Dunlop TT 100 GP- "Dunlop, your tyres are shit".

Seriously - Brand new tyre.

8000K - absolutely fucked.

Worn to the legal minimum.

It's consistent with the experiences with other users of the same tyre.

Metzler users on the other hand, report 24,000 - 32,000K's from their tyres.

And I thought "Oh surely not! They can't possibly be getting 3 or 4 times the distance of the Dunlop tyre?"

And given that the two different brands are around the same price, I booked the bike in for a tyre change, for a new Metzler - about 2 weeks down the track.

And the very same day - late in the afternoon, some guy comes up to me, and we strike up a conversation, and asks, "Has this got Dunlops on it?

Next comment:

"Oh they are really shit - they don't last long at all - you want to get rid of them."

Followed by:

"You want to put Metzlers X-ers on them." - which was the exact same type and model - as I had ordered.

He continued, "I had a set of them on my bike, and had the rear tyre on for over 5 years and it still had heaps of tread on it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I mean seriously? What can you say to this incredible combination of completely unconnected reviews, opinions, events and a chance meeting like that?

The face to face experience reinforced the experience as listed in the forums, about the long tread life of the Metzlers, and the shit life of the Dunlops.

There was universal agreement, and personal experience to validate that the management of Dunlop are totally content to make shit tyres with ho-hum grip and a short tread life.

I mean they were not awful in the grip - but they scrubbed badly in suburban speed cornering at 50kmh - leaving me very reluctant to take the bike down to the pegs...

And road tyres that have fine rubber strings on the tread surface, from a single suburban corner, like a SOFT rubber eraser leaves when rubbing out pencil lines on paper, tends to make me feel really uneasy.

Because you see, the scrubbing is a combination of sliding and shearing or scraping - and if the tyre is leaving tell tale signs at 50Kmh around a suburban street corner, what will it do at 150Kmh, around a tight race track type of corner - and the pegs are scraping????

At what force and pressure levels does slipping, turn to sliding? Or will one "good quality" Dunlop road tyre grind away to nothing after a day or two going hard around tight fast corners?

Like drop into a big Canberra style round about, and run the bike around it in rings, because simple rolling in a straight line, is different to hard cornering....

So the whole entire side of the tyre has rubbed off in 500K?


Given the fact that the tread has all gone at 8000K from plain, legal speed, straight line running.

They're crap tyres.

I am just pissy about the premium price, for a bottom dollar tread life, in an age called "The End of the Oil", only to be thrown to land fill, when other brands last 3 or 4 times the distance...

It's shit value for money AND it's Dunlop's "RETARDED ARSEHOLE BY DESIGN" philosophy of rampant wastefulness; when really they should be bragging that their tyres last 100,000Km under average user conditions.

I knew one of the Bridgestone engineers who developed truck tyres that I recall, lasted something like 500,000 or 1 million Km - something like 10 or 15 X the tyre life of the average truck tyre.... (the conversation was a long time ago)

They basically went to town on the rubber formulation, to make the longest lasting tyres they could, and they did.

I recall the story was that they were still running that truck with the same tyres up and down the east coast of Australia, non stop for 7 years, and the tyres were still going.

So this subject of putting tyres together, that last really incredible distances, and the total failure to market them is based upon the lowering of sales, where 10 sets of tyres get sold = more profit, instead of one set = less profit; so this is a purely commercial decision, and not a technical limitation of tyre design.

And the issue of tyres that last extraordinarily long distances, and the refusal of the tyre manufacturers to produce them - is a really old issue.

So I view making reasonably grippy, general travelling type motorcycle tyres that last 100,000 Km or nearly so, as reasonably doable...


I wanted to let the entire Dunlop Australia staff know how I feel about their crap product   - via the Dunlop Australia website....

"Contact Us"

No phone. no email address, only a webform, where you leave your name, email address and a comment - and you cannot attach any photos...

