Tires

[maleko]

I want to throw some new tires on my bike and I'm stumped as far as what to get. I was thinking Michelin Pilots or Pirelli Diablos. I want something that will allow me to corner well but last long, I'm no racer so I'd rather have a good all around tire then a one cycle wonder. My bike has pilots on it now but they are towards the end of their life.
Suggestions?

[Grampa Joe Joe]

I tried both, Michelin and Pirelli. I currently use Pirelli and will continue to do so for the remainder of this year. Either tire are good choices. The way the tire companies are competing there are few bad choices, besides the ContiRoadAttack.....THEY SUCK BIG Dog D*$&'s. As far as getting life out of one, my rear has about 500 miles on it and now I need another one. That's why they are called consumables in the Sportbike world. Have fun..

[Xusia]

For your stated purposes, I highly recommend the Pirelli Diablo (that is, the plain Diablo and NOT the Corsa, or the Diablo Corsa III - just Diablo). I regularly had enough grip to get knees down, but still got about 4000 miles out of a rear, and 6000 out of a front. Given your bike, you should get a bit more.

If you are hoping for 10,000 miles or something like that, I'd abandon that notion and pronto. Any tire that would give you more than 3000-5000 (on a rear) miles is very unlikely to have the grip you want. As someone who crashed last year because of a tire with poor grip, I can attest this is NOT an area in which you want to save money.

Buy decent tires. It can save your life, and I kid you not. They are EVERY BIT as important as brakes.

[maleko]

Xusia, so you do reccomend the Corsa III, or just the Diablo? I'm looking for a 4,000 mile tire or so. I do like to corner fast, probably not as fast as you folks, but I do want a good tire.

[Xusia]

The Corsa III is great, but you are unlikely to get 4000 miles from it (but you MIGHT). If it were me, that's the tire I would buy and just lump the reduced mileage. I recommended the plain Diablo because you said you wanted more mileage out of a tire. The plain Diablo has really good grip, just not as good as the Corsa III, however, if you aren't dragging knees the plain Diablo should be fine.

[MTS620]

I agree with Xusia. The regular Diablo's are good tires and are a great choice for all but the most agressive street riding. I used them on a previous bike and I plan to put them on the Monster when finish removing the tread from the current tires. In contrast, I put Pilot Powers on the ST4s because I wanted extra grip for the a track day.

[tlrmike99]

[\QUOTE]As far as getting life out of one, my rear has about 500 miles on it and now I need another one. That's why they are called consumables in the Sportbike world. Have fun..[/QUOTE]
But remember Joe, you racing.... he's talking street. I run powers, and get about 4K on a rear with a track day thrown in, and about 7K on the front. And that is on either bike.... seem to wear well and traction is excellent.

[Rashmaster13]

Last year Charlie and I bought the regular diablos and were very disappointed. Not only did they have lousy edge grip they wore out quickly as well. There was that same $169 deal last year and I was dumb enough to try them. Anyway I got maybe 2000 miles out of them and they were toast (no burn outs or hard acceleration either, just hard cornering) and for that 2k everytime I used the last say 1/2" of tire it would step out. Stay with the pilot powers, you know they work well on your bike.

[Motarder]

Stay with the pilot powers, you know they work well on your bike.[/QUOTE]

Listen to the "RASHMASTER" he knows ... :bow:

How ya doing Mike. .... :cool:

Tard.

[Kelbor]

Last year Charlie and I bought the regular diablos and were very disappointed. Not only did they have lousy edge grip they wore out quickly as well. There was that same $169 deal last year and I was dumb enough to try them. Anyway I got maybe 2000 miles out of them and they were toast (no burn outs or hard acceleration either, just hard cornering) and for that 2k everytime I used the last say 1/2 of tire it would step out. Stay with the pilot powers, you know they work well on your bike.Um Yeah, I was gonna say that Cycle gear is having some sort of tire sale on the Diablos but this sounds like good advice.....the tire dilema is an age old discussion that always ends in ".....it depends". I've come to the conclussion that I really dont know SHIT.:yes: Im get scared just thinking about trying to buy new tires. Sorry, Im not much help. :rad:

[maleko]

Well thanks for all the advice, I ended up sticking with the pilot's because I want the tires to match and the front still has some life left in it. I got this (http://www.compacc.com/images/product/200/05815_1.jpg) tire since its what I already had. I'll try the Diablo's when I turn these into slicks. My friend works at a shop and could get me a deal on the pilots that he couldn't get on the Diablos. Thanks all for the tips :thumbup:

[Rashmaster13]

They want lots of cash for tires, it really blows to buy something and find that it doesnt work for you, unless just buying another set and pulling off what you just bought is in your budget. I'm stupid enough to try stuff sometimes (I get seduced by a low price sometimes) then I bitch and complain for a month or two until it wears out and I buy something good again. So the only way is trial and error which is expensive, or maybe one of my good friends will let me ride their scoot to experiance what theyre running.
Currently I have the pilot powers and I like them alot, I enjoyed the bt14 Bridgestones, and the Metzler sportecs too. I wasn't thrilled with the diablos (great price, but didnt work for me). I even tried a tomahawk last year, (I did say I was stupid didnt I?) It was inexpensive and I needed a rear, so I said what the hell. It sucked, the last say 1/2" of the tire provided little to no edge grip, it was fine as long as you didnt lean over into that zone. If you did you were in for some sideways action for sure.
How ya doing Mike. .... :cool:
Hi Gary, doing ok, you need to do a bit less in the garden this spring.

[Xusia]

maleko, As I understand it, the Pilot the Diablo are similar so I'm sure you will be happy.

Rash, I'm very surprised to hear about your experience with Diablos. I've run so many sets and have had no problems with edge grip or wear at all (and I corner hard as well). I'm not sure if you know this, but the Sportec and the Diablo are basically the same tire. Pirelli bought Metzler and "stole" the technology in the Sportec to create the Diablo. There are very minor differences, but for all intents and purposes they are the same. I wonder if you just got a bum set or something?

[dansrc51]

I'm going to agree with Brian here, the Diablo's have done well for me. even at my first track day I never even slipped once. good milage too. three sets so far have all seen 3000 plus miles on the rear and 5000 on the front. just my :2cents:

[Rashmaster13]

I was aware the metzlers and pirellis are very similar usually just tread pattern differances. However, like I said both Charlie and I had similar experiances, and i rode his bike as well. Maybe they have batch problems which is the reason I tend to stay away from dunlops which has real problems with bad tires. Dunlop's quality control IMHO is terrible get a good tire get a bad tire. I've run the race pirellis with no issues what so ever, I was thinking maybe the straight diablo was supposed to be a sport tourer as it was horrible at full lean.