Michelin PilotPower3 tire test

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• On test: PilotPower3: 85% road, 15% track 100% attack
• Fresh out of the oven, the Michelin Pilot Power 3 replaces the Power Pure. It’s a hypersport tire capable of stretching your legs on the track. We tested it at a good pace on Portuguese roads and dissected it in the company of its designers.
• Born from competition
• Let’s sing in the rain
• High tension…
• Finally a pose … and a little rain !
• Dimensions table
• Before
• Back
• Available / Price

On test: PilotPower3: 85% road, 15% track 100% attack

Fresh out of the oven, the Michelin Pilot Power 3 replaces the Power Pure. It’s a hypersport tire capable of stretching your legs on the track. We tested it at a good pace on Portuguese roads and dissected it in the company of its designers.

False twin of the Michelin Power supersport, the PilotPower3 shares its DNA. Like him, it’s a 2 CT front (twin compound) and a 2 CT + rear (see below). Entirely new, it aims to offer driving pleasure, maneuverability, grip, on dry ground…. and wet.

In order to achieve consensus, it has been tested on the majority of roadsters, but will keep its head high on a pure sport and even on the track on occasion. It has an average tapping rate of 10%, progressive, meaning that most of its designs are located on the shoulders, within 30 degrees of camber. The idea is to offer maximum grip when cornering in the wet, for more reassuring driving on the road in all circumstances. Beyond thirty degrees, no need for large sculptures, since you don’t go when it rains ….

Born from competition

Replacing the Power Pure which had not been able to fully convince in terms of stability, the new PilotPower3 has its roots in the racing products developed by the Clermont manufacturer. This is clearly the case with the gums which, like on Power Super Sport, are based on 100% silica in the center and 100% carbon black on the shoulders, with new patented functional elastomers, more efficient as binders. Of course, the hardnesses of the compounds differ between these two tires, the objective here being to ensure performance and durability. In fact, the tests carried out show a longevity increased by 20% compared to the Power Pure 2 CT, which was already a benchmark in its segment. Note that the latter remains in the range. About 11% less rigid than the Power Supersport, the PilotPower3 takes care of the comfort of its passenger and offers him a profile, rounder and easier, for a more relaxed piloting. It is 2mm less high at its top, but 1mm higher on the shoulder than the supersport. Values ​​that may seem low, but actually matter a lot in terms of stability and ease. Let’s finish on the tires by remembering that at the rear, the 2 CT + process is in fact a two-component, where the harder rubber in the center, extends under the softer rubber on the sidewalls, to increase rigidity and thus ensure better stability during strong acceleration out of a curve.

Let’s sing in the rain

As a specialist in wet handling, Michelin has of course placed the emphasis on safety and difficult driving conditions. However, the lamella technology, so effective on the PR3, was not retained on the PilotPower3, because of its sporting vocation, even track, even if it is only at 15%. It would not have withstood the constraints imposed by this kind of use, nor ensured perfect stability on the track. It is therefore thanks to its mixtures of gum on the one hand (silica in the center and on the beginning of the shoulders) and its progressive designs, that the PilotPower3 achieves its performance on wet ground. Thus at thirty degrees of camber, the notching rate rises to 15%. Without completely competing with the PR3 which benefits from an average notching rate of 15%, the PilotPower3 is very strong in terms of wet braking. Indeed, according to independent tests carried out by Dekra, it is he who brakes the shortest in his segment, despite very strong competitors! The demonstration of braking on wet concrete, carried out by the courageous Bruno Perard, tester Bibendum, on a BMW S 1000 RR ABS is eloquent. Between a dry asphalt and a smooth concrete copiously watered, at 50 km / h, the braking difference is much less than 2 m, on about 10, with a final stop in both cases! In fact, unlike the automobile, on a motorcycle, the braking limit is not linked to the grip, but first of all to the passage of the motorcycle over the front. In fact, if on dry ground, we cannot exploit all the grip available and brake as short as a car, on wet ground, a good brakeman, or a good ABS and a good brakeman, will be able to benefit 100% from it. . Therefore, braking as short as a car in the rain becomes possible, provided you have the courage and / or the skills. In short, even on perfectly smooth concrete, as slippery as a bar of soap on the edge of a bidet (where Romain Bouchet, head of tests, will admit to having been miserably spread out at the beginning of the week … it was slipping!), the PilotPower3 does not let go! Moreover, the more slippery the ground, the more it widens the gap with its competitors….

