Avon AV56 Storm ST 2 Ultra review

The AV56 came to me because a bloke not too far away was selling it on gumtree for £50. I was helpless. Thankfully the venerable CB250 makes light work of carrying tyres because it's designed for the real world!

Initial inspection showed it had been fitted and run because there were a couple of deep gouges in it despite the seller proclaiming it to be new (although it did look new otherwise), and also that this tyre is of a very pliable construction - I felt I could almost turn it inside out with my bear bare hands! My experience suggests this is a good thing.

Only a year and a bit later it was fitted to the TRX..

And, filled to 36 PSI despite seeming so pliable, it was immediately pressed into service for a trip to Germany where it proved to be very good in the dry. Really very good. To the point where chicken strips felt like they just weren't a thing.

What definitely was a thing was tyre wear - the Germany trips average around 200 miles a day and every damn day the tyre showed visible signs of being a bit more worn down. It did however give an incredibly secure feeling through the bends, the bike cornering as if on rails - fantastic. Most days were very hot (over 30c) which probably didn't help tyre life but we did also unfortunately have one wet day which showed the Avon to offer a similar level of wet weather grip to the Maxxis M6029 on the front which, although serviceable, was disappointing - especially because the Storm range from Avon are marketed as being good in the wet.

At a mere 3840 miles most of the tyre was gone:

And at 3937 miles I had to get it changed because it was Germany time again and this thing had about 500 miles left in it (maybe!):

Unbelievable, the same lifespan as the Nankang Roadiac but from a much more premium manufacturer. I find this confusing because many reviews speak of long life from this tyre except for one bloke who reported only getting 4000 miles - sounds familiar!

So.. Lovely grip, great ride quality/comfort, great stability (no weaves or wobbles), bit skittish in the wet and short lived. At the time of writing I can only find these for sale at a few places, the AV56 having been superseded at least a couple of times, but if you do find some old stock floating about then basically I hope it's cheap because otherwise there's no real point in buying it. I did like it while it lasted though.