have you ridden them in the rain yet?

 

No, very unlikely where I live

 

I've been on Road 6s for almost a year. I'll take them over the A41s on any surface. Work great in the wet, I ride frequently to Sierra National Park, and over winter no problems until you hit ice or a road closure.

Winding on a little rebound front and rear helped me with the relative slow turn-in vs bridgestones.

 

Bryan_h, I'll watch how much ice and snow I do on them haha. Re: your suspension tweaks, are you saying you added a bit of rebound damping on front & rear and that quickened up the turn-in? Interesting. Can you explain why? I can't think of why that would quicken turn-in, unless it's that under braking, the increased front rebound damping slows the fork returning and that decreases rake and trail, making turn-in sharper. I don't have a theory on why more rear rebound damping would quicken turn-in. Please enlighten on both these if you can - thx

 

Yeah, as you mention, when squaring off a corner on the brakes, I find it's easier to tip-in and get the bike pointed in the right direction with these tires vs settings that felt comfortable with the A41s.

 

Many thx, will play with settings and pressures and see what changes we get.

 

Thank you for sharing. I have 6000 miles on my A41's, and figure they will make it to 8000? I have been pleasantly surprised on them. I was planning on switching to the road 6 when it was time, but not sure I will? I think they B is a really good tire for the bike.

 

That's why I was wanting to share my experiences since i couldn't find anyone's feedback. I agree with you, I think the A41s are an excellent tire for the 1050. Handling is really good, and quick-turning. If you can get 6,000 miles from the A41s already and it looks like you can make it to 8,000 safely, that's a really good package. I figured I would never know if the Road 6s are as good or maybe better than the A41s if I didn't step up and give them a try. So far, so good. You might want to try them too and see for yourself, if your riding is like mine - really spirited pavement, minimal dirt/gravel. They definitely are very good so far.

 

I have road 6's on my 650, barring oil spills on wet roads I think they have more grip in the wet than I'll ever need. Tip in was scary initially but I got used to it fairly quickly.

 

Spirited rider in the mountains here as well, I am surprised about your experience of the factory mounted A41.

I bought the bike at 6500 km (4000ish miles) and changed the tires at roughly 12k km (7-8k miles). And honestly I should have changed them much earlier. The traction control was doing its job in a third of the corners and i felt a lot of small, albeit controllable, slips on the rear. Even on dry pristine Swiss pavement. The feeling was vague and not confidence inspiring at all.

Although my initial feeling towards the Road 5 trail mounted on the front was slightly negative (some wobbling at 70-80 kmh, 40-50 mph), it eventually went away and they have been flawless ever since. The rear Road 5 is also sublime, despite being patched due to road debris.

15k km (9k Miles) later, I still have full confidence in these tires and expect the 6th iteration to be even better.

 

I wonder if the difference in our A41 experiences and opinions might be due to the period of miles we got to ride them for. By that, I mean I rode mine from 0 to 4,200 miles and they were having maybe 600-1,000 remaining. In your case, you started riding yours when they already had this many miles and then rode them to their grave, when their condition and performance likely would be toward their worst. In any case, yes I was always pleasantly surprised by how good a sporting tire the A41 was for me. I was surprised, however, how fast they wore out, given the relative low power of the 1050. Not saying it's not got decent power, but it's not putting out 150hp like the KTM1290. Anyway, I think the Road 6s are really excellent, delivering great handling, feel, confidence in the dry and after today, in the cold (42f) and wet, and a smoother ride. Hopefully they last a lot longer, but if they don't they are still excellent. I would suggest giving a set a try and let us know what you think. BTW, love your country, have driven through several times!

 

Some late-braking (pun and mis-spelling intended) news... Just completed a ride that included some pretty significant and deep gravel on my Road 6's. They absolutely suck and should not be considered for anything other than hard gravel and dirt. The A41's were way better.

 

interesting... thanks for the report. On a recent trip (just got back a few minutes ago) there was surprise road construction (which always seems to happen) with crappy or gravel surfaces, even if you don't intend to ride on gravel.

 

Pulled the rear wheel off today. Got 5k miles out of it, a little lower than expected. Usage has been mostly spirited canyon rides, and a handful of weekend two-up trips.

Handling has been pretty consistent through it's life, wasn't ever flickable, but very stable and predictable.

I'm replacing it with a Road 5 to get some experience with that tire. The rear Road 6 seems to have a more flat profile.

The front Road 6 still looks good and should do another 5k I imagine.

 

I recently replaced my second A41 rear and first A41 front on my 2023 DL1050 at just under 12,000 Miles. All three tires, the two rears and one front, still had over 50% of their tread depth remaining at change. But all three tire‘s treads were getting very cupped. My riding is a mix of heavily loaded high speed freeway touring with full saddle bags and trunk, as well as spirited unloaded twisties. Yeah, i hate throwing away tires with 50%+ left on the tread depth, but i don’t like having cupped tires either. Btw, I purchased a tire machine and wheel balncer for the recent tire changes and changed them myself. With the previous tires, everything felt smooth to me, but my cross bar mounted GPS would vibrate noticeably above 80mph. When balancing the tires myself, a 10 gram weight was too little, and the next size up, a 15 gram, was too much. I took the 15 gram over to my belt sander and shaved it down to 13 grams. Guess what, my GPS stopped vibrating! There isn’t a shop anywhere that would have done that for a customer’s tires. They would have either used the 10 or the 15 and called it good.

 

Cool move! I don't know if Centramatic balancers fit on our bikes, but they do on my GL1800 Goldwing. They do an awesome job of balancing and eliminating vibration, and reduces nearly all cupping. No more pitching cupped tires with all that tread remaining, but certainly understand why you do.

 

Finally had time to take the bike out with Road 5 at the rear. I think I prefer this setup.

The Road 5 seems to be a little sharper steering, and closer to what I was looking for in a sport touring tire.

 

One thing I noticed immediately is that my seat height increased significantly I would say, compared to my old A41s. I know there's a difference because new tires and all but it's pretty clear to me that the rear road 6 is much more rounded and taller than the A41 used to be. Maybe even the front.

A few days later ....

If anybody wants to know the thread depths:

4.5 mils on the front (4 until the wear mark)
6 on the back (5 until the wear mark)

Compared with the btx A41s (which is my only reference), the grip is amazeballs. Just came home from doing some twisties in the wet with a lot of asphalt snakes on them and I was mesmerized to see how grippy they are even in those conditions. With the A41s, same road and same conditions, I always had to go slower and I was feeling some slippage on the snakies every now and then, both on the front (good sphincter exercise) and on the rear. With the 6s, 0 slippage and faster speeds. Also they absorb the bumps better making for a smoother ride and I think they tip in easier in the turns but that might be done tire vs new. Another advantage from the better grip is when I brake harder down hill, the ABS on the rear almost never kicks in. With the A41s it would kick in a lot. The only downside for now is that they are noisier but since I ride with ear plugs and listen to music almost always, I really don't care. I just have to see how long they will last me.

 

I achieved 14,600 km (8000 miles) on my last Rod 6 rear, Present one is at 7,600 km and running nicely. But it is the front one that really impresses. Now at 21,000 km (13.125 miles) and is only half worn. I run 38/43 PSI pressures.

 

Jantar, that's all good news. Just curious, why do you run such high pressures? Do you carry extra-heavy loads, or just like the extra-quick turn-in and ability to quickly flip from full-lean on one side to the opposite? The higher pressures reduce the contact patch and potential traction. FWIW, I have gone down to 34/40 psi. Turn-in is not as quick, but the extra traction is good. A fair compromise, for me. Thx

 

For me I like the higher pressure on the rear for suspension feeling. I am not a good enough rider (and don't regularly run routes where it would be obvious or relevant) to pick up turn-in changes. But, a higher preassure rear (I think I go for 44, or what ever the 2-person loaded number is on the swingarm) just feels better. I should probably be doing something else to the suspension to get a similar feeling, but modifying the tyre/un-sprung component of that works well enough for me.

 

Some 5000 kms later and the news are not that good when it comes to longevity. The front went from 4.5 mms to about 3.7 but the rear went from 6 all the way to about 2.5 on the center part and about 3.5 on the sides. I may or may not ride a bit aggressive It seems that I will use two rears for one front.

 

That's what I'm experiencing too. I'm a spirited rider myself 🙂

 

which brings me to a pivot in this thread... what two pressure gauges agree? If we are looking at ranges of a lb or 2... how do you really know?

I have Joes Racing 32307 (0-60) PSI Tire Pressure Gauge in the saddle bags of both my bikes, and for each car... hoping this is a good gauge, but I've seen pretty varied readings at tire shops with whatever gauges they use. Thoughts?

 

which brings me to a pivot in this thread... what two pressure gauges agree? If we are looking at ranges of a lb or 2... how do you really know?

I have Joes Racing 32307 (0-60) PSI Tire Pressure Gauge in the saddle bags of both my bikes, and for each car... hoping this is a good gauge, but I've seen pretty varied readings at tire shops with whatever gauges they use. Thoughts?

I'm just using whatever they have at gas stations where I usually do my fill and with me, I made a small tire repair kit with a dynaplug mini pump and the necesary accesories so it can fit in a nice small bag under the back seat. And for that I am using a michelin fit2go pressure gauge. Seems to work fine.

The reason I chose this one is that I can permamently keep one of those caps on the dyna pump so it makes it easy to read the pressure also while inflating.