Only the lazy fucks don't list the word limit...(probably about 80 words)

http://www.dunloptyres.com.au/about-us/contact-us/

Contact Us
If you have any feedback or queries, please complete the form below:
 
Name
 
Email
 
Phone (inc area code)
 
Feedback

Oh fucking awesome.

Shit tyres and an idiot website, with no direct person to person contact - only a webform, that they make no effort to respond too.


After contacting them, a week went past and they made no reply to my inquiry.

So the lazy fucks from Dunlop Australia - can't be fucking bothered having contact with the customer, about their shitty products.

You can be sure I will never feed my money into your fucking payroll ever again.

The fucking arrogance of Corporate Arseholes.

Their concept of you buy the tyres, off the retailers, who buy them from the distributors / wholesalers, who buy them from the manufacturers - so therefore THEY SAY, you the end of line customer, has to kiss the retailers arse, and the issues you raise, has to go through them, which will probably end up going nowhere......

And the folks at Dunlop Australia, will never do fuck all, including reformulating the tyres to last 100,000Km and supplying you with the first set - and say thank you for helping us to make a better product...

Nope - they will keep making premium priced, shit tyres that go to landfill at 8,000Km, instead of making tyres that last 100,000Km and come with a global recycling program - at every retail outlet and recycling centre.

But YOU the consumer, can send a message to the retailers, the wholesalers and to the arrogant arsehole manufacturers like Dunlop Australia, by chasing these issues, through the supply chain, until your discussing the issues of the premium priced, low tread life tyres manufactured by Dunlop Australia, with the manager of Dunlop Australia.

And you can also stop buying their products - because you see, if they do a shit job, then you stop hiring them to make product for you.

The truth is, they have to kiss your arse to keep themselves employed - and the tyres are shit, their advertising department brochures and PDF's spout crap - the "communication" or the feeding you bullshit, is strictly ONE WAY, and they do everything they can, to stop you from being able to contact them.

This is typically how they market their tyres:  

(Or the same old bullshit on a new pamphlet).

This is the TT100 write up:


http://www.dunlopmotorcycle.eu/dunlop_euen/mc/tyres/on_road/K81_TT100.jsp

K81 TT100

Improving on the legend

In 1969 the TT100 became the first tire to lap the TT course at over 100mph on a production bike. The TT100 of today bears the same unmistakeable Dunlop style but benefits from ever-evolving tire development to bring lightweight and classic bikes a traditional tire with cutting edge performance and durability.

OK got that "Cutting edge performance and durability" - and since 2016, is close enough to 2019 - their claim of 40 years of development, to make it the grippiest and longest lasting tyre in the world, rings like bullshit when the tyre is fucked in 8000K , while the equivalent Metzlers are lasting beyond 30,000K.

And this is the bullshit dredged up to sell this years model.

http://www.dunloptyres.com.au/tyres/roadsmart2.dot


RoadSmart II

The new generation in Sports Touring tyres is here.

Dunlop's new Sportmax RoadSmart ll is a premium sport touring tyre developed and tested for demanding Australian conditions, that can be ridden on in confidence, no matter what the weather or road conditions. The new Roadsmart ll offers the Australian rider a class-leading combination of grip, wear, stability, handling & comfort.

    Outstanding wet weather performance and breaking
    Superior class winning dry grip
    Long wearing
    Fast warm up
    Bigger footprint at extreme lean angles formaximum grip
    Linear and responsive handling throughout tread life

The Sportmax RoadSmart ll provides a new
benchmark of balanced all-round excellence for
demanding riders.

