Contiforce Sport Radials
CONTIFORCE SPORT RADIALS
TIME TO REPLACE YOUR bike’s worn-out skins, but can’t afford to shell out big bucks for premium sport rubber? With Continental’s new ContiForce radials, deal-shopping doesn’t mean settling for cheap.
The affordably priced ContiForces are ideal for sport-tourers, standards and older sportbikes. Even owners of late-model repli-racers may find the combination of extended tread life, solid handling and excellent wet-weather performance to their liking.
A recent visit to the Contidrom, Continental’s test facility located near Hannover, Germany, offered a go on the new ContiForce. Our hosts even assembled a selection of bikes to sample in varying conditions.
Several laps around a winding stretch of slick tarmac saturated by a sprinkler system proved the tires’ wetweather performance. Later, hustling the bikes through the fast, flowing curves of the dry
handling course not only dried my boots, but also revealed neutral, light and responsive steering, plus adequate grip. In fact, most of the machines ground their sideand centerstands or mufflers long before the tires showed any sign of losing traction. Bikes with an abundance of power and cornering clearance, however, required smooth throttle control.
Continental saved the best for last, treating us to a flat-out blast around the Contidrom’s famous oval. Pinned in top gear high up on the steep parabolic bowl aboard a Kawasaki ZX-6R, I experienced no hint of instability. All the while, with my helmet pressed into the gas tank under the 2.5-g load, a voice in my head repeated, “Let the ContiForce guide you.” -Don Canet
