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Comparison of Avon Azaro
AV45 / AV46
to Michelin Pilot Sports on a Ducati ST4s
From the first day I removed
the stock Michelin Pilot Sports and installed the AV45/46 ST's the tires provided more feedback and the bike felt more secure,
more planted and more consistent under varying conditions. This in turn made me feel more confident and more relaxed when
the pace quickened. Additionally, they seem to need very little warm-up to provide excellent traction. When the pavement gets
rough and irregular with patches and expansion joints these tires just get better. They seem to be able to absorb all types
of irregularities without batting an eye, especially when leaned over.
The Avons talk to me much more than the
Pilot Sports. The Pilot Sports are great tires when they are warmed up and riden on clean, smooth pavement. They feel like
they are glued to the road and would never let go. But, in places where the road has sand, water and oil, slick lane markers
or pavement irregularities like ridges and seams, they would let go without much warning, especially so if the tires had not
had enough time or speed to build some heat. This is unsettling and could easily lead to a highside, particularly since they
are capable of hooking up quite suddenly. The Avons handle these difficult conditions with much more poise. They seem to be
less affected by sandy pavement, lane markers and oil and when they do start to slide they tend to do it more gradually, not
all at once. They also hook back up more gradually making it much easier to recover and this helps avoid the dreaded highside.
The Avons have wide, deep grooves that extend to within 1/2" of the edge of the tread which do more than just channel
water away from the contact patch. I feel they make the tire much more forgiving when leaned over and much less likely to
throw the rider into a high-side should they encounter a spot of reduced traction such as a patch of sand or oil or a sharp
dip in the road. These grooves help the tire regain traction gradually which will be much appreciated should you momentarily
lose traction. They also provide the rider with more feedback when the tire is nearing it's normal traction limits by gradually
starting to walk to the outside of the turn rather than abruptly letting go all at once. These qualities help reduce demand
on the rider as well as on the suspension, making for a wider "sweet spot" when adjusting the various suspension controls.
The Avons provide more tactile feedback from the road surface while simultaneously creating a smoother, silkier ride.
I know it sounds like a contradiction and I can't fully explain it but that's what I've experienced. In a corner at moderately
high lean angles, both tires feel glued to the road but the Avons make the bike feel like it's on rails while the Pilot Sports
have a little nebulous squirm to them which reduces confidence and hinders my ability to feel the interaction between rubber
and pavement. At even higher lean angles on clean dry pavement the Avons still inspire confidence but they become a little
loose, not in a scary way, they have a predictable 'walk' to the outside of the turn, even front and back so it does not feel
squirmy or unsettling. The Michelins offer less 'walk' to the outside of the turn but do not exactly feel planted, they feel
a little squirmy until you load up the rear with a moderate amount of acceleration. It feels like the Michelins allow a high
horsepower bike to launch out of corners earlier and harder but the Avons are still quite good in this respect. The Avons
help me carry more speed through the corner because they offer a superior feel of the road surface and the interaction between
rubber and pavement.
There is a concrete rain control ridge between my driveway and the street about 2" high. I
usually drive over it about 15 or 20 mph while leaned over a little bit to make the corner. The Michelin front would always
feel harsh while going over this, like I was going to bend the rim and it would cause my line to change slightly. The Avon
goes over it like silk without upsetting my line at all. I experimented with pressures between 32 psi and 38 psi with the
Michelins, the higher the pressure the harsher the ride. I run the Avons at 38 F 40 R except fully loaded for higher speeds
I use 1-2 lbs. more. I don't know that the Michelins offer less rim protection but that is my impression. It seems to me the
Avons may offer more protection (say if I hit a 2x4 that is kicked up in front of me on the freeway) because they work well
at higher pressures and feel better when hitting sharp bumps.
In my experience, the Avons offer more traction before
they are warmed up or on cool days when you are caught in slower moving traffic that can make it difficult to bring the tires
up to temperature. I found that riding the Michelins at 65 mph on the highway on a 45 degree day was not enough to warm them
up. It was necessary to take some corners and do a lot of braking and accelerating, etc. This resulted in tires that were
often cold and didn't offer as much traction for emergency stopping or turning as the Avons under the same conditions.
