Choice totally depend on, how and where the person uses his bike.

Soft Compound- It gives great grip, stays glued to ground even on fastest corners, provides planted feel even in rain and on high speeds.

But one cannot expect very long life from these tyres, offroading is big no with soft compound, skids a bit on sand and gravel, wears out quickly.

Eg- Extensive use on Race Track and Supersport bikes. Modern day premium bikes are coming with stock soft compound, P220 UG4, R15 are few to name.


Hard Compound- lasts pretty long, ages slow, wear and tear is less, good for offroading and burnouts.

But one cannot expect that planted feel on high speeds, dosnt provides very strong grip on even surface, riding in rain with such tyres is nightmare!

E.g.-every commuter indian bike comes stock with hard compound tyres, offroading and motocross bikes use hard compound, our Indian roadkings RE's also come stock with Hard compound.

Semi Soft Compound- I personally never used in on any of my bikes but had ridden few bikes with these compounds extensively. These are perfect balance in between Hard and Soft compound tyres. Wears slow and grips well. No negetives I found till now.

So If one is tourer, do offroading, rides extensively and for long intervals or performs stunting then Hard Compound is the choice.

And if one is on the saner half, pull stunts occsionally, rides on well laid termac, takes fast corners and needs great grip then its Soft Compound all the way.

Shanz

I own a R15 and it's been 11 months i have enjoyed her grip on road. No doubt they serve good but yesterday i had a small accident while riding with my wife. This accident was in no way my fault as other guy with a pillion crossed the road hiding behind a car that just crossing the road, so you can understand there was no way i could have seen that vehicle crossing the road cause i was just behind that car.

This has nothing but raised a question in my mind. When ever i ride with my wife i am not doing more than 40 in the city, plus i am very careful, but when this accident happened, i was able to save the moron, but my front lost the grip and i had a minor slip (may be a foot). I understand R15's tires have good grip, and i don't doubt them for racing, but are they really good for city use ? especially where sudden brakes are required because of wild desi rossies and animals ?

I am currently thinking of installing 80/100 front and 80/120 rear (Soft compound) or mechanical ABS. I don't care if i lose some kmpl or accelaration timing or top speed, what is important is that when i brake, i mean suddenly or knowingly the bike's front should not slip.

What would you suggest ?

To the best of my knowledge, there are no tyres with such high inverse aspect ratios, such as 80/120. However, if you do mean 120/80, that might work as many ppl have fitted such a tyre to the R15. With regard to the skidding phenomenon, the tyre will invariably lose grip when the brake is applied very suddenly, irrespective of the compound.So, your idea of installing ABS is the right idea

@jd666: Knew about the aspect ratio thing, but still the width of the tyre is in mm and the wall thickness corresponds to that width. The problem with going for very low profiles, say 140/30 ( if such a tyre for bikes exists ) is that the side wall is prone to rupture under impact loads, such as when run over a pothole.

Any tyre is bound to skid if you applied the brakes too suddenly, no matter what compound you are using.

Rather than upgrading I would suggest you to go for ABS.

@jigar - its really unfortunate what happened with you, but i am still to lock my front wheel (r15), under really heavy braking.

More so, the way u describe the accident, it seems that everything was so sudden that your instinct was to jam the brakes. and also the gap was not adequate to react properly.

Relax man, the tyres are adequate, much more than other bikes. its just really unfortunate and unwanted what happened;

Thanks for the tip guys, looks like ABS is better option than.

Alright can anyone suggest me a good reliable link to buy them ?

I read about ABS on Indian Bikes in Antilock Braking System (ABS) for Indian Motorcycles
and enquired about its availability to a dealer. It costs around Rs.1400/- ( 1250 + 150 courier charge). Here is the link

Saferide ABS

Thanks for the link Anupdas.

^ Maybe there was some loose sand or something on the road, leading to the tire slipping. In my experience, the braking (even panic braking) wont lead to skidding/slipping on a good road ..

Saferide ABS has got mixed reviews, many who've tried it say its worth it.

Yeah correct, but in India, you hardly find a road which doesn't have sand on it.

Happy to help anytime .

Under panic braking one will not just concentrate on braking but will also try to steer under braking. On braking the weight is shifted to the front and the rear tire looses the traction. Thats why its said that front brake is the most efficient way to stop a bike. In addition to these weight shift if one try to steer the rear will skidding past the front since the front will have traction will the back dont have. If you watch motogp or any other speed biking you can see that they even use this technique to turn sharply. It is said that they use only front brakes and engine braking by shifting down as they decelerate. Those guys are amazing most of those guys dont know what they are doin but are doin it by instincts( i came to know this by watchin an interview of John Hopking).

Yes, stock tyres does give a good performance.
a few days back i have changed my karizma's rear stock to a MRF Meteor, trust me frends i would say my road gripping and cornering skills have doubled with this tyre. There dusn't seem to be any noticible power variation, but i doubt the mileage has gone down a bit. the size is 110

+1 increased road grip
+1 increased cornering
+1 better looks
-1 Mileage gone down

thanks,
comments appreciated.

A slight deviation from actual topic.

Somebody here did mention about "deceleration".
My idea about it is, changing to lower gear at higher speed unsuitable for that gear.
I have tried it a couple of times myself.
It gives big jerk (n scares hell out of me ).

I feel deceleration hampers engine.
Is it true?
Can it be an alternative to hard braking?

Engine Braking

Many riders have mentioned that on hard braking they use only front brakes and engine braking. This engine braking can only be done by proper practice. But in general practice everyone grabs the clutch which reduces engine braking. Some even mentioned to shift down on panic braking, doing so without appling brakes will only give a high side . If we keep on practicing shifting gradually as the speed reduces by pressing clutch while shifting and releasing as soon as it engaged, can reduce the stopping distance.