Cambrian Tyres

17 Dec 2009

Avon Motorcycle Tyres enjoyed a successful year in 2009. Despite the UK suffering at the hands of a world-wide recession, Avon Tyres bucked the trend, thanks to the breadth of their motorcycle tyre range; one that offers both performance and value for money.

Sitting at the high-performance end of the scale are the impressive Avon VP2 family. Derived from the popular Viper sports tyres, the VP2s come in a range of sizes and compounds to suit any road sports machine or track day bike.

Heading the family is the VP2 Xtreme. These are recommended for track day use and offer superb dry weather performance thanks to their super-sticky compound. High silica content allows quick warm-up times as well as the option of not using tyre warmers. The VP2 Xtremes offer excellent stability under hard braking, but their track-derived profiles mean that turn-in isn’t sacrificed for this stability.

In 2009 MCN chose the Avon VP2 Xtreme as their control tyre for their Bike of the Year test, while triple British champion and Macau GP winner Mike ‘Spike’ Edwards uses VP2s for his trackday and coaching sessions. He says: ""The Avon VP2s are very good tyres. I did three track days on mine and there was still life left in them. A lot of people tend to ‘go with the flow’ and run the brands of tyre that they see out there racing. At trackdays they see me on the Avons and they don’t know what to make of it, but when they see how fast I go on them it changes their minds! The grip is great and there’s plenty of longevity in them. What more do you want? They get my thumbs up!"

Rob Jones, chief instructor for Castle Combe Race Circuit uses a set of VP2 Xtremes on his Ducati 996 race bike: "I’ve long been a fan of Avon’s sports tyres. I’ve raced a lot on rival brands but I feel the front-end feedback on the VP2s is even better than on a current rival’s race tyre. I see many people using what is literally race tyres on the road or track day, when something like the VP2 is all they would ever need as it would work over a broader temperature range and would be longer lasting. The VP2s are perfect for people’s needs on the road and on trackdays and they’re priced reasonably too."

For road and some trackday use, the VP2 Supersport is the ideal tyre option. Easily identifiable from the Xtreme by its larger tread pattern, the VP2 Supersport offers top performance on the road with a carcass designed to keep even the twitchiest sports machine stable at all speeds while keeping the precise handling characteristics of a supersport machine. For a more road-biased performance tyre, then the VP2 Sport is the best option. The VP2 Sport retains the stability and handling of the VP2 Supersport but high silica content helps the tyre get to operating temperature quickly, offering super wet-grip performance while the Tri-compound gives enhanced durability even on today’s latest litre-class superbikes.

In the sports touring arena, Avon has always had a strong showing and this is further enhanced for 2010 by the introduction of the Storm 2 Ultra tyre.

In 2009, the Avon Storm ST was still a top performer, years after its first launch. It won praise from readers of both Motor Cycle News and RiDE magazine for both performance and cost effectiveness.

Launched at the end of 2009, the Storm 2 Ultra builds on the enviable performance of the Storm ST and improves on it in a number of areas, offering increased grip and more mileage in all weathers and road conditions.

The multi-compound Super Rich Silica (SRS) treads give rear tyres an extra 12% mileage over the original Storm ST. Meanwhile, changes incorporated in the zero-degree belting system, and modifications to the dynamic stresses within the carcass itself have increased mechanical grip. This allows for improved traction in both wet and dry conditions, while also enhancing the handling and overall ride comfort.

The Storm 2 Ultra fits a wide variety of machines from naked 600/1000cc machines through to sportsbikes of all capacities and the 1000-1400cc ‘hyperbike’ class, such as the Suzuki Hayabusa, Kawasaki ZZR1400 and used machines such as the Honda CBR1100XX Super Blackbird. So popular is the Storm family of tyres with readers of RiDE – a magazine that champions the two-wheeled consumer – that Avon Tyres hosted a unique launch event where 10 lucky RiDE readers could compare and contrast the new tyre with what they had used before. Each reader was impressed with the performance and feedback given by the new tyre.

For the popular Adventure Sport category of machine, Avon Tyres has the Distanzia and Gripster in the range.

Two-wheeled travel writer Sam Manicom swears by Avons and has covered more than 125,000 miles on his trusty BMW R80 GS shod exclusively with Avon Gripsters. He says: "With all the varied conditions that I was riding in, you need a tyre that will deal with them all and still give you good tyre life and excellent handling under the ‘normal’ conditions you expect to face. This could be loose sand, gravel, stone, dirt, mud, pot-holes or normal Tarmac. The Gripsters were superb, and the best mileage I got from a rear tyre was 10,000 while the best from a front was a staggering 21,000miles! On my adventures I only suffered eight punctures in eight years. The only major problem was how to store four-year’s worth of tyres at a time, but thankfully my sister looked after them for me and sent them to me when I needed them. She would also fill them full of treats and sweets that I couldn’t get wherever I was in the world, so they were almost like ‘Red Cross tyres’ which were a joy to receive!"

As well as on and off-road, Avon still dominates in the world of classic bike tyres, as demonstrated at the 2009 Goodwood Revival. At this legendary event, the top 10 finishers were all shod with Avon rubber, while the top five were utilising a new race version of the 100/90-19 Roadrider on the rear with an AM20 front.

People forget that Avon Tyres has a long and distinguished history in motorcycle racing on two and three wheels. Avon manufactured its first motorcycle tyre in 1911 and since then champions such as Geoff Duke, John Surtees, Mike Hailwood and Barry Sheene have used and won on Avon. More recently Avon riders have won 13 Supersport and four Production class championships, as well as Isle of Man TT victories on both three and two wheels. In 2009 Avon Tyres won again at the Isle of Man TT races with legendary sidecar ace Dave Molyneux and passenger Dan Sayle. Their Suzuki outfit was shod with Avon rubber and these tyres helped ‘Moly’ take his tally of TT wins to 14.

With the popularity of custom motorcycles at an all-time high, Avon is still the only choice for the serious custom builder.

2009’s ‘World Championship of Bike Building’ winner ran on Avon tyres.

Bike builder Dave Cook and his ‘Rambler’ motorcycle won the championship with the bike shod with Cobra tyres. Other jaw-dropping machines run on Avons, including Allen Millyard’s Viper V10. This 500bhp, eight-litre beast cracked 200mph in the hands of Motor Cycle News testers and runs on Avon Venom tyres.