You will never see a better lean angle than 90 degrees as there is no better lean angle for optimal cornering. Anything past 90 degrees means you are going so fast and at such a trajectory that you need to assist gravity which is always pulling you straight down. You can look at roller coaster designs or the circus act where they ride dirt bikes around the inside of a steel sphere for examples. The only time you need to angle past 90 degrees is when momentum would launch you into the sky without assisting gravity.
The physics of it is actually pretty simple when you think about it. The only reason you lean at all on a motorcycle is to counter centripetal force. Centripetal force always pulls straight towards the outside of the corner, and increases with the speed you take a corner or the angle of the corner (sharper turns mean overcoming stronger centripetal force). Knowing that the centripetal force is always pulling directly out from the corner, the optimal angle for overcoming that force is 90 degrees as measured from the horizon. When you hit 90 degrees, the centripetal force is directed straight down, pushing you into the seat of your bike, and meaning the friction required of the tire to hold you in that position is minimized (sort of like when you ride straight up and down in a straight line). Anything less than 90 degrees, and you are balancing gravity vs. the centripetal force generated by the turn. Since we cannot turn off gravity, nor do we travel fast enough or normally have a surface conducive to 90 degree lean angles, we almost always lean somewhere in the neighborhood of zero (straight line) to 50 degrees or so (as measured off the surface of the road). I believe the best sport bike tires can handle lean angles of about 50 degrees.
If you want to see an example of a near 90 degree lean angle (again, as measured from the horizon and not the surface of the road) just go to the Daytona 200 during Bike Week. The banked corners at the track allow for bikes to lean at almost 90 degrees.
As for the Pilot Road 2's, I have been running them since they first came out and have never had a problem. Still sticky enough to power wheelie, even on the hard center rubber, and never had a problem leaning it over to roll through the center of a corner either. I have heard that the outside edge rubber is the same as the Pilot Power, while the center is a harder rubber than the Pilot Power. This gives you, well, me anyway, exceptional tire life without sacrificing the cornering ability. It's a no brainer for me and I intend to keep putting on Pilot Road 2's.
Now that is not to say there are not people on these boards that may not be satisfied with the Pilot Road 2. If you push through corners on a regular basis, including gassing it on exit, then you may want the Pilot Power 2ct just to be safe. If you know how to ride and just want to roll through the center of the corner without aggressive braking on corner entry and aggressive throttle on exit, you can drag your knee with the Pilot Road 2's.
Last edited by dkutin; Dec 28, 2009 at 06:47 AM.