Pirelli Diabo Rosso Corsa II tyres – UK road test

You might have noticed that we had a nice tyre report from South Africa last week, when our man Rob Hoyles was posted to Kyalami for a couple of days out on the new Pirelli Diablo Rosso Corsa II sports tyres. Rob had a nice time (the jammy bastard), and I was gutted that I couldn’t go. Instead, I was keeping it real on a long-booked family holiday in Northumberland, enjoying the tail of the Beast from the East – five degrees and rain. Nice.

I’m on the catchup now though – and the good folks at Pirelli have sent me some of the new hoops to try here in blighty. Not in five-degree rain luckily – it’s warming up nicely here in the south-east today woo. So I popped over to DMP Performance Motorcycles in Walllington to get them fitted to our Suzuki GSX-S750 test bike. Our pal Dan Miles had the wheels off in a trice, and I even helped out, changing one of the tyres on the big tyre machine. Getting the wheels off went okay, although the rear disc carrier is fiddly, and we ended up removing the wheel speed sensor to give a bit more clearance on removal.

The Bridgestone S21 rubber fitted as stock on the 750 was fine actually – very decent standard road bike tyres, and a lot better than some tyres that bikes come from dealers on even nowadays. The Pirellis are a rung or two up the performance ladder though, and felt sharper straight away. The steering is faster, with a more pronounced movement over onto the shoulder, thanks to a more aggressive profile on the front. There’s no reduction in satability so far though.

I’ve just ridden back from the workshop, so can’t say too much on the grip side as yet – but we’re heading out for a blat in the sun later, and I’ve got high hopes for the Pirellis in terms of grip and handling.

More info here.