Pirelli Diablo. What do you guys think?

Here I was going to go with the Metzelers on my ride this time around.
The shop that installs tires for me told me for Buells go with the
Pirelli Diablos. Anybody have any experience with these? Good grip?
Great wear? I am willing to sacrifice a little grip to get some wear
out of these things. It seems after awhile with the Stones which I
praised early on I sacrificed both grip and wear. I am looking along
the lines of a good sport touring tire.

Mike, you must have a very short memory. You asked about tires a couple
weeks ago, and several people suggested Pirelli Diablos, with a whole bunch
of anecdotal reasons.

I have Diablos on my bike. They're on my girlfriend's SV. When I need to get
new tires, I'll buy Diablos again.

There are several different Diablos. The Diablo Stradas are the sport
touring tires.

And besides the tread pattern, are identical to the Metzler Z6s

Z6s are some icky tires. I've got some on one set of the busa's rims,
and no amount of suspension tweaking and geometry adjustment makes them
feel right, even at just riding around sedately. Bridgestone 002 (with
190/55 rear) are "da business". Diablos do ok on that bike and also on
the SV. Will probably try B'stone's latest ST tire to replace the Z6s.

Also, had a Z6 on the front of the ST1100, and preferred the Z4 that was
on it previously.

Indeed they are. Were you asking specifically about the Diablo Stradas?

Sorry for my ignorance pertaining to tires. I wasn't asking about
Stradas because I never heard of them until maybe yesterday. I wasn't
aware at that moment that there were so many different Diablos. Too
many tires with similar names and such.Too many discontinued tires out
there. You don't know their replacements either. It is so
confusing. I should have just asked for the non discontinued longest
wearing sport touring tire with the best grip. Why do they keep
discontinuing tires every other year? Just keep the same tire
name\number and keep improving it. I think those tire marketing execs
are knuckleheads. I mean how does a particular tire develop a good
rep if you discontinue it every other year? I am glad they don't do
this sort of thing with sports teams. There would be no fan base if
that is how they did things.

I agree. That's why they keep the BT-02x and the Diablo and Pilot names.

But yeah... too many little sub-types is confusing.

Well I am ordering the Metzeler Z6 and that is final. Thanks for the
help.

Good luck. Hope you have better results than I did.

When you don't ride any more often than Mike, any tire would last a
decade. And with dearth of roads with corners in Wisconsin, shouldn't
be a major concern either. I'm just happy to see he's buying
American...

Mike

Help secure our borders.

I had my first set of Diablos installed on my SV1000S a few months ago,
replacing the stock Pilot Sports. I love'em. Tractions been good, excellent
in wet weather. The price was within my budget as well. I'll most likely
continue with these.

I many miles you put on them so far?

A couple of us commented on their excellent wear and all weather grip
properties in the previous thread you started.

With the standard Diablos, I get more than 6K miles on the rear, on my RC51,
with almost no cupping on the front. The 6K is from going down to the wear
indicators, not the chords....

- Kurt

A little over 1000. I recall with the Pilots you had to let them warm up a
bit before tryin to lean on them. The Diablos IMO seem to warm up better, or
rather better cold grip. This is based soley on my personal "butt-o-meter".
Your "butt-o-meter" results may vary. Basically, everything positive that
I've heard about these tires has proven to be true.

Mike

Help secure our borders.

I have a set of the plain Pirelli Diablos on my Blackbird and am
pleased with their performance so far. I have put about 2000 miles
on them and the wear seems to be good. As others have stated, the
grip is excellent in dry conditions; I can't say about grip in wet
conditions as I've never had them out in the rain. I have previously
had a set of Pirelli Diableo Stradas on the Blackbird, but didn't
care for them and I thought the wear was just average for a tire
called a sport touring tire. I've also run two or three sets of
Michellin Pilot Roads on the Blackbird, and like them as well.
Between the two, I'd say the Pirellis have better grip; only time
will tell how they compare wear-wise. I usually get about 5k out of
the Roads.

-Keith
'03 Blackbird

Mike

Help secure our borders.

Mike, all my friends around here use them for one off track tires with
the Diablo Corsa's having a bit more traction (track tire). However,
from ny own experience on the GSXR1000 + others; traction is great but
wear will not be as good as the Stones, especially the 020,021's rears
& 010,014 fronts.

Bob Nixon.

I was just checking out the Stradas at 212.00 a pair or 234.00 a pair
with free shipping. Looks like I may try the stradas. Now if you can
tell me how to spoon them on I would really be in business. The local
shop wants to charge me $60.00 per wheel to install and 30 per wheel
if I bring them in. Well if I take them off I am going to want to put
the tires on myself as well. What an expensive pain. I wish tires
would last longer.

Hals does 'em for $20 a wheel off the bike.

I bought my 021s in desperation in Moab UT, they were the only tires that
would fit my bike in town. I paid $30 for mounting with the wheels on the
bike. Of course I paid full retail for them. Total cost about $450.

I was glad to get them.

So far I have a little over 1000 miles on them and I am very pleased. I
think the dual compound on the rear is working really well. No sign of a
flat spot and most the miles are straight line cruising.

I actually like them better that the Pilot Powers I had before. They seem
to turn in easily and track well on the street. I actually have less of a
chicken strip on both the front and rear.

Mike

Help secure our borders.

Barbz who posts here occasionally runs a vintage BMW with the tires it
came with, forgot the name of them, but a BMW dealer would know...
40,000 she gets to a set, but thats not haul ass riding. she says
they stick ok enough.... no doubt not nearly as well as the
bridgestones though.

Phil Scott