Some late night thoughts on why we go to such lengths in tire testing

There are some things in life you pay no attention to until they fail.  Only when they fail do they get noticed, and immediately, because their failure rocks your world.  Among the list of things that don’t get noticed until they go wrong: your internet service, your refrigerator, your teeth, the heat in your house, your car battery, or your pinky toe.

Yes, your pinky toe.  Remember the one time you dislocated/broke/mangled your pinky toe and suddenly realized how much pain can be dished out by that tiny appendage?  There it was, minding its own pinky toe business, just laying there, doing its pinky toe thing until you whacked it and heard/saw/felt it snap like an angry math student snapping a pencil.  You looked down to the shock and horror of seeing it bent at a right angle like a tiny letter L.  The pain was crippling.  Death would have been easier.  You will never take a perfectly operational pinky toe for granted again.  I doubt Goliath was bought down solely by David’s stone.  I think the stone hit Goliath in the head, dropped to the ground, then Goliath stubbed his pinky toe on it and died instantly.  Makes perfect sense to me.

Road Dirt’s Pacific Northwest HQ. Tires and tools everywhere. Watch your toes.

Motorcycle tires should be added to that list.  We expect them to operate perfectly, silently, doing their job without failure or drama and tend to notice them only when they go wrong or need replacement.  Then, we tend to buy the same tires again and again.  After all,  with advances in modern technology all of today’s tires are good tires, right?

Wrong.  Many years and tens of thousands of miles have taught me and tire testing partner Dave “White Girl” Wensveen that there are differences between tires, subtle and massive, that affect how your motorcycle feels and functions.  Navigating tire selection can be a minefield of manufacturer claims, heresy and internet forum pablum.  Which ones are best?

Let us all stop and appreciate what I call White Girl’s “Debate Stance”:  Feet square, shoulders raised, chin ever so slightly forward for an assertive but not too aggressive stance.  Hand placement is key for success.  It must be placed below the waist, palm out and slightly up as if to make you question not just your opinion, but your very existence.  This is the winning Debate Stance.  There is no defense.

White Girl asked me this same question years ago as we prepared for another riding season.  We take this choice more seriously than most since he and I pound out thousands of miles in a single tour, far from home and in conditions ranging from cold and rainy to triple digit heat and back again in a single day.  We put a lot of trust in, and demand a lot, from tires.  I told him I was buying Pirelli’s Angel GT because, well, that’s what I always bought.  Like many riders I bought the same tires over and over again out of habit.  That is when the debate began.  Dave loves debates.  Sometimes with me.  Mostly with home plate umpires.  He usually wins.

We swap bikes, take notes and argue tires all day, every day, all summer long so we can help you be better informed.  No exaggeration.  You’re welcome.  Notice my attempt at the Debate Stance.  I learned from the master.

It was then and there that I came up with a brilliant idea, and if you ask White Girl, or editor-in-chief Rob Brooks, or anyone who rides with me they will tell you, all of my ideas are great ideas.  Well, except that one night in Arcata in 2021.  I still feel bad about that one.  Really bad.  Sorry, White Girl.

My idea was to spoon on two different sets of sport touring tires on our pair of 5th generation Honda VFRs.  Dave would ride on Pirelli’s Angel GT and I would ride on Dunlop’s new Roadsmart IV.  We would follow each other around all summer, never separated, swap bikes, take notes, measurements, and run the tires down to cord until a winner was declared.  There would be no debate and we could publish the results to help people who, like us, want real world answers, not manufacturer claims.  That was the genesis of our sport touring tire shootout.  Results from our first year of testing shocked us both.

We do this to our tires so you can make an informed purchase.  It becomes a serious issue when tires do this to us unexpectedly and far from home.

Now, years later and tens of thousands of miles into testing, we have worn many sets of tires down to cord, been both impressed and disgusted, learned lessons the hard way and know every coffee shop from here to the Continental Divide.  Seriously, we actually do.  Coffee 9 in Ben Lomond, California is my favorite.  White Girl agrees.  No debate on that one.

One other thing we both agree on is that while tires have a massive effect on the motorcycling experience and need your close attention, there is no easy way to tell what effect a tire will have by looking.  We are trusting our lives on this important choice and yet many of us buy the same tire year after year without question.  There is a better way.  Be an informed buyer, know the differences, understand their design intent and make a decision on information rather than click habit.

This was August a couple of years ago.  While much of the country was suffering through crippling heat, we were at 12,000 feet at the Continental Divide enduring driving rain at 45 degrees and freezing our man berries to solid round cubes.  “Why are we doing this, Ted?” Dave asks.  Once again, notice the debate stance.  Feet square, shoulders slightly raised, chin forward, palm out.  No defense.

Much trust is placed on those black donuts, much more when compared to automobile tires.  Whereas a motorcycle has two oval contact patches roughly a credit card in size, passenger cars have four square contact patches, each about the size of 4” x 6” picture, or larger, and consequences for motorcycle tire failure are more disastrous.  No driver has ever lowsided their Ford F150 after tucking the front end while trail braking into a corner.  No driver has ever highsided their Honda Accord with too much throttle application on corner exit.

Therefore, when we find a tire we trust we tend to buy it over and over again.  We think of all the time we have spent on a certain brand of tire, and the one time it saved us from an emergency room visit, and say those magic words, “I am a (insert tire brand here) buyer for life.”  Tire companies call it brand loyalty.

We ride a lot.  So do our friends.  Picture says it all.  Ironically, the BMW to the left has a Road Dirt sticker while I do not.  Sorry, boss.

How loyal should you really be?  How do you know there is not a better tire out there?  Is your faith well placed?  What would happen if you broke out of your comfort zone and dared to shake your brand trust?  There are other fish in the tire sea.  Dave and I have fished those seas, having the unprecedented experience of running five different brands of sport touring tires on identical bikes on the same roads at the same time of year for many years.  Having the ability to jump back and forth between twin bikes with different tires all year, year after year, on the same roads in all weather conditions has taught us this.

Always something to research, document and learn.  After this photo I hit White Girl with a snowball, because July snowball fights are the best.

Not all tires are created equal.  Not even close.  Like people, tires have characteristics, traits, even personalities, and some personalities more desirable than others.  Some tires I would trust with my life, and have done so, while others I wouldn’t trust to get me from here to Coffee 9 in Ben Lomond, California and back.

Performing this testing has forever changed our tire choices, and we hope it changes yours also.  Too much is riding on your tires to blindly click ‘buy’ on the same tire year after year without questioning why.  Dave put it succinctly.

Planning these tests means many states in a short Pacific Northwest riding window.  Timing is key and means maps, maps and more maps stitched together on the floor to form giant areas of the country.  Refrigerator tire stickers tell the tale.

“Do you believe the tire companies that are trying to sell you something,” he asked, “or do you trust the two of us that have real world experience?  What we have done is answered everyone’s questions, including our own.  If you read our reviews you are getting solid, real world evaluations of how they handle while new, and at 3,500 mile mark…if they make it there.”  Hard to argue with that.  Did I mention that Dave never loses a debate?

Here I try to use White Girl’s debate stance against him.  My hand placement could be better. Notice White Girl is only pretending to listen.  He won this debate, as usual.

If you want our findings you can read from the myriad of results here on our media site or better yet, ask questions below in the comments section.  There is only so much information that can be put in print.  Publishing every tidbit we have learned over the years would put both of my readers to sleep.

Pay close attention to your tire choices.  Don’t take them for granted.  And protect your pinky toe because stuffing a broken and mangled pinky toe in a motorcycle boot every day for a full week is the seventh level of hell.  Ask me how I know.

Ted

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