MRF has been India’s biggest tyre manufacturer for nearly 40 years now, and they make tyres for pretty much everything, including Sukhoi and MiG fighter jets! It is a bit of a surprise then, that the company has taken a while to enter the big-bike tyre market. But MRF has finally done so, and it has a range of products planned over the next year or two.
The first of these is the Steel Brace SP 01, and it arrives on the scene with a massive seal of approval. These tyres have been tested and officially approved by Suzuki for use on the Katana, GSX-8R and Hayabusa. That last one is the most impressive, considering it’s a near-200-horsepower hyperbike, and that’s the motorcycle we got to experience the tyres on.
The first taste was on a long stretch of straight tarmac at the company’s sprawling new proving ground facility in Trichy. The Busa proved to be as rock-solid as I remember from previous encounters, even with the speedo needle nudging 270kph. Hard braking stability was just fine as well, and with that much-needed dose of confidence in the bag, we moved to the handling track.
This facility was built with much smaller and slower vehicles in mind, and the handling track was quite narrow and slow for a beast like this. But it still provided plenty of opportunities to lean the Busa all the way over, and the tyres never made a wrong move. In my early laps, spent learning the layout, I discovered that there were a couple of bumps in the surface right where the bike needs to flip from a knee-down angle right- hander to an equally fun left.
This discovery was accompanied by some messy throttle inputs and the 266 kilo Busa getting quite bouncy on its soft stock suspension settings, but even then, the tyres never squirmed or skipped. From my limited experience so far, the MRF Steel Brace SP 01 is more than up to handling the heavy demands of one of the fastest bikes on the planet, but there are a few caveats to consider.
First, this was on a high-grip surface in hot weather conditions. There is still much to evaluate in terms of how quickly it warms up in the cold, how it handles wet and mixed grip conditions, how fast it ages, and how consistent its drop in grip will be as it ages.
We’re given to understand that these tyres should last around 10-15 percent longer than the OE Bridgestone S23s that come on the Busa. Interestingly, they come in a single compound construction, unlike many rivals that have a hardwearing centre and a softer, more grippy compound on the sides. Weight has generally been a concern with premium Indian tyres, but these ones do quite well – just 300gm heavier at the front and 200gm at the rear compared with the Bridgestones.
The tyres are currently available in one size for the front and four for the rear, with MRF saying more options will be added soon, including a 200-section rear tyre. The company will also launch ADV-specific big-bike tyres in due course as well. A set of Busa tyres is priced at around Rs 34,000 and will be available via select MRF dealerships in 15 big cities. Customers can also register their interest via MRF’s website, and the order will be shipped by the closest official dealer.
That price does put them higher than other Indian options from Vredestein and Eurogrip, but these are also being positioned as more performance-oriented tyres. However, imported tyres can also be found for about Rs 10,000 more, and that will be a challenge for MRF, as this group of customers is more brand-conscious than most. On the other hand, availability is a regular problem with imported tyres, and they are often older stock. MRF is offering you what seems to be a good performer at a more reasonable price and with easy availability, which is a good thing for the segment in general.