Not wanting to start a tire thread but just saying... as for riding in the rain, tires can really make a difference. My Trophy came to me with Metzler Sportec M3s front and rear and they stay glued to the road in rain. I rode my bike home from the far away dealership in torrential downpours... the kind that makes the backdrop a solid wall of blue-gray wetness. The kind of rain that floods the road and causes huge wet-outs with oncoming traffic. The kind of rain that made me the ONLY bike on the road. I was in this stuff for 5 hours. The whole time I cruised at 70 MPH through mountain passes and the bike stayed planted to the road the whole time.
So yeah, tires make a HUGE difference. Mind you, sticky tires don't last too long... but the rider tends to outlive the tires over and over again. If rain is a considerable part of your riding experience, consider a sticky tire such as the Metzler Sportec M3. One critic said this of the M3s...
"The M-3's compound is called "DuraSil", and contains a lot more silica than the compound of its predecessor. The silica works to enhance wet weather performance in the Sportec M3."
