Tyre advice: Slippy roads in Southern Spain

I have recently moved to southern Spain and I ride a Ducati Monster S4RS.

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I have ridden my bike a few times since living here but I am having serious trouble with grip, as the roads aren’t too great, I have lost the rear several times under acceleration but, more worryingly, have lost the front under braking. I was wondering if a change of tyres would help.

My bike is currently fitted with Michelin Pilot Powers which are the tyres it came fitted with.

They are in good condition but I am thinking they may be too soft for the temperature down here and I should go for a harder compound tyre.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

JohnPayne, MCN forums
 
Neevesy has just spent three weeks in the area on his Ducati Streetfighter long-termer, so he has first-hand experience of those surfaces.

While he agrees that some of the slippery roads you get down in southern Spain are lethal, it’s down to the surface and he doesn’t think changing the tyres would help.

On the flip side, there are some stunning roads down there too where we do lots of launches and photoshoots and­ these roads are grippy as hell and those Michelin Pilot Powers will work brilliantly on roads such as the fantastically twisty A1102 (off the E-15 motorway towards Sorbas, near Almeria).

When it’s time to change tyres, the latest range of sports rubber are a step up from the Michelin Pilot Powers.

The best are: Dunlop Qualifier II, Pirelli Diablo Rosso, Bridgestone BT-016, Metzeler Sportec M3 and Michelin Pilot Power 2CT.

It’s either find those perfect roads or move back to England!