Gisborne's choice (Pirelli Diablo Rosso)

[Hitcher]

Tyre choices in Gisborne are very limited, unless one rides something requiring knobblies.

A couple of years back, after suffering a catastrophic rear tyre failure on the OEM Dunlop Qualifier 35km south of Gisborne, I limped my Aprilia Shiver back to town. My first stop at the Honda shop presented me with some archaic Metzelers. I think the owner was a bit surprised when I rode away on a dead flat rear. The Kawasaki shop had a set of Avon Storms (the previous non-Ultra model) which I purchased. These worked remarkably well on the Shiver.

This time I was on a different bike (GSX1250FA) and decided to replace the Metzeler Z8 Interacts as, after nearly 9,500km, the front was getting close to muntedness. Although squaring off, the rear was wearing well, possibly with another couple of thousand km still to run.

The Z8s are a great tyre. Right from their first day, I enjoyed them. Good in wet and dry, predictable and responsive. Hard to fault, indeed I'd probably give them 7.5 out of 10 on the Hitcher Tyre Scale(TM). If the front had outlived the rear, I would have given them an 8.5.

Anyway, back to Gisborne and motorcycle tyre procurement. I saw way too many quads parked outside the Honda shop, so decided to flag that and went straight to the Kawasaki/Yamaha shop. They had one set of tyres in the Technically Not A Bandit's (TNAB) size. Mr Pirelli's Diablo Rossos. I bought them, at an outrageous provincial price too.

Since then I've run nearly 1,000km onto them, on a mix of dry, moist and extremely wet roads of varying conditions.

This is the first time (apart from the OEM Qualifiers on my Shiver) that I've ever fitted tyres to any bike that haven't been sports tourers. The Rosso is labelled a "high performance street tyre".

"Wow"?

Not really. Yes, they're competent and agile but they don't offer anything that a decent sports touring tyre doesn't. One thing they won't offer is longevity. I'm thinking of running a sweepstake to see if anybody can guess how long they'll last on a TNAB. I'm picking about 5,500km. The winner can have the carcases. On a $/km basis, those will be expensive km. I'll also be interested to see if the front outlives the rear.

I'm a bit bothered by this trend of fronts wearing out before their rear mates. I remember well the days when fronts outlived their rear travelling companions by some margin. Maybe this is a good reason to go to Dunlop Roadsmarts at the next change. Mr Dunlop is about the only manufacturer that does a single compound sports touring front tyre.

On the Hitcher Tyre Scale, I'll currently score the Rossos as an 8.75 based on their handling competence. I suspect that their lifetime rating will be something closer to 6.5, once they are discounted for piss poor wear attributes. Time will tell.

[Hitcher]

The Rossos lasted just over 5,500km.

While they wore evenly front and rear, the front particularly got heavier and increasingly piggish as they wore. In hindsight they were probably past their best before they'd covered 4,000km.

Although these were a bit of a Hobson's choice, as noted in my earlier post in this thread, I was interested at the time they were fitted to see how a "performance" tyre would stack up against the sports touring tyres that are my traditional riding fare.

I believe that they don't stack up at all. While they got nicely grippy if pushed hard on windy roads, even then they weren't really any grippier or confidence enhancing than is a decent set of sports tourers.

But the real killer for the Rossos was their poor wear life and how the performance of the tyres diminished with that wear. Compare this to a good set of sports touring tyres that generally handle well almost to their death.

To be honest, I can't see why tyres of this type sell at all. Well, actually I can. They sell because people who ride sports bikes think they need to have this style of tyre to protect their mojo and their reputation with their mates. In reality a sports touring tyre would give them at least comparable performance for the general type of riding they do, even for track days, with the benefit of superior life and handling in the wet and cold.

Would I buy these again? No.

Would I recommend them? No.

Final Hitcher tyre rating: 6.5.

[riffer]

*scratches Diablo Rossos off his next tyres for the Bandit list*

I'm still not seeing anything out there better than my Continental RoadAttacks yet Brett. 13000 out of a set, grip like shit mixed with superglue then painted on a blanket.

[Hitcher]

I'm still not seeing anything out there better than my Continental RoadAttacks yet Brett.

Add these to your list: http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php/145838-Dunlop-Sportmax-Roadsmart-on-an-Suzuki-GSX1250FA?p=1130234579#post1130234579

[Gremlin]

To be honest, I can't see why tyres of this type sell at all. Well, actually I can. They sell because people who ride sports bikes think they need to have this style of tyre to protect their mojo and their reputation with their mates. In reality a sports touring tyre would give them at least comparable performance for the general type of riding they do, even for track days, with the benefit of superior life and handling in the wet and cold.
You're dead right. I've even argued with people before, that believed because they were fast (which they actually weren't) and rode a sportsbike, they needed sports tyres. Almost like the word touring was evil. :laugh:

Sports tyres will outperform sports touring tyres in a narrow band, which is hard to find on NZ rough roads. I would perhaps lean towards them on high power bikes, as touring tyres can struggle with grip. Otherwise, a sports touring tyre will offer excellent performance over a wide band of conditions/temperature etc.

Good guess on mileage btw.