Pirelli Angel tyres, anyone tried them?

[thommo]

Has anyone tried these?  local bike shop has asked me to try one on the rear since i'm needing another new one.

http://www.pirellityre.com/web/motorcycle/tyres/angelst/default.page




The existing PR2 @8500km

[MildThing]

I think  you've got your money's worth out of those tyres, Thommo. Hardly likely to be getting anymore out of 'em.

 I tell ya - you MUST be hard on tyres. I'd like to see me getting 10,000 out of a PR2 - even with most of it towing.

[Tsp3]

No, but I loved the Diablo Stradas they are replacing.   Unfortunately I can't get past the wank associated with advertising for these so will not be trying them    PR2s will do me for now.

[Large]

They want you to try it, does that mean your getting it gratis?

[thommo]

They want you to try it, does that mean your getting it gratis?

bawwaahahahahaahhahahahhahaa  funny!  nope, they gave me same price as they charge me pr2's.  and they don't have any in stock at teh moment.

[thommo]

No, but I loved the Diablo Stradas they are replacing.   Unfortunately I can't get past the wank associated with advertising for these so will not be trying them    PR2s will do me for now.

i prefer the stradas over the pr2's.  the strada rear turns in easier than the pr2, as do the front.  mileage and grip are similar.  i love a pilot power on the front tho, damn that turns in ever so nicely, pity it don't last very long..  tried metzler m3's once for shits and giggles, got nearly 2,000 out of them, dunlop d206's give me about the same as the m3's.

z6 rear if i want to go to darwin or across the top end, won't fit z6 front, any sort of wet conditions and the z6 front is to scary for me, slides all over the place, the rear does to, but i don't mind having the back end of the bike getting all out of shape.

i don't think much of the wank advertisiing onthe angels, dunno what idiot thought of that, they need slapping...

[Lionel]

I've never tried them but I think the yellow LEDs won't last all that long.

[Tsp3]

Yep I would take the Stradas over the PR2s as well; great feel and a nice progressive turning and good wet feel - I only tried the michies cos there was not a Strada to be had anywhere in Canberra at the time. Now since they don't make stradas anymore 2nd best will have to do

[rolsn]

have just put a set on the ST4, but as yet have not turned a wheel work is the pits at the moment 0400 to 2000.  but at least have only 2 days to go then a week off, so should be able to see how they handle and also wear that bloody stamped angel off - agree Ed its a wank on the advertising but appears to be getting people to buy or is it just that the prefered PR2's and not in stock, as was the case here.

[fzIan]

Talking to the Michy rep 2 wks ago and I get the idea that the Michelin importer underestimated the volume required to meet market demands for Oz motorcyclists by quite a lot.

If you like the PRD2's snap 'em up when you see'em, otherwise you'll get to sample what the other brands have to offer.
The other major players have all improved products these days.
Under normal circumstances I haven't heard of an unusual failure in recent times from any of the big brands.

[thommo]

well, i ended up fitting a rear one, and after a little over 1500km, i certainly won't rave over them...  appear to give good grip in the dry, stable on dirt roads, turn in is nice, but in the wet....  they spin up in corners, spin overtaking in a straight line.
they are wearing well so far, the tyre does look in good shape, but at this stage, i don't think i'll fit another one, and given how it is a bit slippery in the wet, i certainly don't think i'll be fitting one to the front.

[roverfj1200]

Sounds like a good call Thommo.. We all need grip in the front,

[thommo]

after a lil over 5,000km on a rear ST, i'm so impressed with the rear tyre after several days of wet riding that i can't wait to get it off the bike.

wet hotmix road, 80km/hr top gear roll on to overtake, result: wheel spin.
drop out of top gear, same road mix, things get real squirrelly.

go over a painted line, instant slide.

hit a smooth patch, it'll slip no wuckers, even at crusing throttle, had many a little wiggle going over the lines at the end of overtaking lanes etc.

in the dry.. good wearing straight line tyre, roll it over into a corner and open the throttle, it'll spin up, somtimes only slightly, somtimes more.

On friday, i rode from rocky to brisbane, hooked up with another bloke and rode over mt lindsay to kyogle and than to grafton. by the time i hit mt lindsay, that tyre should have been just ripe for mt lindsay. going up mt lindsay i noted that teh rear would step out ever so slightly coming into the corner, mid corner also. coming out of the corners it would spin up, didn't step out much, but just plain fucking spin under moderate throttle, 2nd and 3rd gear stuff.
the compound make up of the edges of the rear tyre appear to be too hard, ie, same mix as the middle.
It just didn't inspire confidence in the wet and i found myself hesitant to use the throttle much. If i were to ride up to darwin and across the to end i would run these tyres but those who like a good serious blat in any condition, personally, i'd steer away from the angel.
I think the diablo strada ( which teh angel replaces) to be a better tyre, i never had any hesitation to run hard in the wet with stradas, front and rear.
I haven't tried the angel front, but if the rear is anything to go by, i won't be trying one.

[Spots]

I put an Angel front on my Tiger 1050 just before a ~4500km trip to Tasmania, all over Tasmania, and back.  Local bike shop couldn't get a front Pilot Road 2 in time for the trip, so I took a gamble and went for the Angel.  Didn't know any of the advertising, didn't know about the 'angel' gimmick.  Bike shop said it's a new dual-compound sport-touring tyre, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Frankly, my biggest concern when asking for the Angel to be fitted was that the tyre might be a dramatically different 'shape' to the Pilot Road 2s, leading to a weird mismatch in ride behaviour as the bike leaned over.


Observations:   Haven't had any troubles whatsoever with grip in 5000km of riding.  The 'angel' imprint in the tyre wore off after about 1500km of sport-touring; now they look like any other kind of tyre really.   They don't feel a whole lot different to the PR2 fronts for stability and turn-in, though I've noticed the edges of the tyres have MUCH steeper sides than the PR2 front and rear do.    I've had my front and rear PR2s down to ~1-2mm from the edge, but the front Angel has a centimetre or two of chickenstrip left.

Worked fine in the wet. TBH my rear PR2 was the more skittish one of the pair in the wet, but that PR2 rear has been uncharacteristically weird for almost its entire life.  Much more skittish than the previous PR2 set and the PR1 set before it.


I'm trying out an Angel rear to pair up with the Angel front this Friday, because I don't see much point in mismatching the corner-of-tyre angles of the Angel and PR2 by buying a new PR2 rear when there's a still-fresh Angel on the front.  We'll see how it does on a trip from Wollongong to Brisbane on my favourite backroad route next week.  

Of course, if in ~11,000km time the Angels have given me nothing but misery, it'll be back to the PR2s for me.