Team-BHP - Michelin enters scooter tyre market in India

Michelin has marked its entry into the Indian scooter tyre market. The brand has entered the segment by launching the Michelin City Pro tyre range for scooters and motorcycles displacing up to 150cc.

Michelin has entered the segment, in light of the growing popularity of scooters and low-displacement commuter motorcycles. The City Pro tyres have a speed rating of up to 150 km/h and can be used for scooters and motorcycles such as the Hero Pleasure, Hero Maestro, Honda Activa, Suzuki Swish, Bajaj Pulsar 135 LS / 150, Bajaj Discover, TVS Star City and Suzuki Hayate (among many others).

Michelin City Pro tyres are available nation-wide at Michelin premium dealerships - Michelin priority partners, the Tyre Plus network and Michelin retailers.

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Can a scooter owner please shed some light on the pricing strategy?

Michelins are usually priced on the premium side. Having used many of their tyres, they are my favourite brand (along with Yokohama).

However, I'm not sure if that strategy will work in the price-sensitive scooter segment?

Seems like my wish to get Michelin tyres on scooters was fulfilled! MRF & Ceat Scooter Tyres cost between Rs 1200-1500 and last for 10000-15000 kms. I hope that the pricing would be sensible and not too high because nobody would spend much on a scooter tyre since it won't do high speeds and running would be mostly restricted in the city.

Will wait for reviews and definitely fit Michelin scooter tyres in my Hero Maestro.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3896666)

Can a scooter owner please shed some light on the pricing strategy?

However, I'm not sure if that strategy will work in the price-sensitive scooter segment?

The scooter tyres are priced at 1100+ taxes ( from a quick Google search). MRF and ceat are priced around 900-1500. If the Michelin's offer superior grip, I'm sure many scooterist will pick them up.

The one thing that I'm always scared of while riding is a patch of water/ or a similarly slick surface. The CVT will quickly cause a wheel spin in such a case if given some throttle. Also, it's quite easy to fishtail under hard braking. So premium tyres will definitely sell.

Also the 125cc scooters are not that cheaper that their commuter bike counterparts. In some cases they have quite a premium. So I feel that these owners might give Michelin a try. I'm definitely buying these to replace the MRFs on my Vespa.

The Michelin should price them slightly higher than others, but not too high. A premium of 10-25% over the current options seems reasonable.

Any reviews of the Michelin tyres for the scooter as I am in the market for replacing the tyres of my Activa which have aged more than 5 yrs and are showing signs of losing grip. Are the rates still Rs 1100 as mentioned in the above posts? Any ownership review would be really helpful.

I would advise people to wait for real world reviews of these tyres before they purchase them, especially if they are looking for superior dry and wet grip compared to others. The reason being, the Michelin 2 wheeler tyres manufactured in India are kind of customized to Indian conditions by making them hard compound leading to long life which most people want,thereby compromising on grip ,especially in wet!

I am speaking this out of experience wherein i purchased a Made In India 'Pilot Sporty' since i earlier had an awesome experience with Made in Thailand 'Pilot Sporty' for my Pulsar. I realized within a few thousand kms and couple of rides in the rain that these were no where close to the grip that was offered by the Made in Thailand versions. They were especially pathetic in wet where the Thailand ones were really good!

So until then, i would suggest the MRF zappers that are tried and tested and offer better grip compared to the competition.

I was searching for tubeless tyres in 18" & found these. Michelin had tubeless only in 17" (Pilot street radial), with these City Pro they have tubeless in 18" as well now. Will post feedback about these in motorcycle tyre thread after 1000Kms.

80/100-18 (Front)

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100/90-18 (Rear)

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The ceat tyres on my wife's Swish had to be replaced, they had done around 19K. I wanted to go tubeless, found out that Michelin had launched scooter tyres in India, a quick visit to a nearby shop, the guy had the stock. Changed the tyres, it has been close to 2 months I don't exactly recall how much I paid:Frustrati. The following are +ves and -ves.

Positives

Superb ride quality comapred to the stock Ceat tyres.
Braking has improved massively, over the ceats.
The scooter leans nicely into corners no nervousness

Negatives

None.

Once the tyres are changed it needs some getting used to, the handle turning feels very different, the hands just need to get used to the feel of the Michelins. Corner carvers will love these tyres clap:

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbp (Post 4105280)

Superb ride quality comapred to the stock Ceat tyres.
Braking has improved massively, over the ceats.
The scooter leans nicely into corners no nervousness

Raghu, I believe we paid 1,600 for the tyre and 100 bucks as labour for replacing the tyre. My friend too is super happy with the tyres and says it feels way better than MFRs that was there on the Dio.

I changed tyres of my Activa 125 deluxe (with disk brake and alloy wheels) today in Bangalore. It's at 13k ODO. Stock MRF were at the edge and started slipping occasionally.

As I use my Activa a lot, decided to change tyres. I went with Michelin. At shop, got to know that Michelin has launched Pilot Street 2 for Activa recently.
Pilot street 2 was only available for rear, front was not in stock. So I went with tubeless Pilot street 2 in rear (90/100) and tubeless City Pro in front (90/90-12).

1st impression is really good. I immediately felt more confidence in cornering and braking.
But noticed some newly found vibration during acceleration first time. Will get it checked.

Attaching some pics.

Will add some more pics of Street Pilot 2 tread pattern.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicky (Post 4896350)

As I use my Activa a lot, decided to change tyres. I went with Michelin. At shop, got to know that Michelin has launched Pilot Street 2 for Activa recently.
But noticed some newly found vibration during acceleration first time. Will get it checked.

Looks good, did you check the rotation of the tyre? The vibration mostly happens if the tyre has been improperly mounted. Check the arrow mark on the tyre, it must face the forward direction.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rakesh_r (Post 4896359)

Looks good, did you check the rotation of the tyre? The vibration mostly happens if the tyre has been improperly mounted. Check the arrow mark on the tyre, it must face the forward direction.

Tyre is mounted right. I guess it's because of front wheel issue. After changing tyre, front wheel disk brake was not rotating freely. 60% of rotation was hard like disk brake is rubbing. I showed this to the mechanic but he said, it's normal and will be ok in 5-10 kms, but it's still rubbing. I showed it to nearby mechanic and he said probably air is trapped. He opened a bolt on brake and released some air. Some 1-2 drops of oil also came out along with air. But it's still same issue. Showed it to one more mechanic who said it's normal and nothing to worry.
I will go to same guy again who changed tyres and get it rectified. It was slnp pit stop tyre shop Yelahanka.
Front city pro cost 1450 w/o gst
Rear street pilot 2 cost 1500 w/o gst
Some more pics: