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New Dunlop front tire surprisingly introduced at New Jersey AMA

Dunlop surprised the AMA Pro American SuperBike class by introducing a new front tire intended to replace the favored 6680 compound without testing or notificationNothing is more critical to a road racer than front end feel. Skittish front ends make skittish riders. Just look at the number of front end spills at last week’s Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix and the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. Riders use the same front tires for years at a time. They’re resistant to change. So when Dunlop decided to introduce a new front tire at New Jersey Motorsports Park, there were groans from the paddock.

The new specification front tire was announced at Friday’s riders meeting. There was some grumbling and some questions, but no debate. This was one of the tires in play for this weekend’s penultimate round of the AMA Pro Road Race series.

Dunlop’s point man Ian Willetts said that the new 6775 front was a bridge between the medium 6680, which is the consensus choice of most riders, and a harder option. There’s also a soft front, 6704, which is rarely a viable race option. The 6775 replaces the medium and the hard, which makes it a compromise and reduces the front choices to two.


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