Dunlop Roadsmart III Motorcycle Tires?

ofdave

Member
My Roadsmarts are doing well.
Modest squaring off do in part because our roads don't have a lot of twisties and also because I don't push it like I used to.
I have become almost anal about checking pressure-at least every other week.
I think 3500 on them and they look good.
 

randy1149

New member
My Roadsmarts are doing well.
Modest squaring off do in part because our roads don't have a lot of twisties and also because I don't push it like I used to.
I have become almost anal about checking pressure-at least every other week.
I think 3500 on them and they look good.

No more on you hands and knees to check your tire pressure... HERE. The pressure is there all the time. Checking the tire pressure was my second thing after chain maintenance I hated.
 

rickster

Member
I got 13K out of my front Michelin PR4 and 12K out of the back. After 5,000 miles the front was cupped, but I continued to ride it without issue. This week I had Dunlop Roadsmart III's put on. It is difficult to make a full assessment of the new tires because I would be comparing them to the performance of the worn tires that I took off. That said, I can agree entirely with MJC's earlier post about how nicely the tires feel when leaned over. They roll right into a turn and once into the turn they're happy to stay there until I bring the bike back up. When I picked the bike up I immediately took it into the twisties for 70 miles to scruff up the tread and did a short stretch on the freeway at 80mph to make sure everything was well balanced. The next morning my wife and I set out on a two up 450 mile overnight tour. The tires handled rough roads, road cracks, tar snakes, steep climbs and descents and one pretty hard braking maneuver without problem. It will be a few months before I get the tire to that 5,000 mile mark where I can compare it to the PR4 with regard to cupping. Once there, I'll report back.
 

Woodswoman

Member
Looking forward to further reports of handling and wear. The Roadsmart III is currently my leading candidate for next season, when it'll be time to put new sneakers on 'Flicker.'
 

ponydrvr

Member
It has been my experience that tire wear is more about the road surface than any other single issue (assuming proper inflation). Some states use chip & seal processes heavily as opposed to blacktop or macadam. Chip & seal roads will kill tire life quickly. I have friends in GA riding C&S and only get ~5k on the front and rears. Very little C&S in KY and I only use PR4, I get ~17k on the front and ~14k on the rear on my last set. I also have found that if I balance both the tires I not only get a smoother ride but virtually no cupping and I believe they last longer. What I do see is more wear on the left side of the tires than the right. I believe this is due to the road crown and driving on the right side of the road.
 

casper

New member
I'm also going to be looking at the PR5 that just came out. But the Dunlop is a good tire too. So either one. I understand Avon also has a new one out as well.
 

MJC

Super Moderator
Update on the Dunlap roadsmart III's. In mid summer I reported, I was on a trip to the Catskills and rode on a lot of rides with tar snakes. I would say the front tire is not so good riding over them, it does slip. I did notice this in turns there the road was covered with tar snakes that you could not avoid. On roads with long tar snakes if you rode on them you would diffidently notice the slip of the front tire. On the rear, well not too bad but I did have it slip 2 or 3 times on long turns. It is something to keep in mind when buying tires, so I would say, check off, riding over tar snakes. No tire wear that I could see yet.

At 5K, I returned from my Catskills trip, report above. I had plans to ride just about every day, which I did, with a few day trips to CT, NH, Mass, and upstate NY. At the end of the season, I had just over 8000 miles on the tires.

The front tire, is nice and round, no cupping, you can see some wear (over what it looked like new) but nothing odd. The rear looks fine too. Still the bike likes to be leaned over. Stays planted in turns, and gives a nice smooth ride. I have been on rough cement roads,over tar snakes, pot holes, blacktop roads, at speeds up to 85, and have had a time or two where I had to brake hard, and go around something in the road, and the tires have preformed well. Wet and dry roads, gravel/dirt roads, bike handling was fine. On roads where there was sand/dirt/leaves on the road I would slow down a little (if I did see something on the road) and all was OK. The only time the (report above) bike did slip was on tar snakes, but they had to be all over the road and I had to be turning or on a bend.

Notes: at 5500 miles I installed Ride-On, something you add to the tires to balance and seal it if you run over a nail. I had got Ride-on for my Nomad, and never used it. So not wanting it to go to waste I installed it on the CTX. Without and with it I can not tell any difference, the tires from the start where well balanced, seem to give the bike a smoother ride and I do not know why, feel like bumps on the road are not has bad. I keep the front at 37/38 and the rear 39/40, pressure between checks has been good with little if any adjustments. When riding I check air and tire before any ride or 100 miles or once a week.