 

That white strip that shows up in the middle of the tire is a wear bar, right?
Managed 11.4k mi on a Road GT5 on a GSX1300

 

I put the Road 6’s on my 1050 in part because of your recommendation. I installed them myself, and wow, what a difference there was putting them on. They were the easiest to install tires I ever did. This is because the sidewalls are so much softer than the Bridgestones. And I am pretty sure that soft sidewall is where your more comfortable ride comes from. As far as grip goes, that is really masked by the IMU and traction control on my 2023. The computer has never let me slide the bike yet In 26,000 all weather miles, with either brand tire. But i can tell you I see the traction control indicator light flash at me a LOT more on the Road 6’s. I got 10,500 miles on my last A41 rear. We will see how the Michelins hold up? Only have 1800 miles on them so far…

 

Interesting hope you like them as much as I do. Had another great mountain ride today. I run my TC at the lowest level and my pressures @36 f/40/r. I would suggest trying those pressures for grip and avoiding squaring off the tread. Let us know what you think as you get some good miles on them.

 

Went for a 50 mile sporty ride with no bags. And there is no doubt now the TC is having to intervene far more on the road 6’s than it ever did on the BS A41’S. The Michelins just do not have as much grip. I’m sorry if this offends some of you, but I really don’t think the TC lies…..

 

That's really interesting. Glad you've figured out what is best for you.

 

Road 6 give the most confidence I've ever had from a sport touring tire, even if I am partial to Dunlop roadsmart.

TC on this bike can be over-sensitive. I leave it off after a bad experience trying to punch across a four-lane highway in the rain. The TC cut and would not give power for a full second with trucks barreling downhill.

 

I'm with you on the Road 6's performance and traction being the best I've tried so far.

 

I hear that, but i have the TC on the same setting as the Bridgestones.

 

IMO, Road 4-6s on a 1050XT - Superior on dry/wet tarmac, ok on packed gravel or hard dirt, poor even dangerous on loose gravel, mud, and sand. I'll keep Roads on my street bikes, bit given I occasionally put the 1050 on gravel and dirt, I'll move to a 80/20 or 50/50.

 

On replacing my rear tire, I noticed some uneven wear. I didn't took pictures but it's something like in the picture bellow, with the red marked parts being lower than the green marked parts (or was it the other way arround ? ). Throughout the whole tire. I remember back on my 650, the front A41 was behaving like this until I got a suspension upgrade with stiffer springs. So I proceeded and tightened the compression/rebound adjuster on the rear shock to make it stiffer (it's currently at about half a turn from max). I'll see if it affects the tire wear but it definetly improved the ride. The bike is more planted/sporty now, more stable under braking and turning and the wobbling at higher speeds when slamming the quick shifter all but practically dissapeared. I left the front suspension as it was, with factory settings, since I like the feel and the tire wear seems very even.

 

I keep my tires inflated to the factory spec, 36/42. Isn’t a matter of loose surface debris, because it happens way too often, on many different road surfaces. It always happens when I am accelerating hard out of a corner. I did recently change my fork oil, going from the factory 0W to Amsoil 5W, which significantly reduced the front end dive on hard braking, but I am not seeing the TC on braking or turn in. Only on power out. When reinstalling the forks, I did do the Dave Moss Tuning fork alignment. Which made the bike track perfectly straight with no hands on the bars. But don’t think that had anything to do with it, as I was seeing the TC flash before doing any of that work. The TC flashing never occured before putting the Michelins on 2,000 miles ago.

 

well, I guess I'll keep my eye on the TC light from now on What level are you using ?

 

Just a thought on 6's ...since sidewall is softer it will squat more front and /or rear compared to the 41's....seems the pickup mag might read the front and rear tire rotation as a slip(under heavy breaking etc) so might explain folks seeing the TC activate more.

 

Well, my run with Road 6 has come to an end. I have a pair of Metzeler Tourance Next 2s waiting to be installed.

Front: 9k miles. It has at least another 1k in it
1st Rear: 4.5k miles, at the limit.
2nd rear: This one is a Road 5. 4.5k miles, has another 1k in it.

I preferred the Road 5 rear over the Road 6 when it was new. However, it has now developed a bit of a flat spot, where the Road 6 was pretty consistent to the end.

Mileage mostly 100-150mi canyon rides. One road trip thru Yosemite.

I would recommend these for anyone looking for stability, safety, confidence on the edge of the tire, good feedback. However they don't steer or transition very quickly as I'm sure was mentioned before.

I'm changing to the Metzeler's to try something new.

 

I haven’t been overly impressed with the Road 6’s in the dry, but omg they are great in the rain. Best rain tires I have had. Confidance inspiring, even on rain grooved concrete. since unfortunately, I have to ride in the rain so much, I am sticking with them.