High tension…

So it was at the end of the afternoon after warming up on the track with the Power Supersport, that we left “hot boiling” to see what the PilotPower3 had in the stomach. It was on the handlebars of the latest fashionable roadsters that we faced the small Portuguese roads, winding and bumpy at will. Persuaded to make the right choice, I threw myself on a KTM 990 Duke hoping to rot a good part of my colleagues with this demonic tool. Badly taken me since an unmanageable throttle of the type "on-off" prevented me from dosing the power on a trickle of gas in curve. This rough driving could have sent me up in the air a dozen times, but in fact, the PilotPower3 never flinched under the effect of the sudden arrival of these raging horses, straight out of the KTM stables. At each photo stop I tried to get rid of my burden, obviously badly regulated, but as soon as I made a round trip in front of the photographer, my colleagues, as nice as they were, always returned my Katoche with the same comment: uncontrollable, especially at this rate. It must be said that in front, it did not soften and that to keep in contact you should not let yourself go to look at the landscape. As tense as my trajectories, I tried to put on a good face and appreciate the good nature of the PilotPower3, whose roundness is matched only by the grip on the angle..

Finally a pose … and a little rain !

Finally, failing to appreciate them, this failure will have highlighted the qualities of the PilotPower3 which very easily accepts the course corrections, always inevitable on the road, especially when we do not control the arrival of power. A colleague abandoning his Ducati 1100 Monster, I was able to taste the virtues of a more docile twin, or at least much better tuned. It would have been interesting to take advantage of a long straight line to judge the stability at very high speed, but our mountainous course hardly included any. We will therefore have to wait a bit to make a definitive statement on this point. On the other hand, there were many bumps and at this level, the comfort did not disappoint..

It was during a small pose that I was able to get my hands on a Triumph 675 Street Triple and thus test the PilotPower3 on the archetype of high-performance mid-size roadsters. Overflowing with enthusiasm I was spinning the train to my colleagues when a few drops of rain on the screen of my helmet alerted me. However, due to the speed they did not hold. But the noise was intense and I didn’t know whether to attribute it to the snap of my liner in the wind or to the intensity of the rain. However, the herd, heated to white, did not slow down one iota. Unconsciousness, efficiency of the tire, road that remained dry? … In my head the assumptions were jostled until I remember the braking test on wet ground. From that moment, I decreed that rain or not, there was grip. So I undertook to overtake the colleague who preceded me, just before a slightly vicious turn. Surprised I widened my trajectory, while he, in a pure burst of solidarity, pulled straight in a style worthy of the Joe Bar Team. Fortunately no sore, he stayed on the road. The rest of the course, ended as it had started, those in front not having the intention of waiting for the latecomers.

What about the tire? Well I think it has grip, and in my opinion, in ballad use, even very sporty, it should largely do the trick … Even if it rains a little !

Strong points

• Grip

Weak points

• rate

Dimensions table

Before

120/60 ZR 17 M / C (55W) TL
120/70 ZR 17 M / C (58W) TL

Back

160/60 ZR 17 M / C (69W) TL
180/55 ZR 17 M / C (73W) TL
190/50 ZR 17 M / C (73W) TL
190/55 ZR 17 M / C (75W) TL

Available / Price

• Immediate availability.
• Indicative price 120/70 ZR 17 / 180/55 ZR 17: 260 € (promotion observed: 244 € at the motorcycle village of Orvault)

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