Introduction
Reise is a tyre manufacturer that entered the burgeoning and highly competitive Indian tyre market a couple of years ago. In this short time, we’ve experienced a few of their dual-purpose tyres and were pretty impressed. Cut to a few days ago, and I had to chance to test their new TraceRad radial tyres. These are high performance tyres and Reise says they are built to offer straight line stability and edge grip while leaning into a corner.
Well, to test this, we could not have been in a better place than the new CoASTT, high performance track in Coimbatore. This is a fast, flowing circuit and to add another layer to the challenge, this was the first time that I was going to ride on this particular racetrack. Talk about having full trust in the tyres, eh? But, before we proceed, let us understand what this tyre is all about.
Construction
The Reise TraceRad is a zero-degree, steel-belted radial. To put it simply, the carcass of the tyre is wrapped in steel belts that are laid out in a position that is at zero degrees to the direction of the tyre’s rotation. This ensures that there's ample traction, say while accelerating out of corners.
The tyre has spark-shaped grooves as well as sipes that are deep and meant to evacuate water while riding on a wet road as well as provide ample grip. Lastly, these are W rated tyres which means they have a much higher speed rating than the top speed of the bikes that it will go on. This explains why we had a fleet of race-prepped KTM RC 390s shod with the new TraceRad tyres at our disposal at the CoASTT.
The experience
The plan was to go out on the racetrack in two, 15-minute sessions. The first time around, we were taken in a convoy for the first two to three laps. This was done to familiarise ourselves with the track and get a feeling for the tyres as well.
By the fourth lap, I had enough confidence to push harder and I’ve to say the tyres did play their part in inspiring me to. The sense of grip and stability that the tyres offered is what helped the most. Whether it was riding at high speeds in a straight line or while leaning into a corner, the tyres simply ensured the bike stuck to an intended line.
Another factor that highlighted the grip levels offered by the tyre was when I could open the throttle hard at corner exits without getting the rear wheel to spin. Mind you, I was riding a race-spec KTM RC 390 which doesn’t have traction control or ABS.
By the end of the first session, I’d had enough confidence in the tyres but the second session is what I was looking forward to because that’s when we could drop the tyre pressures from road use to track use settings.
With the tyre pressures lowered, there was a higher sense of grip from the tyres. Since it was past noon, the track was also toasty and boy did I have a whale of a time. There were several corners where it felt natural to brake late and turn into.
Speaking of, the profile of the tyre is such that the bike doesn’t turn in aggressively, say like the Eurogrip ProTorq Extremes. Reise has chosen a neutral profile considering the everyday usage that these will be subjected to, where riders will not be pushing as hard as we were on the race track.
The edge grip while leaned over is also quite solid. As I’d mentioned, CoASTT is a fast circuit and there are some long and sweeping corners. At one of those corners, I was leaned over, hitting the rev limiter in fourth on an RC 390. The next time I attacked the same corner in fifth gear and at a higher speed. The tyres coped with the added demand with ease.
Track verdict
The biggest takeaway I had after spending half an hour on a racetrack with the Reise TracRad tyres is that they’ve got the fundamentals right. These tyres perform as advertised and instil enough confidence for riders of different skill levels to have a good time on the track. We would have liked to spend more time with these tyres, perhaps a full day. But, even in the short time we had, the TraceRad tyres were promising and we can’t wait to test them on the road.
Sizes and prices
Reise is offering the TraceRad in two sizes-110/70ZR17 and 150/60ZR17. The former is priced at Rs 5,199 whereas the latter will set you back by 6,199.
They can be fitted on bikes like the KTM 390 Duke, KTM RC 390, Suzuki Gixxer 250, TVS Apache RR 310, Aprilia RS457 and more. As for the warranty, Reise is providing six years of standard warranty.
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