Key Benefits:
_     Front and Rear tyres use JLB construction to deliver
increased stability.
_     Rear Multi-Tread (MT) construction incorporating a
long wearing compound in the centre and a lateral
grip compound on the side for class leading grip and
performance.
_     Increased tread depth further promotes water
channeling whilst also extending tyre life.
_     Intuitive Response Profile (IRP) allows for greater
latitude whilst cornering and provides linear steering at
all lean angles for enhanced grip & handling
_     New cosecant-curve tread pattern helps promote even
tyre wear and stiffens pattern for reduced tyre squirm
and extended tread life.
_     New rubber compounds incorporating Silica for
superior wet grip and accelerated warm-up. The new
compounds allow for maximum performance over a
wide range of operating temperatures.
_     Specially designed front pattern for shorter braking
distances in dry & wet conditions.
_     Specifically designed carcass for easy and neutral high
speed & low speed handling
Outstanding wet weather performance and breaking
_   
_     Particularly well suited to heavier or more sports
orientated touring bikes.
Superior class winning dry grip
_   
Long wearing
_   
Fast warm up
_   
Bigger footprint at extreme lean angles for
_   
maximum grip
Linear and responsive handling throughout tread life
_   
Multi-Tread compound rear
for all-round traction, grip,
comfort, handling and
extended mileage

JLB for Increased stability
for heavier sports touring
bikes and a front tread
pattern optimised for
shorter braking distances


So they say, "Ohhh New Silly Kone Compound - Equals Better Grip and Longer Tyre Life" "Newly developed" "Leading class" - they spout in the brochures.

Better than what? More grippier than what? Longer lasting than what?

The same tyres, with the previous compound? And if so, by how much?

The leading tyres in their class? So just how much better have they become, than the other types and brands, in the same class? Name the brands and models and what are the results of the tests?

And these dumb, lying cunts, even cross their sales pitches:

A 1960's style tyre - mythically upgraded to the max, in indefinable terms, as the best and longest lasting tyre in the world.

"a traditional tire with cutting edge performance and durability."

And a 2016 tyre, by the same company, declares that this tyre, is in indefinable terms, is the best and longest lasting tyre in the world......

"a class-leading combination of grip, wear, stability, handling & comfort."


Since you can't have two bests, two leading edges, and each tyre being the longest lasting.

So what is the story you lying fucking arseholes?

 And where is your magical, mythical, measuring stick, that you use to quantify the results? 

Or did the bullshit artists in the advertising dept, stick it back up the unicorns arse, on Mount Olympus, for safe keeping from the mere mortals?



As far as their own results go - and how they arrived at them...

If they had say 9 different fat and skinny riders, plodders and rev heads, on 9 identical bikes, and

Three of them just travelled around the country on dirt and gravel and sealed roads, three of them commuted to and from work, around the cities, and three of them ran around race tracks, in both directions - and the distances until the legal minimum tread depth were reached, tabulated and averaged, on the old formulation and the new formulation;

What is that averaged distance, how much of an increase in distance do the tyres last, AND how come you lying cunts in the advertising departments NEVER list the testing methods and the fucking results, or the ways and means of obtaining them?

They just write unqualified crap in their advertising, "New formulation / Tread Design = Increased mileage, better drainage, better grip = better, LONGER LASTING, tyres".

With all the improvements, made to every new tyre type and upgraded tyre- with the "improved technology and formulations", you would think by now, that the Dunlop tyres were capable of travelling around the entire universe and they'd stick like shit to a blanket, all the way.

But they don't - they're fucked in 8,000K.  The tyres were lasting longer in World War One.

100 years later - The "New and Improved" 1000 X better tyres, are shittier than ever.

Just like the new and improved washing powder - by now it should be 1 thimble full should be enough, to wash 50 giant loads of washing so well, it glows in the fucking dark. Does it? No.

Industrial chemistry has yet to include real "sprinkles of sunlight" in every pack of "Genuine Certified Unicorn Shit" soap powder.

Same with the crap that Dunlop Australia feeds you. 100 years after World War One - their tyres are fucking garbage, and their advertising departments are still lying to you with their generic "New and Improved" bullshit.

The generic maths goes like this, pick a year say... 1969. The advertisement says new and improved compound / tread / mileage / grip, than I assume the previous tyre, say 3 years earlier.

We will pull an arbitrary figure out of my arse of a 10% improvement every 3 years. So if the 1966 tyre wore out at 10,000 Km, and the bike could lean at 45*, around a 100Kmh corner, then the 1969 tyre would last till 11,000Km, and could corner either at 40.5* at 100Kmh, or at 110Kmh at 45*.

