The road 2s are pretty good tires all around. I've sold a bunch of 'em and haven't had any real complaints about wear. You're gonna have to be thrashing your bike around pretty hard to exceed the grip available. That being said, you are gonna lose some feedback with the road tire, which can translate to less confidence, which can really hamper your riding experience.

I don't get how you saw steel in 3k miles unless you were doing burnouts and the like. I got way more than that when I had the 2cts on my R1 and about double with the regular pilot powers on my RC51. My guess on your quick wear is either 1) Check the production date on the tires you had, might have been old or a weird batch... tends to happen with some of the online tire warehouses or 2) Check your tire pressures more often. I see a lot of tires wear down really prematurely just from being a few psi too low.

My suggestion, if you're gonna switch tires, do both of them at the same time. Mixing/matching tires is usually not a good idea and doing a PP front with a PR rear is probably a bad mix as you usually want the grippier tire in the rear.

 

First off, how the hell did you kill a pilot power in 3000 miles? I get about 10,000 from pilot pure rear tires and almost 15k from fronts including track days. I know I get more then most but only 3k?????

Second, if a power and road 2 are your only choices there is no reason to consider the power. The road 2 is the same compound on the shoulder as the power with a harder center only so theres no reason for the power to even be made IMO.

 

The compounds may be the same, but I think they have different belt constructions and contours which can affect wear and grip.

I'm going to assume it's a tire pressure issue. I've seen all sorts of crazy looking wear on tires coming into the shop due to bad tire pressures.

 

Yeah, wrong tire pressures will really work on tires, that's for sure. My qualifiers were bald in just over 4k, though, but I was bad about straight line ripping on them on a heavier bike.
I think the pr2 would be an excellent choice here, especially considering his 50/50 hwy/city riding. Doesn't matter at all that he's putting them on an f4i or an older cane, its just a great tire that's come a long way vs the others.

 

I'd take a look at the pilot road 3, I was looking at road 2's to replace my dunlop q2's but just went ahead and got the pilot road 3 since it is supposed to be a better version of the road 2 for a bit more money. I haven't gotten to really push them yet but visordown has a review where they took them on the track Video: Michelin Pilot Road 3 on track - Features - Visordown and I saw a youtube vid of someone else doing a trackday with them.

I always thought you wanted the better rubber on the front because a slipping rear is easier to handle than a front that slips, I've got a q2 on the front now with a pilot road 3 on the rear.

 

I was interested in the road 3 as well, but last time I checked they were quite a bit more than the 2. And since I love the pr2s, I never really looked into it much more. I might try them at some point, though, especially if the price is coming down.

 

Good points. I hadn't thought about belt construction which plays a huge part in how the tire handles. As for mileage, I am fairly obsessive in keeping them 36/41 on the street so Im sure that helps.

 

One of my co-workers recently put on a set of Power Road 3s and he's been daily riding through this bull**** cold and says they feel great and grip really well.

As far as which you want in the front and which you want in the back, I'm not 100% sure. I heard you want a grippier front, but then a couple track days ago I was told the opposite by the on-site tire guy.

 

You want equal rubber on both ends. You can tuck the front just as easy as you can slip the rear and high/low side yourself.
Whatever trackside guy told you to use different rubber front and back so the rear is stickier is out of his mind.

 

I agree with most of what you guys said! up until 3k the weather was constant temp every day where im at, so I was riding every day and the tire pressure was on point all the time, 42 fronts and rears.( not stock settings but this is what is recommended on the tire side wall, both front and rear are pilot powers ).

Now raylee what you said is very interesting. I know these tires were put on a while ago on the bike, when I got them they still hadnt been broken in and they probably sat on the bike for a year or two with no movement at all. I am aware of dry rot and cracking on tires that sit too long but I inspected them and they looked good to ride. Maybe this could be a factor, I cant really connect this all(maybe the tire got softer lol).

Personally all the bikes Ive been on, michelins are the most remembered tire to myself for not having any problems. So I want to filter through their tires first then move onto a different brand.

Something I forgot to mention, im lowered 3in in the rear, 2 in the front.

I do a lot of wheelies but I do them when I know my tires are warm so they stick, cold wheelies suck! ( wheelspin and then sometimes it catches and throws you in the air a little or just spins ) When Im on the highway Im not gonna lie, I go a little too fast than what I should be doing. With most of my riding in orlando, the road grit here is very very bad, so I know forsure thats wearing me down a lot faster than normal. This is probably why I wear soo fast, everything mentioned above. But still, 3k, im just not sure if all these things added can really just wear my tire down so fast or if its just that pilot powers are sooo damn soft. Or a combo of the two.

From this thread and a few others, the majority say that the road 2ct's are really good and I am biased towards getting them more now. People have stated for my riding they might not be the best match, ill just have to adapt. Get a few thousand miles under these tires than post my true opinion of them on here!