Has been a particularly good Tuesday today. Had the day off, which meant the opportunity to spend the day on the bike!
@phil and I met 10 am this morning at Thurrock services, near Lakeside, completing a round about trip over to Rye. Now as many of you know, sense of direction has never been my strong point, so that coupled with trying to keep up with @phil during rain, fog and muddy roads meant taking in the route details wasn?t on the priority list. I did see the sea at one point though, so the RoSPA training is definitely paying off lol!
The weather forecast suggested that the morning would be cold, but dry with a chance of rain later this afternoon. Well, classically that turned out to be precisely inaccurate, with relatively warm weather (high singles), rain and some fog in the morning, which proceeded to improve as the day went on.
@phil was on his Triumph Tiger, fitted with Metzeller RoadTech 01?s and I was riding on a brand new set of Michelin Road 5?s.
Phil lead the ride all day, setting a spirited pace over some excellent roads. We both agreed that if roads can be entertaining in poor weather/road conditions, then it?s a pretty safe bet that the roads will be absolutely superb in the dry [emoji41]
There were numerous overtaking opportunities today, which was a great chance for me to see and practice forward planning and pre-overtake positioning. It?s amazing how positioning and forward planning makes overtake opportunities available, that would otherwise have been impossible. That?s something I really feel has become apparent during my ongoing Advanced training.
In terms of tyres, both bikes performed flawlessly all day and at no point did we have any slides or ?moments?. Given the road conditions, this is high praise indeed as to the wet weather performance and confidence that these tyres instil.
I had the opportunity to partially scrub the Road 5?s in last Sunday and based on initial impressions, am extremely impressed. I find them to be quite quick steering, but still progressive. They inspire tremendous confidence in poor conditions, more so than any tyre I can recall. One thing I noticed with the Road 5?s, is that they seem to handle gravel on the road remarkably well, in that a couple times I?ve traveled over small patches of gravel and haven?t felt any movement or twitch from the tyres. I imagine this is probably attributable to the massive tread gaps.
I have not had an opportunity yet to really explore the outer shoulders of the tyres, but judging by their rather slick appearance I would expect them to be more planted than previous Gen Michelin Pilot Road series tyres. Will review these tyres properly in the coming months, but they already get two thumbs up from me [emoji1303][emoji1303]
Thanks again for a great day Phil!
Hope you?re all having a good week and here?s to many more fantastic rides ahead in 2019, bring on the Spring!
As you can see, I?m no photographer!
- Oli
@phil and I met 10 am this morning at Thurrock services, near Lakeside, completing a round about trip over to Rye. Now as many of you know, sense of direction has never been my strong point, so that coupled with trying to keep up with @phil during rain, fog and muddy roads meant taking in the route details wasn?t on the priority list. I did see the sea at one point though, so the RoSPA training is definitely paying off lol!
The weather forecast suggested that the morning would be cold, but dry with a chance of rain later this afternoon. Well, classically that turned out to be precisely inaccurate, with relatively warm weather (high singles), rain and some fog in the morning, which proceeded to improve as the day went on.
@phil was on his Triumph Tiger, fitted with Metzeller RoadTech 01?s and I was riding on a brand new set of Michelin Road 5?s.
Phil lead the ride all day, setting a spirited pace over some excellent roads. We both agreed that if roads can be entertaining in poor weather/road conditions, then it?s a pretty safe bet that the roads will be absolutely superb in the dry [emoji41]
There were numerous overtaking opportunities today, which was a great chance for me to see and practice forward planning and pre-overtake positioning. It?s amazing how positioning and forward planning makes overtake opportunities available, that would otherwise have been impossible. That?s something I really feel has become apparent during my ongoing Advanced training.
In terms of tyres, both bikes performed flawlessly all day and at no point did we have any slides or ?moments?. Given the road conditions, this is high praise indeed as to the wet weather performance and confidence that these tyres instil.
I had the opportunity to partially scrub the Road 5?s in last Sunday and based on initial impressions, am extremely impressed. I find them to be quite quick steering, but still progressive. They inspire tremendous confidence in poor conditions, more so than any tyre I can recall. One thing I noticed with the Road 5?s, is that they seem to handle gravel on the road remarkably well, in that a couple times I?ve traveled over small patches of gravel and haven?t felt any movement or twitch from the tyres. I imagine this is probably attributable to the massive tread gaps.
I have not had an opportunity yet to really explore the outer shoulders of the tyres, but judging by their rather slick appearance I would expect them to be more planted than previous Gen Michelin Pilot Road series tyres. Will review these tyres properly in the coming months, but they already get two thumbs up from me [emoji1303][emoji1303]
Thanks again for a great day Phil!
Hope you?re all having a good week and here?s to many more fantastic rides ahead in 2019, bring on the Spring!
As you can see, I?m no photographer!
- Oli
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