Now if the 1972 tyre was new and improved by say 10%, it would last to 12,100Km, and either or corner at 36.95* at 100Kmh, or lean around a corner at 45* and 121 Kmh.

So if we have an ongoing 10% improvement in tyre life and grip, every 3 years, the numbers go like this:

1975 - The tyres should last 13,310 Km, and able to lean at 33* around a 100Kmh corner OR lean around a corner at 45* at 131 Kmh.

1978 - The tyres should last 14,641 Km, and able to lean at 30* around a 100Kmh corner OR lean around a corner at 45* at 146 Kmh.

1981 - The tyres should last 16,105 Km, and able to lean at 27* around a 100Kmh corner OR lean around a corner at 45* at 161 Kmh.

1984 - The tyres should last 17,715 Km, and able to lean at 24* around a 100Kmh corner OR lean around a corner at 45* at 177 Kmh.

1987 - The tyres should last 19,487 Km, and able to lean at 22* around a 100Kmh corner OR lean around a corner at 45* at 195 Kmh.

1990 - The tyres should last 21,435 Km, and able to lean at 20* around a 100Kmh corner OR lean around a corner at 45* at 205 Kmh.


1993 - The tyres should last 23,579 Km, and able to lean at 18* around a 100Kmh corner OR lean around a corner at 45* at 225 Kmh.


1996 - The tyres should last 25,936 Km, and able to lean at 16* around a 100Kmh corner OR lean around a corner at 45* at 248 Kmh.


1999 - The tyres should last 28,530 Km, and able to lean at 14* around a 100Kmh corner OR lean around a corner at 45* at 273 Kmh.


2002 - The tyres should last 31,383 Km, and able to lean at 13* around a 100Kmh corner O lean around a corner at 45* at 300 Kmh.


2005 - The tyres should last 34,521 Km, and able to lean at 12* around a 100Kmh corner OR lean around a corner at 45* at 330 Kmh.


2008 - The tyres should last 37,973 Km, and able to lean at 10* around a 100Kmh corner OR lean around a corner at 45* at 363 Kmh.

2011 - The tyres should last 41,771 Km, and able to lean at 9* around a 100Kmh corner OR lean around a corner at 45* at 399 Kmh.

2014 - The tyres should last 45,948 Km, and able to lean at 8* around a 100Kmh corner OR lean around a corner at 45* at 409 Kmh.

And finally in the foul year of our lord, 2017, your "new and improved tyres" should be lasting 50,543 Km, and able to lean at 7* around a 100Kmh corner OR lean around a corner at 45* at 450 Kmh.

While it's not entirely speculous, when used as some kind of a directional guide as to the improvements being made in tyres, based upon "the advertising" put out by the tyre companies, and

Considering that they have been declaring that the tyres last longer and offer better grip, every time they regurgitate the same old, same old mental vomit not only over the last 40 odd years, but over the last 100 years since WW1, and

Indeed from days when Thomas Hankook and Charles Goodyear invented vulcanised rubber in 1844 and began using rubber to make rubber tyres and then John Boyer Dunlop developed the first practical pnumatic tyres in 1887, and Harvey Firestone invented the treaded tyre around the early 1900's.

Here is Harvey Firestone outside his factory in 1903. He seems to have the tyre making down pat. They were making decent tyres that were going on cars, trucks, motorcycles and soon, aircraft.

But in just sticking to around the last 120 years....~1900 - 2016

In generic lumplessly custard terms (no citations, dates or specifics) the beginning of this 120 year period, when racing motor bikes were doing 200Kmh or 130mph from around 1915 onwards, then in a sense, tyres have gotten better - no doubt, but the rate of development, and the structural developments have been made in terms of material improvements such as cotton, nylon and kevlar belting and carcass's, which has not kept pace with the bullshit sales pitch in the companies advertising.

