Rhino, I for one am taking this thread very seriously, and if you Blu or Stan are un happy enough to fit a different pair of tyres, then I will personally send in a courier at my expense to pick up your old tyres. I would like to test them myself on a standard Blackbird in the wet. Then I will send them to Avon for compound analysis.
This will not be an "I told you so exercise", if there is a problem we need to find it. I have already contacted Avon and will keep you abreast of any developments.
Just a note to answer some of your questions above:
Once again the compound is not hard normally, this can be tested by something as simple as the old thumb nail test.
The reason for this tyres ability to put up with heavy duty touring without losing it's shape is down to two things: As tyres go these are fairly revolutionary. The variable belt density cords help the tyre maintain a larger contact patch with the road, this helps the tyre run cooler and spreads the load over a wider area the other thing is the actual tread pattern, they don't look like a tractor tyre for nothing. To obtain the angle of tread for best grip and longevity was done over months of testing, by cutting fan shapes in the sides of slick tyres and monitoring the wear rate of all the different tread angles until the ultimate one was found.
