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Michelin
Michelin has a strong sporting heritage in the motorcycle world and in particular in the trials discipline. They have won every FIM world title on the outdoor circuit from way back in 1981 with Frenchman Giles Burgat on the SWM, to the present day with Spain’s Toni Bou and the Repsol Honda. In the FIM X-Trial Indoor World Championship they remain unbeaten starting with Finland’s Tommi Ahvala on the Aprilia in 1993 through to the present day with that man Toni Bou again. In January 2009 their ongoing development programme produced the Michelin Trial X-Light to replace the Competion X11. In 2013 they remained at the top of their game with the introduction of the Trial X-Light Competion. As they say in the trials world: ‘Think Michelin – think Maximised Contact Patch’ - enough said.
The new Michelin X-Light was designed and introduced following the requests from the trials motorcycle manufacturers to reduce the weight of the tyres to suit the four-stroke machines. The testing was carried out by the world’s leading riders including Toni Bou and Japan’s Takahisa Fujinami on the four-stroke Repsol Honda machines and on the two-stroke with Adam Raga and the Gas Gas to compare its versatility on other machinery. They wanted to keep the performance attributes of the old Trial Competition X11 tyre whilst finding a reduction in the weight. It would also incorporate the MCP – Maximised Contact Patch – technology that was introduced on the new XC Motocross tyres.
MCP utilises the Michelin technology to improve grip on a variety of difficult surfaces and terrain. The Michelin X-Light was developed in conjunction with Honda Spain as an original equipment tyre and made available to the European replacement market in March 2009 followed by availability for the rest of the world in April that same year. The front tyre features a redesigned bead wire which improves seating on the wheel rim and reduces tyre movement at very low pressures, giving in return more accurate wheel placement. This was developed with Honda, Gas Gas and Ossa and was released worldwide in January 2010.
Tyre development is continuous at Michelin and working closely with Honda, Gas Gas, Ossa and Sherco, the replacement rear ‘Trial X-Light Competition’ was made available in April 2013. This featured new polyester plies favoured for their extremely flexible nature and careful engineering of the ply angles allowed them to optimise the casing rigidity.
Tested and developed with the assistance and input of several top flight riders including Tony Bou, they and Michelin were convinced that the tyre was a real step forward and showed clear performance improvements. The increase in carcass flexibility enables a larger contact patch giving better traction especially in wet conditions. The revision to the ply angles gives more lateral stability allowing the rider to have more precision.
Rebound control on the tyre was also improved giving greater stability and allowing the contact patch to shape and maintain its shape effectively without impacts and landings causing as much ‘bounce’, giving vital and consistent grip when acceleration needs to be applied immediately on impact. These improvements benefit the tyre for its full life and though there is no better feeling like a brand new but bedded in tyre, performance reduction with wear has also been reduced maintaining the tyres advantage.
Specification wise, the weight of the new rear actually increased slightly from 5,320g to 5,500g, the difference being about the weight of a ‘T’ shirt, still quite a bit lighter than the original radial rear which was 5,830g. The gains in lateral rigidity and stability when combined with the ply angle changes, with the materials used, by far outweighed any disadvantages of a small weight increase.