The bike has been in the garage from late Dec with no checks on tire pressure. We will see how they hold air over the winter come spring.

Sorry I did not update sooner, I forgot til someone posted and it came to the top again.
 

Shanghai Dan

New member
It has been my experience that tire wear is more about the road surface than any other single issue (assuming proper inflation). Some states use chip & seal processes heavily as opposed to blacktop or macadam. Chip & seal roads will kill tire life quickly. I have friends in GA riding C&S and only get ~5k on the front and rears. Very little C&S in KY and I only use PR4, I get ~17k on the front and ~14k on the rear on my last set. I also have found that if I balance both the tires I not only get a smoother ride but virtually no cupping and I believe they last longer. What I do see is more wear on the left side of the tires than the right. I believe this is due to the road crown and driving on the right side of the road.

I'ts not really road crown - it's the fact that left turns are ALWAYS longer than your right turn. So you end up with more "left" side wear than right...:) The opposite happens in countries like the UK and Thailand; in Thailand I always wore down the right side faster than the left - because we drove on the left hand side and the right turns were long compared to the left - and there was basically zero crown on the roads (one slab across).
 

ponydrvr

Member
I'ts not really road crown - it's the fact that left turns are ALWAYS longer than your right turn. So you end up with more "left" side wear than right...:) The opposite happens in countries like the UK and Thailand; in Thailand I always wore down the right side faster than the left - because we drove on the left hand side and the right turns were long compared to the left - and there was basically zero crown on the roads (one slab across).

Dan, I'm sure your right. Around here though we have highly crowned roads due to the need for highway drainage. That might also explain why left turns are easier to make at higher speeds generally.
 

rickster

Member
I have a question for those of you who have put the Roadsmart 3's on their CTX 700's. Did the tire affect your mileage at all? I have about 1400 miles on my set and have noticed a drop of 2 miles per gallon since they were put on. I had the valves adjusted, new front brake pads installed and all of the scheduled maintenance done at the same time, but the difference in rolling resistance in the tires would be the first place that I'd look. The air pressure in the old tires and the Roadsmarts are maintained the same...36lbs. front and 42 lbs rear.

I'm not concerned about the 2 mpg drop if it is the tires...I'm still getting 69 mpg. I'll be more concerned if all of you chimed in with increased mileage reports as that would have me looking at the quality of the other things that were done when the bike was serviced.
 

MJC

Super Moderator
As for MPG, I am all over the place with anywhere from 50's to high 60's. It is hard to tell if the tires have anything to do with it. I think the gas a lone has more to do with it, in colder temps the gas has a mix of things in it that is not the same as warmer temps. Plus here in the Hudson Valley you can go south and get one brand of gas and then ride North and get that same brand with a deff make up. 10, 15% or just plan reg. gas.
 

rickster

Member
As for MPG, I am all over the place with anywhere from 50's to high 60's. It is hard to tell if the tires have anything to do with it. I think the gas a lone has more to do with it, in colder temps the gas has a mix of things in it that is not the same as warmer temps. Plus here in the Hudson Valley you can go south and get one brand of gas and then ride North and get that same brand with a deff make up. 10, 15% or just plan reg. gas.

Good point mjc... I do buy my gas at the same place 90% of the time unless I'm traveling. I'll try another brand from another station just to see what happens...
 

casper

New member
I've experienced the same as mjc. Colder temps plus winter additives really drop the mileage. I wonder if non oxygen has the same mix all year around, or if they add winter additives to it as well?
 

rickster

Member
OK, as mentioned in a February post, I put Dunlop Roadsmart III's on my CTX front and back. The two sets of Pilot 4's that I was running before the Dunlop switch had both cupped noticeably at 5,000 miles. I had read something in one of the CTX forums that mentioned (edit) that the cupping was specific to tires with certain siping paterns like the the PR4 has. On the other hand I found an article that said that riding in the twisties a lot causes the cupping and is normal (http://www.rattlebars.com/tirewear/index.html).

I now have 5,000 miles on my "new" Dunlop tires and they, just like the PR4's are cupping. There are no handling issues on the bike, so I think the suspension is just fine. Also, I'm attentive to tire pressure. That leads me to believe, since almost all of my riding is on the twisting roads of the Sierra Nevada, that the cupping is just something to live with.

(Edit: It's only the front tire that suffers from the cupping. This was true on the PR4's and on the Roadsmart III's)
 
Last edited:

casper

New member
I just put the Michelin road 5s on. So far, love them. Stick to the pavement, even on tar snakes. Able to really push it with confidence. We'll see on longevity.
 
Top