Anyone Tried the Michelin Road 5 tires?

So I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine.

As a bit of background, I this dude is significantly faster than I am, both street and track.....in fact I have tracked him through the mountains by the 20m of blackies he was leaving off of EVERY corner. He is running the Road 5s on his Super Duke -GT, I was chasing him on my my Super Duke -R (with M7RRs) we were debating tires and he recommended getting the Road 5s, as they had about 3 times the life of the Rosso III and better traction.

"The Rosso IIIs were great because when they slid they were prefectly predicable and easy to control like a race slick"
"My issue with the michelins was that they gripped until they didn't and it wasn't a little slide"
"I don't know I haven't gotten them to break traction."

In short he feels they have better traction than the M7RR (which isn't hard they aren't that great) more on par with a Rosso III.....if not a little better.

Almost tempted to throw a set on to see how they handle the power of the bike. Traditionally ST offereings can't really keep up with the power on while on the edge of the tire, meaning the TC was getting a hell of a workout.

This past weekend I went up to Arkansas for a few days to peep some leaves and enjoy their excellent roads. The Road 5 were fantastic -- never any hint of slipping, even cranked over across broken pavement. As long as I get a decent amount of mileage from these I don't know why I'd try anything different.

Interestingly, you can see the compound transition really well. These were taken after getting the tires nice and hot -- you can feel the difference running your finger across the tire too, the edges are noticeably softer and grippier. I don't recall any of the previous PR tires having such an obvious line like that.





Great tire so far.

trey

Mine look identical to this and I'd wondered the same thing; is this really the transition between tire compounds and why hasn't it shown up on previous versions? The other thing I've noticed is I can 'pebble' the sipe-less edges like a race slick more on this latest version than any previous version. Still, the most important improvement in the v5, for me, is the consistent feel across the entire tread width whilst dropping into turns later in the tire's life. I'm at 5,700 miles on my first set of v5 and still impressed.

How would you compare the PR5 to the PR2 in terms of handling, trlalction and mileage? Thanks!

Don't have enough time on them to give a good response. Its done nothing but rain so as far as rain traction they work well but I haven't pushed them in the dry yet.

PR2s were bricks.

I used to use them to combat 180* surface temps in New Mexico summers, but they aren't anything I would want to use as a traction comparison, my 2000 Speed Triple had enough ass to completely make those things fall apart.

Thanks! To be honest, this is the first outright negative opinion on the PR2 that I have ever seen. The only criticism I ever came across is that they loose some traction in very low temperatures.

Its just that literally every ST offering since has made them look pretty bad. At the time they were great, but then at the time the D208 in all of its glorious shittiness was still a thing. I think I ended up adopting a PR2 rear and original pilot power set up as I was commuting upwards of 30,000 miles a year, this was also a period were I got a LOT better both street and track and ran face first into the PR2s capabilities.

Far too good for a DL1000. Good life, I have 10,000k's on them now and they are no where near looking worn.

No chicken strips and if you've never seen a DL1000 corner - it's a tall bike and that's a looong way over.

Better than the PR4's, I still have a DL 650 with PR4's on it and I was sliding the rear and wishing it had TC on that with the PR4's, same corners on the 1000 with more torque and 5's and no slip at all.

Also, and this is just a bonus, they have SOME gravel cred, 95/5 say where the the PR4's had none (100/0).

Hi I've just taken my road 5 off my bike after just 2k the wear pattern was scary it looked like it was de laminating. I will never put this tyre on my bike again .

I'm sure we'd all love to see some photos. Have you contacted Michelin? What have they said?

I've had some issue with defective tires in the past -- both Avon and Dunlop were very receptive to my feedback and made an effort to take care of me.

If you can zoom in you can seem what looks like cuts in the sidewall. That's after 2k and no help or support either

The sidewall is simply not visible on your photos - "sidewall" is the part where the tyre size and other info is stamped. I see no cuts whatsoever on the contact part of the tyres.

I beg to differ. I actually got the PR2s after my previous comment and I now have about 12k km on them. They are almost as good as the Dunlop RS3 which were my previous favourite tyre. Also, I like the PR2s better than the Metz RT01, PR4, BT30 that I had previously on the same bike.

My wording slightly not correct sorry ! If you zoom in on the picture you can see what I mean it is about 1mm difference in height and very easy to feel

Hi everybody. My name is ponyexpresh and I ride a 2015 Suzuki v Strom 1000abs.
It came with Bridgestone battlewings tires that were ok but I'm a Michelin man . So a PR4 trail front and a R5 rear were the available tires when I changed from the second set of battlewings. The michelins were good road tires and even good on the gravel backroads around Lanark county and the kmage I got was rear5 10,000kms (amazing) and 15,000kms on the front .
I've replaced again ,but this time with R5 trail front and R5 trail rear combo . I take these tires traction for granted on asphalt because they are excellent , although a sprinkle of sand at a rural corner or curve can surprise any motorcycle tire , even the mighty Michelin❤️ R 5's.

Are you talking about the wavy lines running top to bottom in your picture? That's probably just the transition between the two different tread compounds. I see no sign of de-lamination there. The thin dark line in the center of the tread is extra carbon intended to dissipate static electricity.

Those lines you're seeing are most likely the transition between the different rubber compounds. In fact, my current Bridgestone S22 have exactly this effect right now. I wouldn't worry.

Here's what my S22 looks like between the medium and soft compounds.

After two sets I have come to the conclusion that I am never going to get along with the front RS3, I have never had any confidence in it at all. Starting with I have never felt a tire be THAT skittish across tar snakes, otherwise clean dry road and it feels like the bike is going down.

Factor that with two fronts in a row cupping visibly by 3000km and yeah. They are off of the menu. Want to buy a RS3 rear? I have a spare that isn't going to make it on the bike because I keep killing the front first.

I was fine with the RT01...except that I could barely get 4400km our of the rears. The PR4 I couldn't stand the tread squirm on a new(ish) tire......I haven't run the BT30.

So its a run between the PR5 and Angel-GT 2 at the moment.