The Official Tire Thread

Well, as promised here is my detailed report/review of the new Dunlop Q2 tires. Some of you may know about my dilemma where I had to decide whether to ride my girlfriend's CBR with Q2s, risk running my 675 with “worn” Michelin Power Race DOTs (the front PRC had 7+ track days; the rear had 4 trackdays) or mount up my brand new Q2s and ride them at the track. I decided the third choice. If you want a summary of it, just read the Abstract. However if you want a true detailed report, then read it fully

Abstract

Dunlop Q2s are probably the best street tire I have ever ridden...and may be the perfect bridge between a street tire and a DOT. On the street I tried them on a 600rr and had no problems. I dragged knee on a few corners and they felt perfectly fine. The big test is on the track. They are a good alternative to DOTs. These tires offer some of the best feedback and are somewhat forgiving. There is a wide consensus about what is the correct pressures to run. Someone on the 675 forum said they ran 30 front and rear at Laguna Seca and said he liked them. I ran 33 front and rear (was told by the Dunlop tire vendor on site) on Saturday and found it “ok.” I ran 34 front and 32 rear (was emailed to me directly from Dunlop) and found it more suited for my taste. While my best at Chuckwalla is 2:04.7 on DOTs, my best on the Q2s was 2:05.5—but felt I was pushing the traction limits of the tire. 2:06.x was the absolute threshold of comfort for me.

Introduction—Does it really live up the hype?

Some of us have seen the ads for the Q2s. Well, I had the opportunity to test myself to see if they can. And here's a couple pictures as proof:

So YES, they do live up to the hype. If Jason Pridmore can do 1:54s on his stock Gixxer 1000, whose to say I can't (well, Im not as good nor as smooth as him)

Day 1: Saturday 06/19/10 at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway

On my first day riding them, I rode for half a day...the morning sessions. I set up the pressures to 33 front and rear. Ambient temperatures was in the upper 90s (yes it was hot). I took 2 slow laps to scrub them in and simulatenously warm them up avergaging 2:30s as a warm up lap. In the pits I did the weaving to get a feel for turn in. After 2 laps I was gradually picking up speed up until I was going at maximum effort—Throught the day I was testing out different aspects and characteristics such as: quick turn, acceleration at almost full lean, trail braking. After getting acquained with the tires, tried for my fastest lap on these.

Profile:

The front tire is neutral compared to the Michelin Power Race PRC and Pilot Powers. So turn-in is a little slower but still easy. They feel very similar to the OEM Dragon Supercorsas and Pirelli Diablo Rossos. To be specific, turn in felt “slightly” slower compared to the Dragon Supercorsas, but faster than the Pirelli Diablo Rossos. It felt EXACTLY like I was riding the Dunlop DOT 209 GPAs. Needless to say, they are pretty nimble. This tire is the perfect balance between the two extremes of a triangulated and nimble tire and its opposite of a neutral and stable tire.

Quick-Turn:

As a result of the neutral profile, quick turn is somewhat harder, but still easy. The best analogy to this is like asking which is harder? Picking up a 5 lb weight or a 7 lb weight: the 7 lb takes a little more effort, but still easy.

Acceleration (or wide open throttle) at almost full lean:

Usually this is a no-no...but we do get caught doing it sometimes. Ive had experience with this on Power Races and sometimes it forgives and sometimes you feel the tire just spinning up. I was aware that since these are street tires I should be more smooth since I don't have as much margin for error as I do DOTs. However the times I did catch myself doing it—They held up just fine!!! Didn't spin, but surprisingly got some drive out of it! However you really shouldn't be doing this. So suffice to say, they feel pretty planted--even when you give it the juice

Trail Braking ~~(what may be its “possible” weakness..or is it)~~

Trail braking on these tires are no problem...until you're going at a REALLY good pace and pushing it. When I was on pace to set a personal best (or at least try), I felt the front chatter while in the lean of a trail brake a couple times....and actually slide the front a bit. This suffice to say was a little bit scary, but Dunlop's reputation for great feedback still lives on. I was able to feel the gradual steps (chatter, faster chatter, slide and chatter, complete slide). (However on the 2nd day I was actually able to correct this--(its all in your form)). I was pleasantly surprised again how planted they feel but like every tire has a breaking point....which I think I just happened to do---very briefly thank goodness

Full Lean characteristics—The biggest surprise:

Here's some pics of the lean angles I was doing on these tires:

I was actually scraping both toes and knee and they held up fine. I did at one point drift but it was controlled, however on the 2nd day I was able to prevent this from happening again. As the day progressed it seemed like the tires doesn't like long sustained steep lean angles as you start to feel the tires struggling for grip (again, all in your form). I could feel this especially at Turn 13 (aka The Bowl) The biggest surprise—I STILL had chicken strips!!!! (see pictures below)

