Wheel alignment

Monday 13 September 2021

Michelin Road 5 end of life review



Front Michelin Road 5 @ 10,400 km

Rear Michelin Road 5 @ 10,400 km

Tyre choice can be a contentious issue as it's so dependent on intended end use and personal preference in terms of "feel".  Add in the other relevant factors such as tyre pressures, weather conditions, ambient temperatures, road surface, bike suspension and geometry, all up weight etc and decision-making can become overwhelming.  

Since retirement in 2008, we've lived on NZ's Coromandel Peninsula which is a road rider's paradise with highly technical twisty roads (look up the Coromandel Loop on YouTube!) with a road surface mainly composed of a coarse chip surface on the western side and smoother seal on the eastern side.  During that time, I've owned a Honda Blackbird, Triumph Street Triple, Suzuki GSX-S1000 and a KTM 790 Duke.  For the last 10 years, I've also been heavily involved with NZ branch of the UK Institute of Advanced Motorists.  Being fully retired also means that commuting has been taken out of the equation as riding has just been for fun and advanced rider mentoring with IAM.  What I'm getting at is that for a good many years, I've ridden a number of bikes under pretty much identical conditions with different brands and types of tyre which is useful for comparative purposes.

There are numerous tyre reviews in this blog but summarising, my preference has been for sport touring tyres as I ride in all weather conditions and cover up to 20,000 km a year.  The Suzuki and KTM came equipped with Dunlop and Maxxis pure sport tyres respectively and they were awful things for my intended use.  Firstly, in colder or wet conditions, it was nigh on impossible to generate sufficient heat for decent grip.  I had some butt-clenching slides when riding appropriately to the conditions and both bikes were also equipped with traction control.  One was when the front end let go and that was seriously scary.  The second factor is the life of a pure sport tyre.  For the environment I ride in, both brands of tyre were stuffed by 3500 km!  A good way of going bankrupt over my annual distance.  As long as a tyre delivers around 10,000 km, I'm a happy camper.  Actual tyre price is irrelevant as  performance (longevity and grip) is the only consideration.

In more recent years and in terms of sport touring tyres, I've used the Metzler Roadtec 01, the Bridgestone T31 and the Michelin Road 5.  All of these tyres gave the grip I was looking for over a wide range of weather conditions but it's worth mentioning where there were notable differences. 

The Roadtec 01 was a good tyre and the full review is HERE .  Two sets fitted to the Suzuki with the same result. Excellent grip in all conditions and a good life.  The rear hoop retained its profile well but the front noticeably started to lose its shape from about 7000-8000 km onward, developing flats on the outer part of the tyre. (A triangular or wedge profile).  Undoubtedly, countersteering and the type of roads I ride on contributed to this but the bike also had good aftermarket suspension set up by renowned guru Dave Moss so the front end wear characteristic was a little disappointing.  I should have replaced the front earlier than my normal habit of replacing both at the same time.

I also had Road 5's on the Suzuki.  In terms of performance, they delivered everything I wanted, including a faster turn-in than the 01's due to a sharper profile.  Unfortunately, I had a series of punctures including a destroyed rear hoop at 2000 km. I'm fairly certain that it was sheer bad luck as opposed to a tyre shortcoming but as I sold the bike not long afterwards, a longer term evaluation wasn't possible. However, I have occasionally seen comments from other owners around the world about "above average frequency" punctures.  Just something to file in the back of the mind.

After buying the KTM 790 and the poor experience with the OEM Maxxis pure sport tyres, I tried a pair of the Bridgestone T31 sport touring tyres as they had good reviews. Hmmm..... do motorcycle magazine reviews truly reflect everyday road performance over a representative period of time?  I suspect not.  Again, grip was satisfactory in all conditions but the front tyre developed a pronounced triangular/wedge profile from about 6000 km onwards.   At 8500 km, the profile was so bad that handling was adversely affected and both tyres were changed for a set of Road 5's.

The T31 front tyre at 8500 km

The Road 5's on the KTM have just clocked up 10,400 km and although it would be possible to legally squeeze more out of them before reaching the wear bar indicators, I'll get them replaced as soon as the 320 km round trip to my dealer can be made.  In a nutshell, they've been absolutely superb.  Outstanding grip in all conditions and equally importantly, they have pretty much retained their profile throughout with no noticeable loss in handling.

