Trying something new

My first bike had some kind of horrible OEM tire. I don't even recall what it was. My second bike came with Qualifiers which I wore out, replaced with more Qualifiers (yay takeoffs!), wore out, then replaced with BT-003s (yay takeoffs!), wore out then replaced with Q2s, more Q2s, and even more Q2s.

My third bike came with Pilot Powers which might have been the originals, or the second set on the bike. I wore them out and replaced them with (drumroll) you guessed it, Q2s.

The BT-003s were nice and sticky if you could keep them warm, which was doable on the track but a little harder at my pace on the street.
The Pilot Powers were kind of old, so I can't fairly say much. They warmed up quick and had a nice even turn in though.
The Qualifiers, I was pretty new to the 600cc class when I ran them but they were good. No complaints.
The Q2s. Oh boy. I've basically ran Q2s most of my mileage since 2011. They're nice and sticky, warm up quick and have endless traction at my skill level. My complaint of them is poor wet road performance. I also complain slightly about the drastic tip in, but thats mostly because of my survival reactions. They are designed to tip in quickly for a reason.

After my Norcal trip my Q2s were running pretty bald in the center of the rear. The front looked like it had some minor damage and was close to the wear bars.

Being that its January and lots of wet weather lies before me I wanted to try out a road tire that advertised good wet road/dirty road capability. There are plenty of sport touring options, but I also wanted something that I'd probably wear out before June so I could replace it with Q3s or something for the track and twisties.

Opinions on tires on forums are almost completely worthless because its such a subjective topic and few riders have the experience to know the subtle differences. Publications don't do head to head tire comparisons in shitty real world conditions, that might be hazardous to their bikes and editors. Riding through a wet patch in a paddock in SoCal is different than riding a highway that got rained on and has some gravel/sand here and there. For that matter someday I want to try out some Shinko tires just because they're so much maligned by people online that have probably never ever tried them, but thats another story.

Canyon Chasers(http://canyonchasers.net/reviews/tires/dunlop/d616vSync.php) and Pursuit Horizon(http://pursuithorizon.com/2013/05/14/dunlop-d616-amandas-tire-review/) tested the D616 in shitty real world conditions. Pursuit Horizon even tested them on a CBR600RR like mine. Both reviews had good things to say although CC said it tended to be a tad squirrely at time. Freestyle rider Jason Britton uses them as well.

I reviewed some other options and decided to give the D616 a shot, because lacking anything other than online reviews I have to start somewhere in my own decision making process.

I got my tires mounted and wheels back on the bike as it was getting dark so I've only gotten about 30 miles on them so far, in the dry. Not enough for a review yet.