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
ThlMlehll1 It even has a cool name: the ClM process. Trust me (or not), this is top-leYel secret stuff, Tell someone and die. High-level intelligence known only by Frenchmen in white lab coalS andbadp-, The C3M process is how Michelin makes its MotoGP tires, and Its how the MW Power Race tires are made (the first consumer tire that is made using the ClM, Michelin says). What the C3M does that's different is It makes the tire in a single phase rather than the Mick Doohan rides again. For the sportbike enthusiast, it was like being a fat man on a cruise ship - there were MVs, Yamaha R6s, Suzuki GSX-R600s, Kawasaki ZX-IOs... a real smorgasbord of choices. When we first went out on the track at the Dubai Autodrome, we found it to be a bit on the sandy side, making the first session a bit of a tiptoe in the park... or is that desert? Once a clean line was established, you could start to think about what the tires were doing, and what they were doing was working well enough that you could quickly forget about them. If that makes sense. The tires provided exceptional grip and feel, especially from the front. And with 20- 34 FEBRUARY or-so minute sessions, the level of performance from the tires never dropped. They also didn't show much wear, though a lot of that could be credited to a racetrack that was smooth and a bit on the dirty side no maner how many laps we put on it. One of the things you notice about the new Power Race tires is that they come up to temperature quicker than what you normally expect from a set of Michelins. By the end of the second day, when we were completely comfortable with both the racetrack and the new tires, it wasn't out of the ordinary to be touching a knee by the end of the first lap. Of course, having the soft stuff on the sides of the tire is 9,2005 • CYCLE NEWS seven that's normally used in manufacturing tires. With the ClM process, the tire is actually made on a solid insert mold so the raw tire has the same form as the cooked one. What it all translates to is that the quantities of tread can be applied with "pinpoint accuracy." The machine is not only trick, it's also small. And It combines all the steps of making a tire together on one machine. It's more precise, and all the rubber goes in the right spotl. It's also easy to change, which means that tires can be made quickly. Very quickly. Case in point: Those whiney MotoGP stars weren't happy with the four gazimon tires that Michelin brought to the final Grand Prix of the 2004 season at Valencia in Spain, so Michelin called its plant on the Friday of the race. On Saturday, new tires showed up. On Sunday, the top three finishers used the new, l-day-old tire. That's called a quick turnaround. So now Michelin will use the same technology to "bring the tailor-made tires of MotoGP to the mass market."