Front profile @ 10,400 km

In the following photo, the roughened part of the tyre is the outer soft compound and the wear bar indicator is about 0.5mm below the tyre surface.  The tread block with the sharp entry just to the right of the indicator is lifting slightly due to tearing.  This is occurring round the full circumference of the tyre but is so minor that it doesn't affect the handling.

Front tyre wear at the junction between the softer edge compound and harder centre

The rear tyre shown below has retained an excellent profile throughout the 10,000km+ life. If more time had been spent on straighter roads, the expectation would presumably be for a less-rounded profile.

Excellent profile at 10,400 km

In the photo below, a small amount of raised "feathering" can be seen in the soft compound at the rear of the large rain groove.  It doesn't affect the handling at all and has only become noticeable in the last 1000-2000km.  The most likely cause is less than optimal rebound damping as the OEM White Power shock on the KTM doesn't have the adjustability features of a high end one such as Ohlins, Penske, Nitron etc.  Nonetheless, the bike handles superbly and as the feathering is minor, no action is required at present.  For normal road riding, front tyre pressure is around 34 psi and the rear is 37-38 psi.

A small degree of feathering on the rear of the large rain groove

In summary, the Michelin Road 5 delivers everything required for the type of riding I currently do and the next set will be a straight replacement.  There are relatively few poor tyres on the market unless we buy some virtually unknown dodgy brand in pursuit of false economy.  I'd go further and say that most of us (and most certainly me) will run out of talent long before shortcomings in any of the major brands become apparent.  The real trick is to figure out what type (not brand) of tyre you need in the first place.  However, as I hope this blog post shows, there can be considerable differences in how long tyres of the same general type (e.g sport touring) lasts overall and how well they retain their profile.  I'm just glad that the Road 5 is a perfect fit for the KTM and the type of riding I do.

Oh and by the way, good suspension will really extend your tyre life.  I fitted a top of the line Penske on my Blackbird plus upgraded fork internals.  Gained nearly 2000 km from a set of tyres.

13 comments:

  1. Rubbers pretty hard to come by at the moment, hopefully you've secured a set. I just happen to have a set PR4GT's waiting patiently in the shed...

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    1. Thanks for the heads-up Andrew. Given the distance I have to travel, I'd like to combine it with the next service. I can hang on a wee bit, but not for very long. 🤔

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  2. Nice write-up Geoff. I happen to like Bridgestones myself but Road 5s will be high on the list come replacement time. Buying Sport Touring tyres that are one or two generations old is also a god move. I've bought two sets of Bridgestone 023s recently (From Boyd's you'll be glad to hear) and they are still an excellent tyre with my riding ability being the limiting factor.

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    1. Thanks Lee. Agreed. Pilot Road 4's are a good example of your point. I did a trackday on the Suzuki with them on and they were totally well-behaved.

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  3. Good review mate. My previous Michelin sports tyre had the dual compound and near end of life showed the same wear pattern as this tyre, where the soft and hard compounds meet there was a slight lip where they wore at different rates. Wasnt noticable riding but it sure looked funny.

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    1. Thanks for dropping by Steve! We're so spoiled for choice that we probably waste far too much time trying to get performance that's wasted on most of us. Glad that I've settled on the Road 5!

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  4. As always, a great analysis of the Road 5. I'm also a big fan.

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    1. Thanks Jules! If I remember correctly, you get some impressive life from them in view of the massive horsepower of your bike. How many sets have you had now?

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  5. Nice write-up. I have Bridgestone BW501/502 on the 1000 Strom and have covered 9200 miles/14700 kms and they are about done. Will replace them with Michelin Road 5 Trails tomorrow. See how they go. Expecting grip to be better.

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    1. Thanks for dropping by and the comment. That's a heck of a good mileage that you get from the Bridgestones! I hope that you enjoy the R5 Trails. I'd imagine that you won't get anywhere near that distance, but you will get excellent grip in all conditions. Hope that Kent is treating you well. We got married in Hildenborough 49 years ago 😁.

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  6. Great review. I used the Road 5s on my 790 Duke and was able to squeeze 10,000 km out of them. The center wear bar indicators were flush at about 9K though. I was expecting a little more from reading other reviews which claimed 13,000 miles (not km) on a set of these tires. I'm guessing for smaller bikes. I will try the Road 6s next since they claim 10% higher mileage and better wet grip.

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    1. Thanks for the kind words. With respect to tyre life, Michelin claimed that the 4's had 10% greater life than the 3's and the same for the 5's compared with the 4's. I personally found no difference at all for the conditions I rode in. Safe travels!

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