Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128323
Conti Road Attack ;rhis is truly one of the first tire intros that I w.iJked away from and had a rea lly good idea of how the tire would perform in the real world . The new Conti Road Attack is a sporttouring tire . I needed to keep reminding myself of this. The fact of the matter is that the tire's level of grip is extremely good for a tire advertised for sport touri ng. Granted, the bikes that we re available to us weren't monster-hcrsepower open class bikes, but the y weren't necessarily designed for them anyway. The bikes that were selected included a nice mix of standards such as the Kawasaki Z I, Suzuki Bandit 1200, a slew of Triumphs like the Daytona 600 and 9SSi (which I spent most of my time on), the Speed Four and Triple, and a bunch of Ducati Supersports, Monsters and ST4s. I think that you can gather from dia t list that most of the bikes selected have good levels of performance, once a~ n proving Conti's confidence in the prod uct. Cernicky and I battled on the road race - I mean dry handling course - for hours. When all was said and done, I was very mpressed that a tir marketed as a sporttouring tire pro ided such good grip. The course has multiple long carousel turns where the bike is at maximum lean angle for long periods of time, and the tires performed extremely well. The key to the tire 's grip is that the compound's shore hardness (the measurement for rubbe r hardness) is very soft and yet should provide good mileage. In reality the tire has the compound of a sport tire vvith the durability of a sport-touring tire. The tire features O-degree high-impact steel-belted construction for stability and control. The carcass ilesign and the ASC (activated silica component) technology, which gives the tire its soft compound and high grip, make the tire an excellent choice for wet-weather riding. I can personally vouch for the wet-weather performance, as I had the opportunity to ride on the company's slicker-than-snot wet handling course. I have no idea how they compare to other tires In the wet without trying them back-to-hack, but I didn't crash. I came close after I got confident and start ing hauling ass, but I pulled off before the inevitable happe ned. In the rea l world I was quite happy with the Contis as we ll. Ou r street ride wasn't 62 MAY 12,2004 • CY CLE N EWS exactly on the warmest of days, and the roadside was still cove red with snow, but the tires came up to te mp well and offered good grip eve n on some pretty marginal roads. Con tinental claims that its OFT (dynamic footprint technology) gives the tire a 12-percent larger contact patch than the other sport-touring competition, while the tread pattern is not only des igned to provide efficient channeling of water away from the surface, but also has the appear ance of a sport radial. So why should you the con- Size5 and Sugge5ted Retail Price5 FRONTS 120 /60ZRI7 120 /70ZRI7 $119 $119 REARS 150 /70ZR I 7 160 /60ZR I 7 I BO/55ZR 17 190 /50ZR 17 $140 $140 $150 $160 4 0th Ann sumer buy a set of Continental t ires for your ride when the brand has barely bee n on very many motorcyclists' radar for years? For one, Continental is the fourthlargest tire company in the wo rld, wh ich means that it has all of the latest, greatest tech nologies and manu factu ring techniques, not to me ntion that the pr ice point is killer (see bo x). Con tinental is com mitted to regaining market share in this country, and this tire may just be the catalyst to ach ieving that goal. eN