New old tyre designs - how much difference?

[Donbot]

I'm looking for a new rear sport touring tyre and the price range is about £100 - £140. That's going from an old Angel ST / Bridgestone BT016, to something like a pilot road 4. I can't find anything newer (on Ebay).

I know they have been doing stuff with adding different types of compounds to the tyres etc. But is the difference all that big?

It's a 160 60 zr17.

Cheers.

[SteveKTMer]

Yes, I think the difference between older tyres and the latest is quite significant, especially or mainly in the wet. In the dry most tyres when warm are pretty good for touring at modest speeds and even higher speed, most that I've tried work pretty well.

The biggest difference apart from wet performance, is the feel of them, modern tyres feel to me much nicer, plusher and more confidence inspiring than the older tyres. Maybe because older tyres were made harder to give longer life ?

Metzler offer the Roadtec 01 SE in your size which gets good reviews, although I much prefer the M9RR over every other tyre I've ever used, which has a much nicer feel and more performance than I need.

[Biker 1]

Not only that, modern tyres last considerably longer - it may well be a false economy buying older designs.

[GreaseNipple]

Michelin road 6 is available in that size, it's worth going for the newest tyres possible imo

[daniel-5zjw7]

It's an interesting question, what I wonder is whether/how much 'older' tyres are quietly developed over time, for example a the Road 4 came out in 2014 I believe, it seems unlikely to me that a Road 4 with a 2023/24 DOT code would still be made using exactly the same processes and tooling, which you'd think would be outdated by now and not efficient. Whilst they may visibly look the same in terms of an older tread pattern, perhaps the performance is closer to the latest tyre than we'd think?

A more extreme example is the Metzeler's I'm currently running on, a design released almost 20 years ago, but I can still buy new today.

[Bodo]

They would continue to produce older designs as tested and qualified during development and industrialisation - unless changes in the mfg process won't affect form/fit/function.

[Donbot]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Road 5 £140
Road 6 £170



Is it a bit of a case of overpaying for the latest and greatest?

The tyre lasting longer would be nice. The old Battlax tyre that is on there only lasted 4k miles. Which to me is a bit st for a sport touring tyre that I'm rarely doing much more than normal traffic speeds on.

[bogie]

I got 7500 miles out of a rear Road4 GT on my Triumph Trophy 1215 and replaced last year with a Road 6. Thats the best wear ive had out a tyre that I can remember. The GT are the extra load versions for heavier bikes.

I dont know when the Road changed to dual compound, that must certainly help for wear when compared to older tyres.

[TheInternet]

Maybe not of interest if you don't need a front tyre, but this was a good deal:

DUNLOP ROADSMART IV FREE FRONT TYRE PROMOTION

[Donbot]

Yeah, dual compound would help as I wear out the centre much faster than the shoulders (I'm ashamed to admit )

I'll probably order the road 5s as they are a chunk cheaper.

[Biker9090]

My VFR had an Angel ST fitted to the rear. It slid like fkery in the rain, I changed it to an Angel GT2 and the difference was quite unbelievable. I'd go latest gen every single time, it really is noticeable.