Conti-nual Greatnes

Sports-touring, or the art of going somewhere very far away at a fairly rapid pace, is becoming increasingly popular. So popular in fact that most major tyre manufacturers are investing mega bucks into the development of suitably spectacular rubber; offering high mileage and high grip virtues. That's the nature of Continental's new ContiRoadAttack 3s, which I got chance to nail around some of Mallorca's finest roads.

- Carl 'Pretty Boy' Steven

Old vs new

Flying straight to the launch from thrashing around Cartagena on-board a GSX-R750 with cut slicks, it’s fair to say I wasn’t expecting much at all in terms of feel from a tyre made for longevity and wet weather riding. But it turns out I was in for a pleasant surprise, because Conti have put a shed load of work into developing the latest incarnation of their popular RoadAttack rubber.

The third gen tyre’s been bettered all round, with an optimised tread design for improved grip in the wet, while handling has been enhanced through Continental’s own EasyHandling technology. This works alongside the multi-compound tech to make the edges nice and soft, while the middle is still hard enough to cope with as many miles as you can throw at them.

Even the stability’s been taken care of with the new ZeroDegree belt system, which is designed to offer dependable support at all speeds. Compared to its predecessor, the warm-up time and handling efficiency have increased by 5%, mileage has risen by 10%, and wet grip is up a massive 15%.

Getting to grips