‘Winter draws on!’
With the right tyres, the fun’s not stopped just because the temperature’s dropped
If wandering wordsmith Alfred Wainwright had chosen to ride his coast-to-coast odyssey instead of hike, chances are his famous quote about there being “no such thing as bad weather, just unsuitable clothing” might’ve included tyres, too. In fact, I doubt that Wainwright, being such a fan of surefootedness, would’ve been too enamoured with a pair of sports tyres in winter, and funnily enough, neither am I.
Triumph’s top-selling Street Triple RS is essentially a naked supersport machine, so it’s quite right and proper that it comes on the sportiest road rubber – Pirelli’s simply brilliant Diablo Supercorsa SP V3. Now, when the latest Street Triple 765 RS was launched in late 2022, these tyres were the Italian firm’s most up-to-date sporty road tyres
(they’ve since been bettered by the new Supercorsa SP V4).
Although the SP in their nomenclature indicates that they’re the most road-biased version of the Supercorsa (behind the fullslick and treaded race compound SC variants) they’re still pretty single-minded and require a fair amount of warmth in them in order to provide their supernatural grip and stability. Winter tyres they absolutely are not.
Tyres’ effect on rider confidence cannot be overstated. Riding the Supercorsa-shod Street Triple home from the MCN office one evening in the lashing late November rain, it was like my past 20 years biking experience had evaporated. Despite not having any wheelspin or wobbles, I was uptight like a novice. Tipping into wet roundabouts, the Street’s front end felt nervous, and initiating the turn required more effort than I was prepared to put in.
The other extreme
This is when the Dunlop Mutants caught my attention. They’re designed as a crossover tyre but claim to suit all bikes in all weathers, and promise (as most tyres do) to offer the same handling and stability as hypersport tyres, the durability of touring tyres, supreme confidence in all conditions and the wet weather grip of a racing wet.
Totally sold on those claims, I fitted a pair to the Street Triple
RS (£322 for 120/70-17;180/5517 from Demon Tweeks), then instantly felt embarrassed; the blocky tread pattern just looked a bit daft, like I’d mistakenly fitted a pair of adventure tyres to what is essentially a naked Moto2 machine! Had I just swapped cold weather confidence wobbles for knobbly tread pattern wobbles?
The first cold, soggy ride, however, was such a revelation that all blushes were forgotten. OK, the Mutants had noticeably dulled the Triumph’s steering and it felt heavier and less agile as a result, but once I was dialled into their characteristics I was rewarded with new-found levels of winter confidence. Naturally, we all ride more smoothly when it’s cold and wet, but I found myself deliberately trying to provoke the Mutants into stepping out of line – which I just couldn’t do.
The Mutant’s secret wintertaming superpower comes from a combination of things, but mostly it’s the compound. Dunlop don’t
elaborate much on the recipe, but do admit to it being high silica, the magic element for making a tyre less reliant on heat for grip. As a result, mechanical traction is excellent pretty much straight away, and warm-up is assisted by the aggressive tread blocks and rayon jointless belt construction.
And, on the subject of those tread blocks, the Mutant-shod Street hasn’t suffered degradation in its stability as a result of the aggressive pattern on the rubber. In fact, it feels more planted as a result of the Dunlops’ profile and construction.
Now my only issue from riding on the cold and wet roads is keeping on top of the cleaning; the naked Triple’s a nightmare to wash. But that’s a gripe for another day.