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Thursday, 22 September 2005 |
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Page 2 of 2
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The venue for this test was Spring Mountain Motorsports Track in Pahrump, Nevada. This two-and-a-bit mile track is situated outside of your typical Las Vegas locale, some 45 minutes or so from the gambling city. Surrounded by just gas stations and 24-hour brothels, the track, although remote, is a jewel in the desert. It’s a proper test track too and has a great tire abusing, 16 turn asphalt trail, that offers a bit of everything. It’s fairly smooth, with a little street style bump here or there, it reminds me a little of the streets of willow but with less willow, less streets and less elevation changes. It’s recently been extended, but the newer surface wasn’t quite ready for us yet. I’ve ridden here in its present configuration before so I could claim a little prior track knowledge.
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However, as usual, I’m always wary when riding in Vegas, the track surface never seems to warm up like the California and floridian tracks that I’m used to. We were greeted with a nice sunny day and a brace of 600 and open class bike's to go forth and thrash. My first foray was on a Yamaha R1 and on the older 208ZR rubber. No surprises here, the 208's aren’t the grippiest tires ever, but they do offer a very consistent feel, my Tuono is currently wearing a black pair back home, signifying its (to me) good all round abilities. On the track, the tire after five or six laps start to grease up a little and ham-fisted throttle inputs will see it slide on exit, it’s reasonably controllable though, but a slide is a slide and will bite you in the arse eventually. From there I jumped straight onto an R6 to confirm that consistent feel, the R6 obviously turned a little quicker than the R1, but it was super stable. I think I was ready for the grip that the new tires were said to offer though, so it was back to pits for the new stuff.
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On the absolute first corner I immediately felt the presence of the more triangular profile afforded by the new Qualifiers. Steering inputs were far quicker, yet still felt precise. At speed the tires felt stable on every bike I rode - the 2005 Yamaha R6 was the only one I could upset, but with its razor sharp steering this was due to harsh (read attempted corner exit wheelies) throttle inputs. Nothing to get excited about though and I’d gladly trade a little stability on any bike for the rock solid sidewall grip that these tires afforded. Maybe I’ve been riding too many zero-degree radius tires, but I really got off on the way these Q’s could be slammed on their ear, especially during fast left-right-left track changes and more so if you needed to take an alternative line to pass slower traffic.
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With the newer Dairy Queen’s I couldn’t make any impression toward the greasy side and some of the faster guys were commenting that it took twice as long to get overly hot (and the consequent sliding) than the older tire. On examination of the Q's after each session it was quite clear that we weren’t making that much of an impression on the tire as far as wear was concerned. Even the open class bikes looked like they couldn’t put a dent into the tread wear. I really hope this is a sign of excellent wear characteristics. The front's in particular looked in great shape too. The tech’s explained that although the tread looks uniform in design, it is actually slightly irregular to stop harmonic forces producing the “cupping” experienced by the old 207's - sounded good to me, and it obviously works. |
| After trying this tire on a Yamaha R1, R6, a Honda CBR1000RR/600RR, a Suzuki GSX-R750/1000 and a Kawasaki 636, I couldn’t fault the grip in any way. It was almost plush in feel like a good street tire should, yet produced prodigious grip and mobility like a race tire. The confidence that the front tire gave me was amazing and the most incredible thing about the whole two days of track time was the fact we were running street tire pressures. 34lbs front and mostly 36lbs rear. On a couple of final sessions we dropped the tire down a couple of pounds fore and aft with no penalty - both of the bikes I rode still felt razor sharp in turn in and the tire still begged for more throttle regardless of lean angle. |
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So, what we have here is probably the best street tire currently available. With two days of thrashing on two classes of four different manufacturers bikes, on a very demanding test track, I can honestly say, I never put a foot wrong or a tire off the edge of that track. Sure I was concentrating and going as fast as my little grey matter would allow, but I never had a “tire” moment. This Qualifier took everything I could do and still gave me a warm and cuddly cushion of grip and safety. On the street it’s going to be without fault...
You couldn’t ask for more. |
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This Qualifier tire series will be available some time in January 2006, at a very competitive price and comparable to the price of the current 208 that it replaces. Sizes range from a 200 series down to a 160.
Mike Emery
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