Launched earlier this year in sunny Southern Spain, RiDE Magazine are the latest in the British motorcycle press to heap praise on the new Supermaxx ST sport touring rubber from Maxxis. If you’ve already picked up a copy of the magazine, you may have been confused to see the Sportmaxx ST in big, bold letters in the heading, but we can confirm Maxxis have not joined forces with Dunlop on this one, although expect the odd customer coming in asking for one!
The Taiwanese firm know that Maxxis isn’t the first name that springs to mind when in need of some new motorcycle tyres – Dunlop, Bridgestone, Michelin and Continental being some of the bigger, more popular names.
That’s why they have been working on the ST as far back as 2012, when they were sending BSB star Chris Walker unmarked carcasses to evaluate, and help them better understand the development of a more sporty road tyre.
Firstly they’ve invested in brand new production equipment. Previous Maxxis tyres used a Kevlar belt in their construction, but under testing this limited the performance of the tyre, so a steel belt was added instead. A new silica rich compound and more uniform tread pattern give more predictable performance and wear.
With journalists having the chance to test them both on track and road, on a number of middleweight bikes and larger tourers including the FJR1300 and new GSX-S1000F, they really got a feel for how the new tyres performed in a variety of settings.
“The front felt stiff yet accurate, and as confidence in it grew it allowed me to brake as hard in a straight line as on a race tyre, and almost as hard as braking and cornering” says Matt Hull in their December 2015 edition.
“One stint was over 10 laps of the 3.5 mile Ascari track, but even so the tyres gave no sign of overheating, squirming or being out of their depth. The back straight has two daunting flat-out corners but whichever bike I was on the tyres gave no problems, with great accuracy and a nice progressive turn-in as the tyre rolled over to its side. This is something Chris Walker is particularly proud of, having worked hard to produce a profile that allows the tyre to tip into a corner in a gradual way, not like falling off a cliff. This should help confidence in wet riding, too, although we didn’t have any rain during our test.
The rear always felt it was doing as it should and warmed up quickly enough to be on the pace by the second lap. It squirmed a little under power while leaned over, especially in the transition from one side to the other, but this was always predictable and didn’t get any worse as the laps ticked on.”
With the first sizes expected to land in the UK in January 2016, our trade customers will be able to get hold of the new Supermaxx ST at the best possible prices early next year!
