My 880's feel hard to me. There are several high traffic concrete roads that I can do power slides on (fun , yes), but I have little confidence of them on blind/wet roads. I'm a fan of Michelin (Pilots, specifically), but then were right back to where we started on this thread (not available in our sizes). Of what is available, the Avons seem to be the stickiest.
In reality, we ride a fairly low HP cruiser. Other bikes in our class are underpowered as well but they don't handle like ours seees to, either. The tire mfg's don't expect that we have the skills or the desire to push these bikes past anything that scrapes, so your basic cruiser tire is all that is offered. If you want some real stickum, you need to move to a different wheel diameter and get ready for 3500 miles from a tire. Like I said- I'm a BIG fan of Michelin Pilots. When I rode sportbikes (up to last year) I used to get 3200-3500 miles from a rear before the threads poked through ($240 2 x year + plus 1 front at $160).
I'll get 10k from the 880 on my SM at the rate I'm going. My SM will never handle like a sport bike, and I don't ride as such. It does, however, scrape pegs and kick stands when asked to... on the stock 880's.
