CEAT SportRad Tyres Review – The 1st Morning Star?
May 6, 2024The CEAT SportRad Tyres not a new phenomenon to the family of motorcycles. It is in fact the 3rd tubeless Ceat tyre and 5th overall tyre to join the arsenal. Not too long ago the CEAT STEELRADS were launch with much fanfare and is making inroads to leading motorcycling influencers too! As this goes into print, we’d like to add that this year it is almost a decade ever since the 1st installation in our motorcycles. So let’s begin with getting to know about the base component of the tyre which is a Silica blended tread soft compound.
CEAT SportRad Tyres are Silica blended tread soft compound, let’s understand what this means?
(Source – Internet)
Silica-blended tread compound refers to a tire tread formulation that combines traditional tire rubber with silica (silicon dioxide) particles. This blending process aims to enhance the tire’s performance characteristics across various road conditions, particularly in wet conditions.
How Silica-Blended Tread Compounds Work:
- Improved Wet Traction: Silica helps to increase the tire’s grip on wet surfaces by enhancing the dispersion of water from the contact patch. This reduces the risk of hydroplaning and improves overall safety.
- Reduced Rolling Resistance: Silica can reduce the energy loss due to rolling resistance, leading to improved fuel efficiency and lower fuel consumption.
- Enhanced Wear Resistance: Silica-blended compounds can offer improved wear resistance, resulting in longer tread life and increased durability of the tire.
- Temperature Stability: Silica can help in maintaining the tire’s performance across a wider range of temperatures, reducing heat build-up and ensuring consistent performance.
Manufacturers carefully optimize the blending ratio of silica and other ingredients to achieve the desired balance of performance characteristics such as traction, fuel efficiency, and tread life.
CEAT SportRad Tyres – The Why?
- Profile Stability – Uniform tyre profile at all speeds. Ensures better stability and control at high speeds.
- Wider Contact Patch – Flexible side walls allow for a wider contact patch during leaning.
- Straight line stability and superior wet grip.
- Cooler Running – Better heat dissipation leading to improved safety and higher life
Having said that let us put forth our 1st impressions about the product.
CEAT SportRad Tyres: Commuter Mode – 1st impressions
As a city, Pune enjoys it all – from the bylanes to concretized modern highway roads that cut across the city’s landscape. So also, there is no dearth of opportunity for some soft roading and treading down broken paths. Add to this a mix of a 200 kilogram motorcycle with street tyres:
- With regards to braking and handling in city commute the motorcycle is in total control.
- When hitting the red line the motorcycle stays planted at high speeds.
- Also, the Sportrad cuts through dirt and potholes with as much ease as its predecessor – the Apollo Tramplr XR.
- All in all during city commute, do I feel like I’m on a different set of tyres, not at all.
- With over 300 kms travelled so far I haven’t felt the need to check the air pressure yet.
Speaking of which, the Sportrad tyres are running on standard air, no nitrogen and with company (Mahindra Two Wheelers Ltd) specified levels of 25 and 28 PSI respectively. Yes, the tyres have not yet reached the 1,000 kms break in mark yet and still they manage to put up a positive first impression. Is this where a made in India product takes performance to the international competitors? well let’s see. Stay tuned for our short-term impressions when we cross the one thousand kilometres mark.
CEAT SportRad Tyres – Profile
Front – 110/70ZR17 SPORTRAD TL 54W
Rear – 150/60ZR17 SPORTRAD TL 66W
Estimated average life expectancy – 12,000 kms*
(Please bear in mind this is subject to riding style, terrain, tyre pressure and other factors at play)
CEAT SportRad – Acknowledgements
Installation: Gopaljee Car Decor, Handewadi, Pune, Maharashtra 412307
Video Edits: Pavit Chabra
