Avon’s new sport touring tyre has officially been launched to the press in Portugal, and now back in the UK MCN’s Senior Road Tester Michael Neeves has been sharing his experience on the new Spirit ST hoops.
Michael took the opportunity to test the new British made tyres on Yamaha’s XSR900 and a Kawasaki Z1000SX on the roads, and also on a Suzuki Bandit 650 fitted with outriggers on a wet braking test strip.
In his review on MCN’s website Michael says:
“Out on the road the Avons warm-up fast and are reassuringly good to go from the off. They’re light-steering and take little effort to get the bike quickly from upright to full lean and back again. All the time you’re banking over you can feel the tyres consistently biting the tarmac.
There’s little drama on the wet test strip. The Spirit STs bring the Suzuki to a halt with very little intervention from the ABS, demonstrating a high level of grip.”
Following the road test, Michael and his fellow journalists took to the track at Portimao using the aforementioned Yamaha and Kawasaki alongside the Suzuki GSX-S750 and Speed Triple 675.
Michael goes on to say:
“The Spirit ST performs well on the lighter, less powerful bikes on track. As on the road, they warm-up fast, have light steering and the front tyre has particularly impressive grip. But it’s easy to unstick the rear at full lean when you touch the throttle. The grip returns when you lift the bike up and accelerate on the fatter part of the tyre.
On the heavier, more powerful Z1000SX it’s even easier to unstick the rear. The front also locks up under extreme braking and overall the tyres don’t seem to like the extra weight of a bike like this, giving the slightly unsettling feeling of riding on racing wets in the dry. But of course, when would you really subject a sports touring tyres to this kind of abuse on a southern European racetrack?”
Next month the new Avon will go head to head with the competition in MCN’s big sport touring tyre test, and we look forward to seeing how it stacks up against the other big name players.
View the full range of Spirit ST sizes here.
