he Avon Vipers were officially launched a few months ago at the Catalunya Circuit outside Barcelona, Spain. Testers got to see just what Avon has here, really putting those new Viper Sport and Supersport tires through their paces. Catalunya is a tough mix of tight and high-speed corners. This place pulls no punches. If a sportbike tire can make it here, impressing even jaded magazine testers, it can make it anywhere. And the testers getting their first feel of the Avon Viper Sport and Supersport were impressed. Here's what they had to say:

     Adam Child from MCN: "The Sport Vipers are more than enough for the track, and the Supersport compound is almost faultless. They just refused to slide."

     Superbike's Jonathan Pearson: "Carry too much corner speed and crank the bike over with more than the usual amount of force and nothing bad happens. Just continuous, predictable, even grip."

    Paul Swift of Bike Magazine: "The tires worked really well at high speed - very stable. Despite the full force of a 1000cc machines to play with I never had a single "moment" out there."

     Avon wasn't surprised. The Viper Sport and Supersport were two years in the making. These tires weren't released until everything was right. The Vipers, obviously, are aimed at perhaps the toughest-to-please market in the industry, performance riders demanding nothing short of the best. Avon is pretty sure it has that for them here, and those magazine testers at Catalunya bear that out.
     Applications? The Viper Sport is an ultra high-performance street tire that's equally at home in the no-compromise world of the track. The Viper Supersport reverses those roles. The Supersport is a confidence-inspiring track tire that can also handle serious road riding. Avon began with a clean sheet, taking a long, hard look at what was good, and perhaps lacking, in the existing lineup of high-performance tires. The Vipers, they feel, lack nothing.
     The Vipers features a brand-new profile. It's called Advanced Tread Arc Combination (ATAC). This tire profile actually varies across the tread surface to provide the ultimate contact patch for confidence-inspiring feel, handling and stability whatever the lean angle. With ATAC the transitions from tucked-in and straight-up to cranked-over and knee-dragging are much smoother. The ATAC profile also increases stability under heavy braking.
     And the Vipers have Avon's Enhanced Stability System (ES-System). The carcass, sidewalls and tread all work together to reduce localized flexing. The Viper tread compounds are new. It's a "High Dispersability" silica formulation that mixes the silica evenly throughout, letting the tires warm up faster and work better in the wet. And the Viper tread patterns, both Sport and Supersport, were designed for maximum grip. Avon has even incorporated its Enhanced Aqua Flow (EAF) design to clear away the water for wet-weather performance. The Vipers also have Avon's Advanced Variable Belt Density (A-VBD) feature to further broaden the footprint under loaded, leaned-over conditions. Like they say, these sport tires lack nothing.
     The Viper Sport and Viper Supersport share core technologies, profiles and tread patterns, differing only in the compounding. The Supersports have Avon's softer Race-C Compound, developed on some of the fastest circuits worldwide. That track-developed Supersport grip can return some reasonable life on the street, too.
     Sportbike riders are a tough crowd to please, especially when it comes to their tires. The Avon Vipers, Sport and Supersport, should satisfy them nicely. First offered in Europe, testers there couldn't find a thing to fault. U.S. riders won't be complaining, either. The Vipers are now available through Parts Unlimited in sizes to suit all the familiar sportbike suspects, and Avon's exclusive Road Hazard Warranty applies here, too. They'll replace any tire that's punctured or damaged during the first 1mm of tread use. Contact your Parts Unlimited rep today to find out more about the Vipers - Avon's ultimate Sport and Supersport tires.