Today I was commuting to work on I25 in DTC when a pickup truck put on his blinker and started to merge into my lane. He was ready to sideswipe me doing 65 MPH but then finally looked at me. When I was assured he wasn't going to be running me over I looked ahead again, just in time to see bright brake lights on the truck infront of me. I was about 10 yards away from the truck at this time and grabbed all sorts of front brake.
This caused my tire to lock up and squeal like crazy. I felt the rear of the bike lift off the ground and start to rotate to the right. I thought I was going to highside and be run over.....but finally I slowed down enough to let off the brake and the bike settled down just fine. I however, was not calm. I'd never done a stoppie on purpose before, much less at 65 mph on accident! Luckily my body reacted naturally and shifted weight to the back left of the bike when I felt it going right. I went from 65 to 15 mph in about 10 yards it seemed. I think my rear tire was in the air the whole time.
My question is , I just put on these tires a couple of weeks... Dunlop D220s and this is the 2nd time I've hit the front brake hard on the interstate and heard a squeal from the front tire. This never happened on my Pilot Sports before. Am I just feeling more confident and braking harder? Are these tires not gripping as well and thus squealing? Or was it two uncommon panic situations which caused this and I shouldn't worry about tire quality?