What, you haven't heard of the Dunlop Sportsmart series of tires? Oh, you must live in the USA, sorry. Don't despair though, I'm sure we'll see them soon (right Dunlop USA?). Now those who know me will agree that I've never had much love for Dunlop tires in general but I have to say I have heard good things about the Roadsmarts and the Q2's. Now Dunlop has a new tire in the range that, like the Roadsmart, is a designed to cross lines of specific applications. Dunlop touts the Roadsmart as tire that sits firmly in the sport touring arena, it also steps over onto the super sport range of performance as well.

The new Sportsmart straddles the line between hypersport and supersport according to Dunlop's information but also provides good wet performance and long tread life.Sounds like quite a combination, the ultimate tire, if you will. That's how Dunlop is marketing the new Sportsmart, as a tire that can go from track day to touring tire and excel at both ends. I'll believe it when I see it but I would at least like to get the chance to test it. At this time I am unable to confirm a date for the Sportsmart's availability in the USA but it should make it here eventually. Michelin's Pilot Pures took a while to reach us after they were available in Europe for time so perhaps Dunlop will follow suit.

Hit the Read More link for the info from Dunlop's European site:

Imagine you’ve just been given the chance to design your own sports tyre. What features would it have? Race-quality grip? Wet-roads predictability? Touring mileage? How about all three features in one tyre? That’s exactly what Dunlop has achieved in its dynamic new SportSmart.

Multi-Tread gives you high mileage and the confidence to push your bike on wet or dry roads, while Dunlop’s unique NTEC system lets you fine-tune the SportSmart’s inflation pressure for totally connected track day performance. For supersport and hypersport riders, the SportSmart is quite simply the tyre you’d design for yourself.

Key benefits

• Tour, road, track: new crossover performance tyre answers every need
• NTEC construction acts as a mechanical grip booster at low infl ation pressure for track day use
• New construction front and rear derived from ultra-successful D211 GP race tyre
• Multi-tread technology front & rear in order to combine high grip and high mileage
• Available in all popular sizes