Pirelli Angel GT Tires (Pilot Road Rival?)

[larcklorn]

FZ6's,

I had the opportunity to visity the International Motorcycle Show as it swooped through Indianapolis this past weekend and stumbled across some interesting items that I think you may be interested in. Like many people I came across the Pirelli booth and thought to myself - I dont know a whole lot about their tires and I havent heard a whole lot either. So, I jumped in line for a few minutes to talk with their head of brand management.

As a big fan of the Pilot Road 2's and 3's I am a skeptic to just about any other tire out there and I use the Road 2's longevity and the 3's wet weather traction to compare against anything else I see.

So what did a learn:

1) Without boring everyone to death - the compounds they are using in the tires are cutting edge and give an additional 15% life to the tires supposedly outperforming that of the Road 2's.

2) This advanced compound and styling also gives wet weather traction that compares or exceeds with the Road 3's.

3) It will maintain both of the above for the life of the tire.

It seems to me that this may be the ideal tire for those of us enjoy commuting, fast rides in the country, and take some long trips at any time of the year. As with most good touring performance tires Angel GT's will work on whatever bike setup you have, whether a touring bike, a street enduro, naked or sport bike.

The last item that I have to mention is that these things look good. It is actually what drew me to the Pirelli booth to begin with. I have attached a few images for everyone else to see.

I have no idea if these are for sure the next best performance touring tire out there, but it has the numbers to be. I for one will be adding this to my list of tires to check out for this years riding season as they are just now making it to the distrubution centers here in the US. If I do get my hands on some I will report back on here what my thoughts are and experience.

What are your thoughts? What has been your experience with the Angel ST's that predate the GT's?

Ride Safe Out There,

Daniel

 

[FB400]

sounds like you bought the sales pitch hook line and sinker. Until actual user reviews come in raving about how great they stick and how long they last I will be staying with PR2 or maybe go PR3.

Thanks for sharing this information though. I will put these tires on my watch list for when I need a new set

 

[larcklorn]

I found it interesting that there was this tire coming out that was supposed to surpase everything out there, but I hadn't heard a whole lot about it. I am with you on the user reviews and actual experience.

 

[KingY]

They do look awesome so i am also interested in what the actual reviews say as for a good looking tyre they get my vote

 

[seacliff]

I do own a pair of those and I just loves them. I've done about 9000km on them with just a slight usage. I can also confirm that the grip is pretty good on wet pavement as well.

I can't compare with the PRs since I never tried them but they are a huge improvement compared to the stock dunlop I had before.

They are worth looking at them, at the bare minimum I would buy them again for sure.

 

[SweaterDude]

wet traction is all about water displacement. along the contact patch there's no way that this tire is displacing as much water, thats why the PR3 has all of those sipes and reservoirs.

 

[dxh24]

I run the ST's on my Versys, Best tire i've had on any of my bikes so far, very comparable with the PR2's, haven't had a chance to have long term experience with the PR3's.

As far as the wet grip is concerned, i've never had any issues with slippage throwing it into a corner on a wet day. Also, they work in 1/4" of snow (personal experience)

They grip to the road like it's attached to a rail in the dry, and you get good mileage out of the tires, even when your rough on them like many of us are!

 

[Timon]

I do own a pair of those and I just loves them. I've done about 9000km on them with just a slight usage. I can also confirm that the grip is pretty good on wet pavement as well.

I can't compare with the PRs since I never tried them but they are a huge improvement compared to the stock dunlop I had before.

They are worth looking at them, at the bare minimum I would buy them again for sure.

Are you sure you have the Angel GTs? It sounds like they are relatively new, so you might have the original Angels.

I have a set of the Pirelli Angel tires and so far so good. The only thing I have to compare them to are partially bald stockers (Battalax I think). I hear people talk all the time about "confidence inspiring" tires and maybe I just don't ride hard enough yet, but I haven't felt that with any tire.

I will say one thing I did notice was the turn in on these tires is much better than stock. It seems to fall a lot more easily into the corners with less effort.

 

[rsw81]

I have a set of the Pirelli Angel tires and so far so good. The only thing I have to compare them to are partially bald stockers (Battalax I think). I hear people talk all the time about "confidence inspiring" tires and maybe I just don't ride hard enough yet, but I haven't felt that with any tire.

I will say one thing I did notice was the turn in on these tires is much better than stock. It seems to fall a lot more easily into the corners with less effort.

New tires will always feel like they fall into turns easier than used tires. Even the slightest amount of squaring of the tire will make it harder to turn in.

I'm curious about these new Pirelli's too. May be a good option/alternative to the PR2/3s, which I've had great experiences with so far. Always interested in trying new things though.

 

[seacliff]

Are you sure you have the Angel GTs? It sounds like they are relatively new, so you might have the original Angels.

I guess you are right. I can't find any reference on the pirelli website about them so I assumed they were the same :shakehead:

 

[larcklorn]

Anyone seen these around yet?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Cloggy]

I recently saw an article in motoplus (a Dutch magazine which uses many technical tests from Motorrad in turn a well respected German motorbike magazine) They did a test on many leading sport touring tyres and the Angel GT's (not the old ST's which didn't perform too well in their last test) came out as the best all round tyre, even out performing the PR3's and Metzlers in the wet

Here's a link to the pirelli site which shows some of the facts in English (I'll have to post up a translation of the actual test)

It has to be said that they used the Suzuki Bandit 1250 for the test, which they noted is quite a heavy bike.

Well it looks like pirelli has produced a good tyre with the new Angel GT :thumbup:

Personally I'm very happy with the PR2 so I'm not going to change anytime soon.

 

[LERecords]

I put roughly 9k (i looked at my records) on a set of Pirelli ST's and found them to be great.. I am thinking about going with the new GT's. $300 for a set is not that bad..