If it wasn’t wet enough on the road, Dunlop turned the hose on...
“That was the most miserable time I’ve ever spent on a bike,” said John McGuinness having spent the last three hours on board a Honda Crossrunner shod with Dunlop’s latest RoadSmart III sports touring rubber. The 150km route that left Mireval’s test track in southern France and headed off into the hills should have been a belter, but with temperatures barely above freezing and incessant rain trying desperately to become sleet I could only echo the 23 times TT winner’s sentiments. The conditions were far from perfect for the pilots, but as a test for the tyre Dunlop couldn’t have asked for better weather– warm, dry days don’t prove an awful lot when it comes to all rounder rubber.
The sports touring market is on the up, now accounting for over a third of all motorcycle tyre sales, so pitching the right product in this sector is crucial to a firm’s entire success on two wheels. With the likes of Michelin’s Pilot Road 4 securing sales on its almost wet-like tread pattern, the suggestive grooves garnering good sales, Dunlop knew it had to fight back, so has spent the last three years concocting a new product – and the last three minutes coming up with its name – the RoadSmart III So what’s new compared with the outgoing RS Two? In an effort to improve handling, wear consistency and wet grip, Dunlop’s engineers have changed the front’s profile, developed new carcasses, given front and rear a new tread pattern (with an ‘interconnecting groove tread’) and made both hoops from a new ‘nano technology’ compound. That’s a comprehensive overhaul from an already decent tyre, and the starting point to create a hoop that Dunlop wants to be the new benchmark in the class. The hope was the new French-made RoadSmart III would improve agility (especially on big GT bikes), offer very uniform wear characteristics and cut through the water better. On a day long test, we could only hope to tick the agility box, although the weather (and Dunlop’s wet track facility) would enable us to see how they fared in the rain.