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/128364
TheTire There are six (three fronts and three rears) Michelin Power Race tires using seven compounds. ranging from soft to medium. The three fronts are: a soft, which features the softest compound spread over the entire tire; the medium soft, which has the medium soft compound in the center 15 percent of the tire and a softer compound on the outer 42.S percent of the shoulders; and the medium, which has a medium compound In the center 80 percent of the tire with a soft compound on the outer I0 percent of the tire. The three rears are: a soft, which has a soft compound over the entire tire; a medium soft, which has a slightly harder compound spread over the entire tire; and a medium, which has a medium two victories on Makato Tamada's Honda. Okay, so what makes the Power Race more in line with MotoGP than any of Michelin's previous sportbike tires? Simple: dual-compound technology. And for a production sportbike tire, this is a first. And it's not really rocket surgery or brain science. Doesn't it make a lot of sense to put soft rubber on the shoulder of the tire and harder rubber in the middle? The good guys have been getting this sort of treatment for a while now - from Michelin and other tire manufacturers. Let's see... There are lots of fast lefthanders at this racetrack where the motorcycle is at or close to maximum lean angle for long periods of time? Hey, let's put some soft rubber on the left side of the tire! But compound in the center (70 percent of the tire) and medium compounds on the shoulder (15 percent of the tire). The softer compounds obviously allow the tires to warm up quicker and also have more grip, while the harder compounds provide greater stability and more durability. Uke their MotoGP siblings, t~e Power Race tires are made from a rubber compound known at Michelin as C-RAO (Compounds-Racing Optimization). Michelin says the substance is a combination of three IOO-percent synthetic components identical to those used in the 2004 MotoGP tires: Michelin Racing Synthetic Elastomers (MRSE), with two additives - Macro-Molecular Compound (MMC) and HighTechnology Synthetic Compound (HTSC). You will be tested on all of this stuff, so here's hoping you paid attention. Hopefully, at some point we'll tell you what the MSRP is on the tires, when Michelin adds all the MRSE, MMC and HTSC together. there are also long fast straights where tire durability will be tested throughout the race? Hey, let's make the center of the tire from a harder compound! In theory, it sounds simple. Pulling it off is a bit more difficult (or at least it was initially) because getting the two different compounds to join was what made the construction of the duai-compound tires difficult. Otherwise, it's just a matter of slapping the two different compounds together (that's the triCky part that stops us from being able to whip out dual-compound tires in our garage with nothing more than a sharp knife and a blow torch) and voila! - a dualcompound tire that makes a racer's heart skip. The ultimate compromise. Michelin claims to have done all of this and packaged it in the Power Race line "without compromising safety" - using the same compounds used in Michelin's MotoGP tires, as well as the same manufacturing technology. The Power Race line of sportbike tires takes last year's introduction of the Pilot Power a step further, and Michelin likes to boast that what it has given us is "revolutionary MotoGP technology brought to the market." In order to show off its work, Michelin rolled out the red carpet (actually, the Persian rug) on this one, taking journalists from all over the world to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for two days of testing at the Dubai Autodrome. Why Dubai? (Ah, the poetry of it aiL) Probably for the weather more than anything. Where else can you absolutely count on getting bone-dry weather in January other than in the middle of the Middle East (is that redundant') desert? So, in a country where they measure the annual rainfall in a thimble, naturally it rained. But just a little. Enough to get us slightly damp on the afternoon of the first day and to hold us up from riding for a few hours on the morning of the second day. So much for bone-dry desert racetracks. When the racetrack was dry, we were sent out on a variety of different motorcycles. Colin Edwards imparts some words of wisdom to the author. Road Racer X's Chris Jonnum listens in, apparently hearing only the part about braking really, really late. Michelin's main man in MotaGP, Nicolas Gaubert, talks tires with Edwards. CYClE NEWS • FEBRUARY 9,2005 33