It does seem the performance of the Avons falls off pretty rapidly at really cold temperatures (somewhere below 40F
or so). The Michelins do this also but I haven't ridden enough at low temperatures to be able to make a direct comparison.
One trip I rode really hard on really rough, abrasive and hot pavement that was covered with "tar snakes", strips
of road sealing tar that becomes slippery and goey on hot days causing the bike to slide around a lot. The Avons handled the
tar snakes better than other tires in the group, probably because they hook back up more gradually than the rest and offer
better road feel. They were very confidence inspiring under this most difficult challenge. However, I think I built too much
heat in the tires because of the extreme conditions, hard riding, etc. and this may have been compounded by low air pressure.
I may have been a couple of lbs. low when I started because the next morning they measured about 5 lbs. low. While the tires
felt fine at the lower pressure, I think the heat of the day coupled with all the continuous tar-snake scrubbing cooked the
rubber compound. I don't think the tires offered quite as much traction after that, particularly noticed in the cold, but
their performance was still acceptable. Moral of the story? Don't let the pressure get too low, especially if you have a heavy
load and will be riding really hard on hot pavement in order to avoid cooking the rubber. The Avons like a higher pressure
than the Michelins. Actually, I think those tar snakes allowed the tire temps to reach the sort of temps a tire would see
on the track because the road was full of 75-95 mph corners (not really any straights) and everytime my tires would go over
a hot, goey tar snake it would slide about 6" (the width of the snakes) before it even began to hook up. The tires were sliding
much of the day because the tar snakes were everywhere. That can build a lot of heat.
And this brings up one reason
why I don't think running different compounds front and rear is necessarily beneficial but actually offers some downside.
One reason the tar snakes were not upsetting the handling of my bike too much (besides it's excellent suspension) was because
the front and rear tires were behaving similarly, ie., if the front tire was displaced 9" before it regained traction, so
did the rear. Imagine the handful you would have if the front tire was hooking up in only 7" while the rear was sliding 9".
This same concept applies under other slide conditions also. Any patch of reduced traction becomes more problematic if the
rear tire is displaced more than the front because then you are pointed the wrong way when you hook back up. The tire and
motorcycle manufacturers know what they are doing when they equip a bike with matched tire pairs. Furthermore, sport compounds
generally take longer and are harder to heat up than more street based tires. Because the front tire is slower to warm up
in normal riding and since it is responsible for 80+% of your emergency straight line braking, it is extra important that
it not be made of a compound that doesn't work well until it's warmed up. After all, when sport riding in the twisties you
can wait for some heat to build before pushing the tire to it's edge but, in traffic you never know when you will need to
suddenly avoid a cell-phone talking cager. Does it make sense to run a front tire that offers poor traction until it's warmed
up? In my experience, sport compounds actually have less traction than tires one step down the ladder until they reach design
temperature. If they reach design temperature the equation is reversed but it may not be noticed as much because, when warm,
either type of tire will produce enough traction to lift the rear off the ground for emergency stopping. In other words, when
both types of tires are warmed up, the sport compound will not stop the bike appreciable faster than the sport-touring compound
because the stopping in both instances is limited by rear wheel lift.
I consider a tire worn out when the tread
is worn to the wear bars (or nearly so) or has changed shape enough to significantly affect handling. My Avons appear to wear
out about the same time front and rear, the rear hitting the wear bars in the center almost the same time the front tire hits
the wear bars halfway out to the edge of the tread. The Michelins lasted about 3500 miles in temperatures of 45F to 65F before
the rear hit the wear bars and the tire was very squared off at this point but the front could have continued on. My last
two sets of Avons have provided around 5500 miles each set, under warmer and more abrasive conditions than the Michelins saw.
Taking the different conditions into account I would say the Avons lasted roughly twice as long as the Michelin Pilot Sports
and the rears were not nearly as squared off when they hit the wear bars. But I would use the Avons over the Michelins even
if they both lasted the same simply because the Avons work so well under the wide range of conditions encountered on public
roads. I know plenty of Ducati riders who have tried the Avons and not one of them was disappointed with their decision so
you really don't have much to lose.
