MICHELIN® has extended its motorcycle tyre lineup with the Pilot® Road 3 Trail tyre. Apparently the successful launch of the Pilot Road 3 Sport Touring tyre in January hastened the release of the Pilot Road 3 Trail, which is meant for bikes likes the Triumph Tiger 800, Suzuki V-Strom, Yamaha Super Tènèrè and the BMW GS series.
The new tyre features the same technologies present in the Pilot® Road 3 tyre, with Michelin’s latest-generation 2CT dual-compound technology, a soft rubber compound on the tread shoulders, a wear-resistant compound down the middle and, perhaps its most distinctive feature, the all-new “XST” X-Sipe technology.
The 2CT distribution for the front size (110/80R19 M/C 59V) is identical to the current Pilot Road 3, while the 150/70R17 M/C 69V rear tyre’s 2CT distribution has been adapted for use on a loaded Trail motorcycle with 10/80/10-percent soft/hard/soft compound composition of the tyre instead of the standard Pilot Road 3 40/20/40 split.
Both the MICHELIN Pilot Road 3 and Pilot Road 3 Trail tyres benefit from the revolutionary X-Sipe Technology (XST), which offers full-depth sipes that evacuate water underneath the tyre by allowing additional draining capacity of the tread while generating pressures at the edge of the sipe blade to break up water film. Besides offering superior wet traction, the XST sipes have the added benefit of promoting long tread life and even wear characteristics.