MRF Steel Brace SP-01 first impressions: top-tier performance at real world costs

How often have you gone to buy tyres and either found tyres that cost their weight in gold because of the cost of importing them to the country, or more likely, not got tyres at all. This is a problem that plagues many group chats and forums. Indian manufacturers have taken notice of this dearth of tyres in the mid to premium segment for two-wheelers and have started launching tyres of larger sizes with performance intent but none to the scale that MRF is trying to achieve with its new Steel Brace SP-01 range of tyres.

An update to the Steel Brace tyres, the SP-01 range of tyres promises to take the high performance from the standard one and push it to a new level with new technologies all while remaining affordable to buy and long lasting. The best news of all is that Suzuki, in India, has signed MRF on as its OEM tyre partner. What this means for you and me is that the V-Strom 800 DE (with the Steel Brace AT and AX range), the GSX-8R, the Katana and the mighty Hayabusa will soon come with these MRFs as standard fitment right from the showroom floor. The Steel Brace lineup also sees new additions with the introduction of the Sport Classic, Adventure Tour, Adventure Cross range joining the Sport Pro (SP–01) range of tyres.

To get a feel for what these new SP-01 tyres feel like, we got an invite to MRF’s top-secret test track in Trichy. Trichy is home to one of MRFs and Asia’s largest tyre manufacturing facility. It is also where the country’s largest tyre manufacturer has set up a series of test tracks for the various parameters of tyre validation. We go to try our hand on the new SP-01 tyres at the handling and braking tracks with the mighty ’Busa.

The dynamic handling track is a short one-odd kilometre track that has a series of chicanes, long sweeping corners and tight corners as well. Not exactly the sort of track that you’d want to ride a Hayabusa on. That being said, any opportunity to ride a Haybusa is a golden one. I want to preface my impressions by saying that the Steel Brace SP-01 is not an out and out track tyre, but an all-round performance oriented tire. With that in mind, we headed out to ride and right off the bat, the tyres were quite impressive. They warmed up in no time and attacking corners felt very natural.

Yes the Hayabusa is a hyper tourer, but contrary to popular belief, loves to be chucked around the race track and the tyres certainly complied. The transitions from left to right feel natural and even with the bike cranked all the way to the lip of the tyre, never once did I feel like the tyres were squirming around. Stability was great and the tyres responded kindly to abrupt rider inputs as well. Under heavy braking, from 250-0kmph at the braking track revealed that the tyres perform well even under heavy braking load, not once tripping up the ABS system.

While my initial impressions are solid, this is not the full review. I’m still eager to try the tyres in the real world. Uneven surfaces, change in traction surfaces, wet surfaces and touring. The track proved that the Steel Brace SP-01s can handle the sporty stuff, but now it is time to test the other stuff. That being said, the sheer fact that Suzuki considered MRF as an OE partner for its big bike range including the Hayabusa is really saying something about the quality and the level of engineering that the company has achieved with these tyres.

For the Hayabusa that wears a 120/70-17 front and a 190/50-17 rear tyres, a set of the MRF Steel Brace SP-01s will cost you around ₹38,400 on MRP while the store price will be closer to ₹34,000. This is stellar pricing for what promises to be a fantastic set of tyres, that MRF promises us, will also last a good chunk longer than the current stock tyres. With this, owning and running a big bike in India just became a whole lot easier and I’m all for it.