Tire technology has advanced by leaps and bounds over the last 20 years but,
unfortunately, much of the development expertise has been put into designing tires that work well on the track. Even the street
versions of many popular tires are biased to track like conditions. I would put the Michelin Pilot Sports in this category.
The Avon AV 45/46 ST are ideally suited to sporty riding on public roads and come with the durability to make them a practical
choice.
Mike Mullen
(To go to Mike's website look at Page 5 under: DUCATI OWNER'S HOME
PAGES - Mike's Ducati 'Views & Reviews')
Editors Note: Mike's review of Avon Vs. Michelin is still valid today because
some riders still opt for the Michelin Pilot Sports and have not heard the word about the superiority of Avons. Michelin however
has not stood still, releasing the Michelin Pilot Power tires which are thought to be a big improvement over the Michelin
Pilot Sports.
After using the Michelin Pilot Sports that came stock on my first Ducati ST4, a 2001 bike, I replaced
them with the Avon Azaro ST's having read Mike's review on his website. I put 13,000 miles on that bike, replacing the Michelins
with 2 pairs of the Avons. After eight months I bought a new 2004 Ducati ST4S and replaced the stock Michelin's (right out
of the box) with Avon Azaro ST's. I took the new stock Michelins off the 2004 bike and put them on the 2001 bike. I could
have just used the new bike with the stock Michelins, but why would I ride with Michelins when I could use the far superior
Avons, saving money at the cost of my riding experience, not to mention the safety factor didn't appeal to me. I also felt
the 2001 bike would be more appealing to potential buyers, with new rubber. I made the right choice. I have ridden with the
Avon Azaro ST tires for 2 years, (5000 to 8000 miles each pair). An Avon representative suggested that I might want to try
the Avon Viper Sport tires. I'm running them now and I love these tires!!! They might not last as long as the Azaro's or the
Storm-ST's, but I do love the way the handle. I am now ready to replace the Vipers with the new Storm-ST tires. I will be
testing them starting in Sept. 07 and will report my first impressions soon. Although I do love my Viper's and think I have
found perfection, I will still try the new Storm's because every new set of Avon's impresses me with the 'state of the art'
technology that they seem to keep coming up with.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Below you will find text from Avon's Website on their new Sport Touring Storm-ST Tires. (My review is in the works)
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MOTORCYCLE TIRES: Sport Touring Storm-ST
The long-lasting, all-weather, high performance sports touring tyre. Incorporates the very latest bike tyre technology
'Reactive Footprint'. The tyres contact patch changes size and shape depending on lean angle - for the life of the tyre. Unique
construction means excellent performance combined with very long life 'Super-Rich Silica' rubber compound gives superb wet
road grip. Front tread pattern optimized for shorter stopping distances in the wet. Excellent stability and handling whatever
the lean angle.
The Storm-ST replaces Avon's Azaro-ST and builds on its predecessor's talents. Employing what's
called 'Reactive Footprint' (RF) technology, the Storm-ST produces a footprint that changes size and shape depending on the
bike's lean angle, growing in size the further over the bike goes. It means you get high grip through the corners yet in a
straight line have a footprint which increases the Storm-STs lifespan. Avon's RF Technology is a quantum leap in technology
from the dual compound tread, and will provide unparalleled evenness in wear patterns.
The wet weather performance
of the Storm-ST is outstanding, thanks in part to the tire's Super-Rich Silica (SRS) compound. The extremely high silica content
delivers optimum grip in the wet and dry. It also has the added benefit of warming up quickly. On the front tyres, the Storm-ST
benefits from Inverted Front Grooves (IFG) that resist stepped-wear and cupping, ensuring smooth handling for the life of
the tyre and improving wet weather braking. The Enhanced Aqua Flow (EAF) pattern of the rear tyre also increases your safety
and confidence in wet conditions.
With all this (together with many other unique-to-Avon technologies) it's no
wonder the Storm-ST has gained numerous approvals from the tough German testing organization, the TUV.
(For more info about these tires, click the
Avon Storm logo, below.)
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