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Customer Review:
ContiSport Attack
Superbike Sept 05
Tester: Jon Pearson
Bike: Various
"I know as I sit down to write this, I know that you will take some convincing there is a new tyre seriously worth fitting to a modern sports bike, but the times they are a changing, and manufacturers like Continental are finally tapping into the idea that sports bike rider's cash is worth having. The trouble is that we are rightly fussy about our tyres and so are modern bikes. When a GSX-R1000 is dishing out the punishment a tyre has to be good and the ContiSport Attack is up to the task primarily because it makes you feel confident and feels entirely neutral, whatever bike its fitted to. Hopping from test bike to test bike showed the ContiSport Attacks were consistent in feel, the Attacks have an even profile making the transitions from upright to kneedown a neutral one. The pegs were down early on most bikes and the limit on how far to push became my nerves rather than tyre grip.... Considering it was raging sunshine, It seemed like madness when they took us down to the Contidrome wet handling course. The tarmac surface is the same as normal road tarmac but ground away (or polished off might be a better description). That makes it about as slippery as riding on wet metal. It's useful in showing how the tread pattern disperses the water and showing how neutral the tyre behaves when you have to be ultra smooth.When we got out on the road the Attacks were just as good. Continental claim very rapid warm up times, as the tyre was developed last winter in Germany we'll assume cold and wet weather performance was an important consideration. I couldn't ultimately say how the tyre will behave on a bumpy UK B-road but half an hour on a ZX-10R behaving like a scalded cat showed the Kawasaki's maniac front end behaviour wasn't quite as lively as it is on OE rubber. The Sport Attack falls impressively in line with the SuperBike tyre test winning Pilot Power. For my money it could well pip the slightly out-dated but popular 020 or Diablo. The fact is I did hundreds of miles on these tyres, on different types of roads, a dry test track, a wet test track and even a 45 degree banked oval and they stood up to it all better than a road tyre has any right to do. If a Suzuki GSX-R1000 can�t beat a rear tyre into oblivion or a Yamaha R6 can't demolish a front after all that then we all need to re-think our views on this German brand"
ContiSport Attack
Two Wheels Only Sept 05
Tester: Simon "Jim" Bowen
Bike: Various
"Having already added the capable ContiRoad Attack all season sport/touring tyre to the range, the German manufactuer is out to prove it can mix it with the more glamorous names in rubber. With Continental hosting the ContiSport Attack launch at their own Contidrom test facility, I wanted to get a good indication of the performance potential before trying them at home in familiar surroundings. First stop was the twisty track, flat and not too demanding on the chassis, but with excellent high side potential, I opted for the feisty ZX-10R and brutal GSX-R1000 as either would prise a bogus tyre from the asphalt within a split second, with potentially hilarious consequences. Neither managed it. More impressively the ContiSport Attacks were extremely stable under severe acceleration and braking. OK, I'm officially impressed now!
ContiSport Attack
Motorcycle Sport and Leisure Sept 05
Tester: Simon Swan
Bike: Various
Designed and manufactured entirely in Europe, the ContiSport Attack is aimed squarely at the performance end of the two wheeled market. This is a beefy and potentially extremely lucrative market, but only if you get things right. Given the competition which is tougher in this sector than any other, its fair to say that continental had its work cut out in producing a hoop with the kudos to prise cuctomers away from the established big guns. Four 20 min sessions around the fast handling circuit, each time on a different machine, were enough to confirm that Continental has done its homework. Given that I was riding much harder on the closed circuit than I would ever attempt on the road, the rubber was excellent. Under aggressive braking the feedback from the front tyre was good and at full lean the side grip was impressive. Under hard acceleration the rear played ball, redusing to yeild to the 150 odd horsepower trying oh,so hard to make it spin. Lap after lap the Conti's instilled more confidence which was reflected in my riding. This was all on dry tarmac of course, but part of real-world performance is the wet stuff so we switched our collective attention to the wet handling circuit. I was in a sulk because I'm not fond of the wet and this course certainly promised plenty of that, hosepipes run parallel to the slippery tarmac (polished) and continuously shower it with water. I needn't have worried, Conti isn't fibbing when it claims "excellent wet grip" for the ContiSport Attack. The tyres were far better than I imagined, allowing a good degree of surefootedness.It was time to head out on to the road which turned out to be a 350+ mile road trip , split I'm happy to say by an overnight stop. Most of those miles were spent on the autobahn, giving us a chance to check out the high speed stability on the road, and once again the ContiSport Attacks were difficult to fault. Back at the Contidrom, I had a good look at the tyres, they'd been subjected to two days of hard riding-fast handling track, the Contidrom, the wet handling circuit and the autobahn. The tyres still loooked reasonably fresh. I expected to see obvious wear signs, frayed edges and even some squaring off, especially ont the tyres fitted to the litre bikes, which have a relentless thirst for rubber. The Conti's proved more than a match for those absurdly powerful machines and looked good for another few thousand miles. Continental have succeded in producing exactly what it set out to do; produce a sports tyre that is a match for anything out there, if not better, in a package that looks as good as it performs.
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