Continental Road Attack 2 tyres
We test the new German-made sportstouring tyre on the roads and race track
On a sunny and remarkably dry Victorian day in late winter, the Bikesales Network attended the national media launch of Continental's new 'hyper' sportstouring tyre, the Road Attack 2.
We blasted a range of motorcycles on road and track, including our own long-term 1999 Honda CBR600F4 fitted with the brand new 'Conti', and first impressions are very positive.
Continental is a German tyre maker whose claim to fame would be its massive popularity on European cars. Something like 30 per cent of all new Euro cars are fitted with them, but now local importer Ron Angel Wholesale is ramping up its efforts to get the motorcycle tyres more attention in Australia.
Though it's technically a sportstouring tyre, available in almost every aspect ratio you can think of, the Road Attack 2 features the mandatory high mileage middle section, but it also gets softer edges which, as we discovered, deliver impressive cornering capability.
Spruiked as a new generation of tyre, the Continental Road Attack 2 boasts a number of new technologies, the most promising of which is 'Traction Skin'.
Traction Skin is a "revolutionary tactile tread surface" according to Continental, and is impregnated on to the surface of the tyres during manufacture, negating the need for a release compound. Anyone who's ever run-in a pair of brand new tyres will be aware of how slippery these release compounds can be, making the first few kilometers of riding a little nerve wracking.
We had our CBR600F4 fitted with the new Road Attack 2 tyres (thanks to EverythingTwoWheels in Melbourne) a couple of days prior to the road and track test, and it's fair to say that this 'Traction Skin' gizmo is more than just PR hyperbole.
Compared to what we've experienced on tyres with release compounds in the past, the Road Attack 2 tyre does indeed have more traction from the get-go, and it's plain to see and feel when you look at and run your hand over the unblemished tyre surface.
The roughness on the tyre surface certainly helps with running in the fresh rubber, and we had no trouble cranking the bike over after only a few kays of meandering about in the suburbs.
Ridden in anger on the racetrack, and with only around 100km on them, the tyres felt predictable under heavy braking and showed impressive levels of grip and feedback through fast and tight corners. We rode a variety of different bikes, including a range of sporttourers from Japan, Germany and England, and there was nary a bike that couldn't be confidently shoved deep into a corner.
We'll have a full report on the nitty gritty of the tyres and how they fared on both the road and the track soon, but it's safe to say they feel a lot sportier than their 'sportstourer' labelling would suggest.
Prices for the new Continental Road Attack 2 tyres start at $199 for front and $275 for the rear hoops.
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