he Avon Vipers are all about fast business. Top-of-the-line tires, these are the ones to show to those toughest-to-please customers in the shop, the ultimate performance riders demanding the best. The Avon Sport Vipers and Supersport Vipers were introduced late last year, and in a just a few short months they’ve made their mark. There’s a lot of tire here.      The Viper Sports are ultra high-performance street tires that can go right to the track, and the Viper Supersports are some no-fooling track tires that can take on serious road riding. Now there’s one more, the Viper Xtreme. A super-serious track tire with a specially formulated racing compound, the Viper Xtreme just happens to carry a D.O.T. rating.
     All this started with a clean sheet of paper. When Avon designed the Vipers the goal was ultra-high performance radials for the quickest and fastest sportbikes on the market. Super-performance tires for super-performance bikes. The Vipers lack nothing. They all feature a brand-new profile which Avon calls the Advanced Tread Arc Combination (ATAC). The profile actually varies across the tread surface to maximize the contact patch at all lean angles. The ATAC profile significantly increases stability under heavy braking, too, and the Vipers have Avon’s Enhanced Stability System (ES-System). With this design the tire carcass, sidewalls and tread all work together to reduce localized flexing and improve high-speed stability.
     And naturally the Viper tread compounds are new. It’s Avon’s “High Dispersibility” Silica formulation, mixing the Silica evenly throughout to let the tires warm up faster and work much better in the wet. The Viper Supersport uses Avon’s “Race-C” compound. This softer compound was developed with plenty of input from pro racers testing on tracks worldwide. Avon took that information and triple-distilled it to develop the optimum tire compound for super-fast road riding and track-day use. The soft-compound/high-traction Supersports deliver some reasonable mileage, too.
     Then there are the Viper tread patterns, also new. They’re designed for maximum grip and incorporate Avon’s Enhanced Aqua Flow (EAF) design to clear away the water in wet conditions. The Vipers also have Avon’s Advanced Variable Belt Density (A-VBD) feature to further broaden the footprint when loaded and leaned over. A-VBD is a jointless belt of ultra-strong Aramid fibers running around the tire’s circumference; at the center of the tread the fibers are closely wound for maximum stability and wear resistance, the closer to the edge of the tread the further apart the fibers are positioned. All this broadens the Viper’s footprint under cornering loads. Like we said, these super-sport tires lack nothing.
     The just-released Viper Xtreme takes all this one step further. The Viper Pro-Xtreme is the tire to have under you when you’re leaving pit lane. Bottom line: this is a race tire that just happens to be street legal. Its rubber compound is specially formulated for an extreme grip with a real sense of control in all conditions. There’s a special front-tread pattern to enhance the bike’s steering response, too. And speaking of that tread, there’s not much of it. The Viper Xtreme is a track tire, one small step removed from a full-on racing slick.
     The Avon Vipers were first offered in Europe where riders, racers and testers couldn’t find a thing to complain about. It’s the same story here. The Vipers, all of them in all the sizes to fit all the popular sportbikes, are available right now and they’re available through Parts Unlimited. Call your rep for more information.