I have always liked certain characteristics of the Michelin tries and could do without some of them. I’ve always liked the bump compliance and grip when new but I had always felt they lost top-end performance pretty quick and just stayed mediocre for way too long but never got bad enough to make me want to take the tire off. In conclusion I felt they were great practice tires but I wouldn’t want to race with them.
The new Starcross 5, specifically the Medium compound is really impressive. It has even better bump compliance than before almost to the point that I could run stiffer suspension settings and get better traction at the same time without any bad bump feeling coming through the bike. The tire keeps premium grip for way longer than before and now it goes off pretty quickly but much later in the tire’s life, like just when it is time to change it. This in both 18″ and 19″ sizes with some very good and matching characteristics in the front tire too.
I rode the Soft on a soft MX track and was equally impressed. It was better grip and bump compliance with more consistency when getting into hard stuff than the Dunlop MX32 for me. And that is good. Pretty sure these Michelin tires are right up there with the best of them especially if you like a compliant and not a stiff side-walled tire.