So around 100 years ago, motorbikes were barrelling away on mostly dirt and stone roads - like the military dispatch riders - doing large distance at high speed, they had to have decent long lasting tyres.... they were capable of sitting on 100Kmh in WW1 and WW2, or 100 and 80 years ago respectively - they had better, longer lasting tyres back then, than the pieces of shit that Dunlop churn out today.

Here are some motorcycles in WW2 and WW1.

Some good vids here....

http://www.harley-davidson.com/content/h-d/en_US/home/community/military-riders/military-history.html:

So pre WW1 onwards - they pretty much had the science of rubber formulation and pnumatic tyre construction pretty much down pat. 

The development over the last 120 years, has been in structural terms, rather than real "advertised" terms. 

Kind of like prestressed reinforced concrete - consist formulation, batching, materials testing, making better concrete, better additives for curing speeds, better casting etc., stronger more corrosion resistant steel reinforcement etc... but at the end of the day it's only a bridge across a river.

The over time the steel reinforcing bars have 30% stronger (in tension), the formulation and concrete chemistry, along with casting techniques makes a 30% stronger concrete (in compression), so the cast concrete beam bridge has 30% less steel reinforcement in it, and it has 30% less concrete in the beams, so the bridge is still a 200 ton capacity bridge span..

So putting aside the minority motor cycle market of extremely powerful road / racer bikes, or the very large super heavy bikes, motorcycle tyres, for the vast global majority of motorcycles, are basically unchanged for the last 100 or so years....

I shall explain.

The environment,hasn't changed that much, in so much that almost all roads are sealed and fairly flat - so there is less impacts with big stones and ruts, there is very little real need for the "all roads" type block pattern tread, there are some enormously powerful and or heavy bikes - but globally, these are in the absolute minority, and if anything motorbikes have gotten smaller and lighter - so the average tyre load and speed ratings remains fairly low, and for the almost total majority of environments, the legal speed limit remains fairly low, through legislation and or road conditions.

As a simple caveat - a 1936 750cc bike ran a rear tyre pressure of 32 psi, and a 2016 750cc bikes run a rear tyre pressure of 32 psi....


Globally - the only way to genuinely improve tyres is on the basis of durability - and in this context, the likes of Dunlop have fucked it - they have failed miserably, and so they have to resort to endlessly repeated lying, spanning decades.....

The same crap, over and over and over again - "more grip, longer lasting", when aside  from the advent of 300KMH bikes, basically nothing has changed - except for the endless lying and transferring that to the latest crop of crap tyres.


If we go by the bullshit from the Dunlop company alone, since WW1, the tyre carcass should all now be paper thin, weigh 20 grams, be made from cannon proof fabric, with a 500,000 Km life span, underneath a 5000Kg motorbike, doing 2,000Kmh at a 0.1* degree lean angle around a 100Kmh corner.....

But they are not - in 2016, they are putting out road tyres that "after 40 years of development of the cutting edge tyre, are fucked in 8000Km - and they had better tyres 100 years ago - so the incessant drum beat of successively "new and improved tyre life and grip" over the years, decades and centuries - is complete crap.

In nearly 200 years since people mixed latex with sulphur and baked it, and Harvey Firestone machined his name into the tyre moulds, the only thing Dunlop promises is bullshit advertising and crap tyres.

They are fucking lying.   

But phone the management of Dunlop Australia, and ask for a copy of their unstated, unqualified and unlisted results? "Oooo no - we can't have that."

If you, the management of Dunlop Australia are giving unqualified  statements about your products, and your also providing no way to get hold of them, then it's also fair to come to the conclusion that your just making pretty much ALL of this shit up.


Same bikes, same riders...all saying the same thing.  

The Dunlop TT 100 GP - the cutting edge tyres, with 40 or 50 years of development in them, with the most grip and the highest tread life in the world, are fucked in 8000K, while the Metzlers are good for 30,000K+......

So that is why I dislike the arrogance of Corporate Arseholes.

Dunlop Australia - your tyres, and your attitudes to customer service, are fucking shit.