Conclusions from the first day:
These are great street tires—even good for the track until you're doing Level 3 pace. I felt the weakest link was it trail braking characteristics. At first I thought I may need to change something in my suspension, but didn't want to mess with my settings because tire wear indicated that I was not having any real issues. I was thinking the chatter could be a characteristic of the tire's stiffer sidewalls (since Dunlops are known for having stiff sidewalls) when compared to Michelin and Pirellis. I also wanted to play with pressures. My best lap time of the day was a 2:06.8—and this was pushing the tires limits

Day 2:

Now that I had a feel for them I was just going to ride them. Fortunately I met up with a former riding instructor for various schools like Keith Code and Lee Parks and got some guidance. I told him my problems and he did say it might not be the tire, but me. Open to his remarks, I asked him what I can change with my riding to maybe fix these problems. After evaluating my form sitting on the bike and showing him how I take turns, he told me to bring my butt 1” closer to the bike and when weighting pegs to stay at 50/50 and at most 60/40 in turns. Bringing myself closer to the bike did more than I expected. It also gave me a more effective way of hooking leg to the tank and made weight transfer easier. I didn't believe him at first but was open to his suggestions considering how many years he was riding instructor for these schools. It may be hard to tell from these pictures, but the fix in form solved a lot of issues with the tires I had the day prior. Below are pics taken from Turn 15

There was a trade-off, while hanging off gave me a lower and better center of gravity, it gave me less stability. By lessening my hang-off by 1 inch, my center of gravity was higher, but I had more stability with the bike. The former instructor said having this form gives you a better chance of recovering from a slide. He did say I can hang off like I used to and it may be necessary for certain turns, but considering how CVR is not as grippy as older track with more rubber and aggregate, it may better off to ride with this new style he taught me. So now to reevaluate with this new form I just learned.

Quick Turn: No change

Same as Day 1...its really more profile related. However I am known for my quick turn among fellow track riders. No changes were noticed

Acceleration (wide open throttle at full lean)

I caught myself actually doing this...and with my new form, I got a “Slightly” better drive out. However this is something I don't really want to practice especially when the tires start to wear out.

Trail Braking (not so much a weakness now):

I did less trail braking this day because I was practicing more inline braking and carrying a faster corner speed. However the times I did do some heavy trail braking—it handled it no problem. My form fixed the chatter I was having.

Full Lean Stability

My new body position fixed the problem—slightly...I was able to go a little bit faster, but could feel the same characteristics of yesterday—but were a much smaller degree. I felt I could push them more and go faster if I wanted to (I just decided not to). For street tires these things stay planted!

Conclusions from 2nd Day:

Adjusting my body position to lessen hanging off by 1” made a world of difference. I got a new PR for the day of 2:05.5...and the and tires felt more behaved than the day before. At 2:05.5 I could “just” start to feel the tires getting to their limits. I know I could have knocked off a couple more seconds but didn't want to push it any further. I had already concluded that these tires are step up from the rest of the street tires and is like a ½ step down from a DOT. The bike and tires were comfortable doing “2:06.x” easily. Upping the pressure on the front 1 lb to 34 psi could be another factor, but the correction in form could be the more drastic of the two. I never felt front lose grip like I did the previous day. It was hot so more reason to increase the pressure on the front. Lowering the pressure on the rear didn't really make a difference to me.

Overall conclusions:

These tires KICK ASS!!! The best street tires I have ever ridden. These can handle B and C Group pace no question. Going at A Group Pace you still can, but may need to be a little bit smoother and not hang off too much since you want to stabilize the tires a bit more. I would say these are good for up to mid-level Advanced Level. The word around CVR is if you're going under 2:10 that's a pretty good pace. Under 2:00 and your flying. So with these tires I was able to get close to my PR. My current PR at CVR is 2:04.7 on DOTs (but does have quite a few trackdays on them). With the Q2s I was at 2:05.5. I'll have to try these tires out in colder trackdays and see how they perform. Unfortuantely I have no clue about when the tires come up to temperature because I was doing a slow outlap, but I can tell come Turn 8 on the outlap there were times I was dragging knee and they held up fine...added that it was a hot weekend its hard to say.

So would I be comfortable going quick on these? ABSOLUTELY, but at my skill level I wouldn't want to try and break under 2:00 at CVR with these. I would need to be as smooth at Jason Pridmore to do so...which I have a ways to go. And when Jason Pridmore was doing 1:54s on Q2s, I heard he was sliding them like crazy—both front and rear at times. I can handle rear slides. Front slides scare me...I have yet to attempt a double tire slide.

There's no question about the capabilities of these tires on the street. The track left me quite surprised with how well these tires can perform. Overall, I will use these as backups to DOTs. I might make them my track tires on colder days or on days where I don't feel like bringing a generator. Wear on these tires is excellent, however CVR is a brand new track so its not as abrasive as older tracks like Streets of Willow, Big Willow (probably the most abrasive), Fontana, and Pahrump. I would need to test these tires on of the older tracks to see how they booger up.
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