Cruisers In And Out Of Their Element Life is slower in the Deep South. Deep in...
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We neglected to share these earlier, but when editor-in-chief Rob Brooks asked me for my dream list for motorcycles I wanted to ride in 2023, I dreamt big. Emphasis on dreamt. He did ask for a wish list after all. I leave it up to him to fulfill it.
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Riding a motorcycle is neither safe nor sane; they are temperamental machines draped in risk. Short wheelbase. Steep steering. Too much horsepower. Not enough brakes. Two skinny patches of rubber. A fuel tank between your knees. An fire-breathing engine between your shins. Delicate fingertip controls. They fall over when you turn, dive when you brake and loft the front wheel under greedy throttle. All of it screams you should have listened to your mother. Or father.
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Of all the motorcycle gear to get excited about, a clothes hanger is probably at the bottom of the list. A new leather jacket or new track suit is exciting. A new hanger? Not so much.
General use hangers are not up to the task of bearing the weight of that new leather jacket and will absolutely buckle under the girth of a new track suit. No one wants to find their precious and expensive gear lying in a heap on the floor (or worse, the ground) beneath a broken hanger, and few gear manufacturers include a hanger that’s up to the task.
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