Dunlop has unveiled its fifth hypersport tyre for motorbike riders in just two years with the launch of its SportSmart Mk3 which it promises will ‘tear up the rule book’ with its performance in both wet and dry conditions.

Sitting alongside the recently launched SportSmart TT which is designed for a mix of road and track use, the SportSmart Mk3 has an all-new Multi-Tread (MT) compound with a trio of compounds in the rear tyre developed to give riders extra confidence in more challenging conditions. This contributes towards a 20% gain in wet grip against the SportSmart2 Max in 120/70ZR17 front and 190/55ZR17 rear size and has similar gains in the dry.

The MT technology has a hard wearing central tread compound for strong traction and this also runs underneath the softer shoulder to help stiffen the construction. The shoulder compound features Dunlop’s all-new wet grip resin, blended with the latest ‘Hi Silica’ and ‘Fine Carbon’ technologies for a fast warm-up time allowing riders to get a good feel for the tyres, even in colder weather.

Compared to Dunlop’s existing road-orientated hypersport tyre, the SportSmart2 Max, the cross-section of the tyre has a profile that increases the footprint when cornering, but also provides a more consistent contact patch as the tyre wears.

Luca Davide Andreoni, Dunlop Motorcycle Europe Marketing Manager, said: “I’m proud of what the Dunlop development team has achieved with SportSmart Mk3. We asked them to tear up the rule book by creating a hypersport tyre that performs at a very high level in the wet and dry. They’ve done it, and as a result we now offer a tyre for every type of hypersport rider ranging from everyday road riders to Isle of Man TT winners.”

The SportSmart Mk3 sits in the Dunlop hypersport range alongside SportSmart TT (50/50 road/track use), D212 GP Racer (Track Day focused) and GP Pro D213 (the ultimate race tyre for championships that mandate road-legal tyres). The existing SportSmart2 Max will be repositioned as a mid-level hypersport tyre.