Rear Tyre choice?

[Squashed_Fly]

Need a new rear tyre.

Have a dunlop sportmax on the rear at the moment which has been awesome, absolutely tons of grip, combined with the Avon Viper Extreme on the front.
Front has lots of life still in it, and there is another one available from the same place when it does go, but no rears so loking for a decent rear, that will be sticky/grippy enough to enjoy the remans of the summer, but also give some longevity and wet weather grip to go through winter. I'll switch back to stickies again next spring/summer.

Anybody had good/bad experiences with anything that fits that bill?

[Squashed_Fly]

Had a quick look around on the t'interweb, and Dunlop Roadsmarts seems to be getting good reviews everywhere...

[jonnydangerous]

avon viper or storm if you want a bit more mileage, superb tyres and the storms seem to last forever, good grip and excellent in the wet!
id go with the storm, have used them on the GSXR and theyve been good.

[wiltshire builders]

Think i'm going to give the roadsmarts a go next time.

[Scotty]

I've used Roadsmarts on the 10 since last June, certainly had no grip issues at any time. The rear lasted a year and even when on the verge of replacement it still gripped plenty in very wet Wales at the end of June.

Sticky tyres on a road bike? Total waste of money - on the road you can never get them hot enough to really work properly and you can't ride hard enough on the road to need more grip than something like Roadsmarts offer anyway.

[Jon_W]

Bridgestones all the way!!!

[Sean.C]

Dunlop sportsmarts are worth a look . There a very good sporty road tyre

[Nikki]

I always go for a matching pair.

I dont know if its just sales talk but I've been told several times never to mix different manufacturers tyres on a bike.

I had Avon Storm 2's on my CBR1000 which I thought were brilliant and on my new bike a VTR1000 I've just had a BT023 Batlax fitted which seems fine but in fairness I've only done 100 miles on it. They certainly don't get anywhere near as sticky as the Avon's did.

Something you might want to check out if you are considering Avons is the guarantee they offer - I cant remember the conditions but if you get a puncture you can, subject to various conditions, get a new tyre free of charge from them.

[Squashed_Fly]

Nikki - I've been running mismatched tyres for the last 8000 miles with no issues on this bike. Have done 2 trackdays on them, plus learnt to get knee down, lots of fast road riding, commuting for work etc and no issues.

Also used to get different tyres on my older bikes with no probs.

Tyre dealers say that to try and get you to buy into their brand. But ultimately it doesn't matter - if you feel safer for it, then placebo or not it makes you ride better and more confidently.

I guess it would be easier to ask if there are any to avoid completely as everyone seems to have different views on what's good. Avon Storms or Dunlop Roadsmarts seem to have equally good reviews, but seen some quite bad ones on some of the bridgestones so will leave well alone...

[wiltshire builders]

Running a k1 front and k2 rear race tecs at the moment purely because I get them cheap off of the Vicar who, so I was told last night, might be doing the TT next year. Always good to have a local to cheer on.
Just managed 2600 on the rear on mixed roads. I know a lot of you will baulk at that but that's actually pretty good.