I know that their are a lot of threads about this topic, and I went through most of them. What I am after is a tire that's going to give me good tread life, preferably over 5k miles, and also good traction in dry and wet conditions. I am going to be riding my bike for most of the Colorado winter so wet traction must be really good. I have been looking at the Michelin Pilot Powers and Roads, but have also heard that the Metzler Z6's are really good to. I have never purchased tires for a motorcycle before so I don't know what to look for. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

The Michelin Power's have outstanding grip both dry and wet, but they wear out quicker than the Roads and Z6's. Between those two, the wet grip is reported to be marginally better on the Roads, but is also superior on the Z6's compared to most other tyres.

The Z6's should be significantly better than Roads in dry. So, my vote goes for the Z6's for the Hurricane. I'm on my second set-up of Z6's and totally happy with them on the Blackbird, as I was on the Hurricane after some fuzz going from Powers on the Hurricane until I learned to appreciate the Z6’s (they turn in a little slower than Powers).

I’ve used about 10 sets of the Powers, and still do on the GSX R1000, and would use them on a heavy bike to, if not for the reduced longlivety compared to the others. I used Powers as the first set-up on the recently sold CBR 1000 F, I felt very confident in them and the bike turned in very good. I got about 4k miles (mostly commuting) out of them before the rear was totally finished and the front where also about finished. The Power front tyre showed clear signs of not appreciating the heavy front of the Hurricane. The Roads or Z6's will easily do the 5k you ask for, if you don't go full throttle most of the time.

 

I use Michelin Pilot Road's and are very happy with'em. They have good tread life, and right now I have something in the area of 10000 miles on my front tire, and there are some mm left before a replacement is needed.

My rear has 4000 miles on it, and dont show much wear, and I expect it to last at least 7-8000 miles before replacement.

I havn't tried the Z6's, but think I will try them next time, just to be able to compare the two.

 

I think that I'm going to go with the Z6's as they look to be one of the best all around tires around with good tread life. I'll give a review on them after a couple thousand miles.

 

Well I have replaced my Pilots with Bridgestone Batlax BT 20 and have found them lovely the front tyre after a 1000 ks still has some of the littel **** on it when the back tyre after nearly 2,000 has NO signs of wear and the bike is normally two up and we do approx 2000 Ks a month so will see after 5,000 but I do expect to get around 7,000 Ks