Michelin has announced the Road 5, the company’s newest motorcycle tire, designed specifically for sport touring motorcycles with patented technologies that provide riders with enhanced grip, comfort, and stability, particularly in wet conditions.
Available in January, the Michelin Road 5 incorporates patented XST Evo siping and ACT+ technology to add a new dimension of confidence in wet and dry conditions over the life of the tire. Even after 3,000 miles, a MICHELIN Road 5 tire stops as short as a new MICHELIN Pilot Road 4 tire when braking in wet conditions.
“The Michelin Road 5 tire represents a breakthrough in motorcycle tire technology,” said Ross Shields, vice president of Two Wheel, Michelin North America. “With design and technology DNA incorporated from Michelin’s leading research and development team, we are able to set a new benchmark for the effects of tire wear and performance over time.”
The Michelin Road 5 tire builds on the innovative designs of two distinct predecessors, the Michelin Pilot Road 4, and Michelin’s leading automobile tire, the Michelin Premier A/S.
In 2011, Michelin unveiled the Michelin XST sipe design which was enhanced again in 2014 with XST+ siping technology found in the Michelin Pilot Road 4. Designed to evacuate water efficiently, which helps increase confidence during wet conditions, this technology now leads the segment for wet grip performance.
The Michelin XST Evo represents a new iteration of siping in the Michelin Road 5 tires. This technology is borrowed from the Evergrip tread design, first introduced in the Michelin Premier A/S tire in 2014. The Premier A/S for passenger cars introduced the breakthrough concept of maintaining wet-braking performance as the tire wears.
In addition to optimizing wet grip, the Michelin Road 5 tire is designed to ensure outstanding grip on dry roads and superior stability compared with its predecessor, thanks to a combination of all new tread compounds and revolutionary adaptive casing technology called MICHELIN ACT+3.
The design of the casing ply, introduced in MICHELIN Power RS tires, incorporates high angles and overlapping cross plies, which allows for exceptional cornering stability while maintaining the high-flexibility in the crown for straight-line stability.
The new Michelin Road 5 will be available in two front and five rear sizes to fit a wide range of sport touring motorcycles. The tire will go on sale at retail locations nationwide starting Jan. 1, 2018.
