| Author | Message | ||
     Reepicheep |
I had been running the stock dunlops (D205's) on my Cyclone since new, and was overall pretty happy with them. They wore a little on the quick side, and would cup a little, but stuck well, handled nicely, and were fairly priced. When my last D205 rear wore out, I decided to try the Dunlop "upgrade" for the D205 on the rear, the Dunlop D220, and now that I have ground the thing to dust I wanted to do a review. I was overall pretty unhappy with the tire. The profile was about the same as the 205, which was fine. It has kind of a non linear turn in, so there is a little bit of a "flop" over into the turn, especially once they start to wear. I got used to it, not a big deal. The profile also makes it easy to wear the tire almost to the very edge, so if you are a "gotta make sure my chicken strips look little" type rider, it's easy on that profile. The D220 was scary slick until it warms up, and took a while to do so. Much worse then the d205. More then once I was sliding the rear around a little on a normal residential right turn on a normal residential street at normal residential speed limits. Once it warmed up it was fine. Wear was OK. I don't think it was any better then the D205, which was Dunlops claimed reason for the upgrade. And when it got to the point where it was starting to get thin, but probably should have had another 1000 or so miles left in it, it had a big strip peel off down the center. I could get it home, but the tire was toast. And once it got a lot of wear, the thing had some fierce wheel hop. At full throttle at high RPM (right about where my Cyclone is at max rear wheel horsepower, probably in the 70's somewhere), it would start. I thought it was a transmission / clutch problem at first, it was very violent. I won't be going back to Dunlop, though I think the D205 is a good tire. When the front wore out, I already knew I was not going back to Dunlop, so I put on a Metzler Z4. I have been happy with it so far, so naturally Metzler discontinued it. The MeZ4 on the front and the D205 on the rear did cause a little handling weirdness, a very slight wander on smooth pavement at highway speeds. Not a big deal. When I went to get a new rear, I got the Z4 replacement, the Metzler RoadTech (Z6 maybe?). The Metzler was a little more expensive ($135 at a local discount place) but so far is a FAR better tire. No hop, no long wait for warm up, nice and sticky. Time will tell how it wears. The profile of the Metzlers is very nice. It has a totally linear turn in, very smooth and VERY confidence inspiring. No more of the Dunlop Flop as I lean in. It looks like it will be harder to wear it all the way to the edges, but I have not had the tire out except under slimey salty winter roads, so that remains to be seen. If I feel the need to impress people with tire wear, I will just break out the belt sander  So I would recommend against the D220's for anyone. If you can get a good deal on the D205's, I was pretty happy with them. The Metzler Road Techs seem to be a better tire, but look to be more expensive. IMHO. | ||
| Mikej |
Slick is bad, stick is good. Thanks for the first hand real world feedback. | ||
| Nevco1 |
Reep...Thanks for the info. Am interested in your follow-up on the Metzlers. | ||
| S3thunder |
I am running D220 tires on my S3 and I have no complaints with these tires even on wet roads. I ride mostly back roads here and my D220 tires give great traction and performance on smooth or rough asphalt dry and wet. I sometimes have to deal with mud, gravel and washes that are riverbed and am still shiny side up.  | ||
| M1a65 |
Hi All, I too have been running the Dunlop 220's. Was hoping to see a major improvement over the old 205's. Right off the bat I felt the 205's were a better tire though the 220's were supposed to be be an improvement, especially in the rain. I usually ride in all weather and have been caught out in some nasty monsoons here in Atlanta especially this year. The 220's showed no improvement to my confidence or ride ability in the wet and would also recomend going with the 205's especially if you get a deal. Been thru 2 sets of each and the rider feed back of the 205's was far better. You get a harsher ride on the 220's in my opinion. My next set of tires will be Bridgestone 020's sport touring tires. Doesn't hurt to try and they're quite fond of them in europe where they're very familiar with bad weather! | ||
| S2pengy |
I must add that Dunlop is dicontinuing the 205 | ||
| Brucelee |
I have 220s and like them very much. | ||
| Iamike |
Some of the more aggressive riders have said the 220 front doesn't handle well. I guess I'm not that aggressive since I didn't notice it. I like it better than the 205 since it hasn't cupped at all like the previous did. I did wear out a rear 220 pretty quick but I think that was a combination of a bad shock and riding interstate speeds while the temp was in the upper 90's. I did feel that the 220 stuck better than the 205. Even tho I wasn't happy with the way Bridgestone treated the DesMoines rubber workers during a strike many years ago I think I'll try the 20s on my next set. |
