Pirelli Diablo Rosso

[puddytat]

Well, the R6 needed some new tyres & though I was happy with the Michelin Pilot Roads 2ct's (12000 ks out of them) I had decided that I wanted to try Clubmans racing & wanted something a little stickier....

After a lot of research on here,plus the fact that I dont have any tyre warmers,I decided to stick with a more road orientated tyre as opposed to "race" rubber....purely because they were going to heat up quicker than a unwarmed race tyre.
Which has proved to be a good choice, as apart from losing out in the first couple of laps as I waited for them to get up to temperature, they have enabled me to keep up with the fellas on slicks ahead of me, most of the time...& ahead of quite a few behind me also on race rubber

I have found them to be a predictable & also forgiving tyre,hard to get to slide,& predictable when they do...they let ya know when theyre starting to, with great "feel", & when hot they slide controllably without suddenly letting go, & when cold when they have slipped, they have always caught again

Under hard braking they are superb...& I find that on the track they enable me to out brake many into the Hairpin,& to also to trail alot of brake thru a corner. There has been the odd moment when I ve gone in too "hot" (oh shit moments) & even cranked right over Ive not even had the slightest slide from the front.Braking hard from 240km/h into turn 1 at Ruapuna is not a problem.
Tipping into corners & changing line ,effortless. At my last race meeting the track temp. was up to 40 degrees, I found that at the pressures I was running them (29 front 28 rear) they were a bit squirmy,so I changed suspension settings (OEM forks & shock) & took the pressures up to 32 front 32 rear & it was all ticketyboo & I dropped my personal best time as a result

So far I have done 7 race meetings on them,3 races per meeting & they are wearing very well I feel,& have not yet felt like they're going off.I've pretty much stopped racing for this season.They enabled me to win the King of Canterbury series in Clubmans & to come 2nd overall in the King of Ruapuna
Planning now to put the R6 back on the road shortly & to do a road trip so it'll be interesting to see how many more k's I'll get out of them...Im figuring I should get atleast 5000 or so. Will also be interesting how they'll perform in the wet as Ive not had a wet ride on them so far,but from what I've read theyre 'sposed to be great.I will update this when I know.
So Im stoked with them. Not the cheapest tyre, I think I paid about $560 for them but they are grip wise way better than the PP2cts, with no chickenstrip on the rear & about 3mm on the front.
Disclaimer....these results were achieved on a closed track with a good surface, results may differ on our shit roads!!

[Racing Dave]

I had the pleasure of representing Kiwi Rider magazine at the Diablo Rosso launch in Spain last year, and agree with all you say.

A road ride in the hills near Barcelona in the morning was on either wet or damp roads, and at a pace that can only be described as nippy, yet none of the riders had anything bad to say about grip or feel from the tryes, and all were on large capacity sport or sport/touring bikes.

In the afternoon we rode 1000cc sport bikes on the F1/MotoGP track at Catalunya. Initially damp, then dry, and again all were impressed by the quick warm-up and predictable feedback. Some of the journos are genuinely fast, and even when speaking privately (ie without our Pirelli hosts listening) there were only good comments.

Congratulations on your race results, you've done very well.

[Taine]

Well I had the pleasure of these tyres last weekend thru the forgotten highway 35 degrees, melting roads tar everywhere, on the lastest gixsaw where to my surprise where totally awesome. If you get 3000kms out of them you are doing pretty good,
I just couldn't flaw them under extreme horsepower tight corners one after the other they held with a controlled drift and looked very impressive, black marks into and out of every corner.
Thumbs up for these babys........

[scorry]

Braking hard from 240km/h into turn 1 at Ruapuna

They enabled me to win the King of Canterbury series in Clubmans & to come 2nd overall in the King of Ruapuna

holy shit mate good stuff, that explains why i couldnt keep up with ya lol
hope to see ya at levels sometime, maybe a bit more of a level playing feild?

[puddytat]

holy shit mate good stuff, that explains why i couldnt keep up with ya lol
hope to see ya at levels sometime, maybe a bit more of a level playing feild?

You can live in hope brother!!.
whats happened to the nice looking CBR in your profile ?

[scorry]

You can live in hope brother!!.
whats happened to the nice looking CBR in your profile ?

haha yea man, dont know if we would be allowed in the same class anyways.

i sold the CBR to buy the KTM, had it a year and done a couple of track days, but wanted a fast motard so i could race without worrying about throwing it away.

was an awesome bike mate, and shite it was fast

will put a photo of my ktm in their once i get a good one

[Nonbeliever]

I was happy with the Michelin Pilot Roads 2ct's (12000 ks out of them)

they are grip wise way better than the PP2cts,

pp2cts are not the same as pilotroad2.

If you're comparing the rosso's to the road2's,then yes,I would hope they would perform better being a more "sport" oriented tyre than the pilotroad2

[pritch]

I'm running Rosso and like them, but they are rather more tyre than I normally need.

BIKE picked the Dunlop Roadsmart as their tyre of 2008, so Roadsmarts might be worth a serious look. They are reportedly so good that it's no longer possible to justify choosing a sports tyre for road use...

To be fair BIKE only considered warm up, longevity, wet weather performance, and outright grip. No mention of ego there