Matt
New Member
I don’t know how many people have had the opportunity to try out the new Dunlop 211GPA, the AMA spec tire for Daytona Sportbike, so I thought I would share my experience with them from this last weekend.
I switched to Dunlop from Pirelli mid last season with my first few sets being all NTEC 211's and NTEC slicks take offs. My first set of tires for this year were 209GP-A's which were tons better than the 209GP that I had tried earlier. Now that I had the new 211GPA’s mounted up, I have had a chance to ride all of Dunlop's race tires available now and thought a comparison might be in order.
After seeing the price and hearing reviews on the new AMA spec American made 211GP-A's I figured I would try them out, last year I couldn’t buy the NTEC’s new because of the price so I had to buy slightly used take offs, the price of the 211GPA gave me the opportunity to get on a fresh set of tires. The first time I had the opportunity to try them was this weekend for my first CCS event of the season at Heartland Park (a track I had never been to before).
Overall, there isn't much to say except the tire left nothing to be desired compared to the 211 NTEC. The feel was exactly the same and I could get to WOT with a knee down coming out of turn 9, or fire into turn 3 rolling off at the '2' marker and only barely touching the brakes, pushing hard on that front tire to scrub speed. In the event I ran wide, I had the same confidence in the front to trail brake a little out of my comfort zone and get the bike turned.
I honestly forgot they were not the NTECs. I rode them as hard as I could and never felt the front push, the rear showed excellent wear as well. I have 5 races on them, 4 practice sessions and I think I can still use the rear for a NESBA event but will probably have to switch to a different rear tire at some point in the weekend.
Basically I’m comparing these to the NTEC’s because they are far closer to that tire than they are to the 209GPA’s. I didn’t notice a difference between the NTEC and 211GPA at my level and don’t really think I would until I pushed my laptimes down quite a bit further. I have my setup just about the same as last year (refreshed suspension only), rode it the best I could and was able to walk away with 2 podium finishes for the weekend at a new to me track on new to me tires. I'm happy with the new 211 GP-A's and figure it’s a win-win because I get a tire that feels like the NTEC at a much cheaper price. After what I found out this last weekend… I will be using the 211GPA for the rest of my races this year.
I switched to Dunlop from Pirelli mid last season with my first few sets being all NTEC 211's and NTEC slicks take offs. My first set of tires for this year were 209GP-A's which were tons better than the 209GP that I had tried earlier. Now that I had the new 211GPA’s mounted up, I have had a chance to ride all of Dunlop's race tires available now and thought a comparison might be in order.
After seeing the price and hearing reviews on the new AMA spec American made 211GP-A's I figured I would try them out, last year I couldn’t buy the NTEC’s new because of the price so I had to buy slightly used take offs, the price of the 211GPA gave me the opportunity to get on a fresh set of tires. The first time I had the opportunity to try them was this weekend for my first CCS event of the season at Heartland Park (a track I had never been to before).
Overall, there isn't much to say except the tire left nothing to be desired compared to the 211 NTEC. The feel was exactly the same and I could get to WOT with a knee down coming out of turn 9, or fire into turn 3 rolling off at the '2' marker and only barely touching the brakes, pushing hard on that front tire to scrub speed. In the event I ran wide, I had the same confidence in the front to trail brake a little out of my comfort zone and get the bike turned.
I honestly forgot they were not the NTECs. I rode them as hard as I could and never felt the front push, the rear showed excellent wear as well. I have 5 races on them, 4 practice sessions and I think I can still use the rear for a NESBA event but will probably have to switch to a different rear tire at some point in the weekend.
Basically I’m comparing these to the NTEC’s because they are far closer to that tire than they are to the 209GPA’s. I didn’t notice a difference between the NTEC and 211GPA at my level and don’t really think I would until I pushed my laptimes down quite a bit further. I have my setup just about the same as last year (refreshed suspension only), rode it the best I could and was able to walk away with 2 podium finishes for the weekend at a new to me track on new to me tires. I'm happy with the new 211 GP-A's and figure it’s a win-win because I get a tire that feels like the NTEC at a much cheaper price. After what I found out this last weekend… I will be using the 211GPA for the rest of my races this year.
