Slippery Dunlop D208RRs...

I was out for a little ride on the SD an hour ago, the D208RRs aren't very confidence inspiring in 5 deg C wet weather
I'm thinking Pilot Roads when it's time to change, had them on my old bike, CBF 600SA, and they were pretty good in the wet and cold.

The 208rr's ARE rubbish in the wet imo. Spinning the rear with 50% throttle in second in the dry can be fun. If you meant it .

Pilot Power's on mine are great, 4 hot days on track and 1200km commuting and they're looking great still.

edit: oh, and I don't need to use my legs to pull off in the wet to stop spinning up

Riding in the wet ? What's that all about then ?

I rode a set of 208rr's to destruction earlier this year in all weathers and didn't fall off once. Dunno what yiz are all whinging about. That said, I've got Pilot Roads on at the mo and so far haven't fallen off them either. (touches wood)

Dunlop should stick to making wellington boots and condoms for brummies.

I have never been confident on any of their road tyres and had spins and slips in the wet and the dry with them.

That said, I have never fitted aftermarket Dunlops so I am only talking about OE fitment tyres. These are made to a different spec even though they are numbered the same. That is why I got nearly 4000 careful miles out of the D207's on my R1 and only 2000 carefree miles out of the pirellis I replaced them with.

Back in 1990 I had Dunlop race tyres on my RGV though and thought they were the b*ll*cks

hudds, thanks for that..... not that I wish for someone else to do what I nearly had done in the paddock on cold tyres! embarrassing can not touch that feeling!

the feedback is greatly appreciated, all's that I could think was WTF!! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN! after 40 years of riding MC's and being on bicycles since birth.

What is all of this noise I hear of the bridgestone 016, I had thought local racer types were steering me towards this tyre for track use, please expand if you know.

Sir, Do you own that KTM in your avatar.

I'm on my 4th set of Dunlops (208rr) on my SDR and love em,yes they do spin up in the wet but i reckon most tyre's would on 1000cc V twin. I dont ride on the road in the winter so cannot comment about their suitability in the cold,i only ride off road during winter on Bridgestone's.
On two GSXR 750's and my old 625 smc i used to swear by Bridgestone,on the SDR i'm sticking to the Dunlops,they work for me and at £105 for a set it's unbeatable value
At the end of the day,it's all about what inspire's you with confidence,if you dont feel confident in the wet on them then try something else that does

me to sabre £105 i think there a bargain, i ride all year round but winter i only do short trips for a coffee then back home and do something else, if i had to commute on my bike i would get a winter tyre, next summer the qualy rr s will be cheaper i expect.

I have had my SD since last spring and had wondered what all the moaning about the Dunlop's was about - they get up to temp v quick and I felt pretty confident on them straight away. The weather now having turned chilly - damp and around 5 degrees - they scared the shite out of me yesterday and I don't feel at all confident - they squirm and track every bit of overlay/road markings. Conclusion - great summer tyre, but I am going to change them for the winter before I fall off. what about Conti Roads?

I have a set of Conti Road Attacks waiting to be installed - I have heard nothing but ++ about them - fast warm up, dual compound, decent life vvs a sticky road tyre.... Conti Sport attacks would be nice, but very short lifetimes - and I tend to eat rear tyres with sliding & wheelies.

I can vouch for Qualifiers, or atleast on my R6 anyway. Great tyres in the summer and no moments in the wet or cold.

208's though - shocking tyres!!

Not sure what to go for next, quite like the Pirellis so far but was a big fan of the 2CT's for a while so maybe.......

If you want looks get some Tomahawks

Well I was a little duboius when I picked up my brand new 07 runout model two months ago & the bloody things had balled up on the road riding her home still running her in. I thought fark these aren't going to last stuff all. Well 3500k's later & the rear looks like it's got another 1000k's left. Haven't given them too much shit in the wet but very happy with level of grip & milage on the road. The original Diablo on my 05 SD was toast in 3000k's. Have run Diablo's (on my 05),Diablo Stradas & Metzler Z6's (don't do track days yet) & I'm a tight arse & like my tyres to last as I ride all year round down here in all weather. Long story short, for a track day tyre on the road I'm happy with them,saying that not too keen on pushing them in the wet

Gidda Dazza.
I had a great run out of my 208s, a bit twichy in the wet but got 5000 odd Ks out of the rear, I got talked into trying the 209s but chewed them out before 3000 ks. Have now fitted Bridgestone 016 front and rear. So far blood awesome. Taking the Duke down south to the Magpie Madness rally, north of Timaru, the weekend before the Burt Munro. May see you on the road , if not heading in the other directiction Just got myself a R&G Tail Tidy and a set of Rizmoa Rear Sets, Bling Bling

These tyre debates on forums are relatively pointless.

Unless you are comparable riders then any input on tyres is irrelative.

Say paul has knee down and a track addict while peter just fangs about on weekends and really goes slower than mum in her taxi yet he thinks he is pushing the tyre to the limit? Paul tells peter 'you need 209gpr's as they are the best'. So peter races out and buys a set. He will never get the value out of such a tyre as it is outside of his riding capabilities.

Powers, 015, 016, 209, m3, conti .. all are great tyres, whether our 'brain' likes them is another story, but put a magazine test rider on any of them on a current streetbike and he will be hard to find a 'real' fault with any of them.

To be honest, if you have any chicken strips or can't scrape your pegs then ANY TYRE WILL DO. You may think you are having issues with the tyre, but the issue is almost certaintly not with the tyre, the issue will be the rider.

There is no point in me saying I get xxxx klms out of a set because that means nothing if you can't ride exactly the same pace as I can. Even in saying that if I spin the rear up more on exits and my mate does not then he is going to get better tyre wear on the rear than me and thats at exactly the same lap times. So comparing who gets the lowest milage from tyres is a pointless exersize other than showing whos got the biggest penis to other bikers.

Just buy any set and ride it. It's a Superduke..it will ride around anything we can throw against it

Mr KTM's got a point. However, I'd like to point out that it's not tyre-life, tyre-pattern, tyre-colour (thanks for using my pic, btw ), or brand. It's the feeling that's important. If the tyre inspires confidence in the rider, then that's a good tyre for that rider.

On the aforementioned, my chicadee hated her BT-14s on the GSX-R600. She found the tyres just fine. I found them (felt hard and very uninspiring). We both loved the , both on the GSX-R600 (6,000 miles and counting!) and the K1200R. However, I found them starting to slide after 3 back-to-back laps on the 'Ring. Overheating, a bit, methinks. I used the Pirelli Corsa III on the K1200R last, and I found them pretty much the same as the Sportec M3 (they are sister tyres after all). However, the SDR came with Corsa IIIs and I find them hard as a rock (but I haven't double checked the tyre pressures).
Heard a lot of good about the BT-16s, but not tried them myself.

Back to Mr KTM's comments, he's right about the chicken strips etc, but add to it that a stickier tyre will only make you a few seconds faster on a short-circuit lap, but will probably halve the tyre life. IMO, not worh it. There's also the heat cycles, if you're into that sorta stuff. Sticky road tyres, IMO, are good enough for most, even in the wet.

Pota-toe, po-taytoh...