Pireli Dragon Evo

[Zimbo]

I need to change the tyres on the monster 900. It's currently wearing D207s and I don't really have much confidence in them, had the front slide once or twice in the cold and damp.
Normally I'd go straight for Diablos, but Busters are doing Dragon Evos at silly money at the moment, around £120 a pair ish.
Has anybody had much experience with them? I need a tyre that'll give confidence cornering hard in the dry right to the edge of the tyre, do a couple of trackdays, and give reasonable life (but grip is a little more important), but that will also feel competent in the cold and damp of early spring (obviously I dont push it hard in corners under these conditions) and on damp or wet roads later in the year. Will the Dragon Evos deliver???

Feedback appreciated!!

[Nigel C]

You should be fine with Dragon Evo's (MTR21 MTR22 if i remember correctly )

took them right to the edge on my 748 plenty of grip but the handling goes off when the are near to needing changing mileage around 3 to 4000 for a rear fronts about 5000 personally i wan't to impressed with them in the wet but i think that may have been down the to the 120/60 profile front more than anything else

[Flip]

I love 'em!

Was just about to get a set of Diablos but now.....

[Pedro]

Had Dragons on my 900 when I bought it and didn't like them at all. Seemed to take ages to warm and were ****e in the wet. They weren't new when I got the bike, maybe about 1500 miles of use but gave me no confidence.

I went to 207s.... much better!

Ped

[NattyBoy]

Fitted dragon evos (another special offer !!!) to my 600 for the mallory track day, and I seemed to be making fine progress in the fast group :D

Pirellis every time for me (do I NOT like michelins!)....remember the dragon evo was the still the best of its generation..

Cheers
Nat

[Gee]

Had Dragons on my 750 and did not get on with them.
Switched to Pirelli Diablo Corsa on my R1 and the S4R and they are fantastic, rub your bar weights out before they let go. Very sticky, not many miles. I'm using the standard Diablos now for the road on the S4R. These seem really good too but the weather has'nt really let us have a go yet. I think i'll leave these for the track day though.
Tyres seem to be a bit of a personal preference now. Lots of great rubber out there and different rubber suits different bikes and riders. Suck it and see but hav'nt heard a bad report on the Diablos yet.
Anyone else tried them?

[Zimbo]

I use Diablos on my 900SS, they've been good, lasted fairly well and never had any problems with grip.

Some of the DesmoDue riders have been testing at Cadwell over the weekend. Couple of comments from them:



Overall I think we were both pretty stoked at how the little 600s handled the day, consistently tracking down and munching much larger bikes. Gearing is something of an issue, but the suspension handled the highs/lows and gale force winds, and brakes (both standard and uprated) seemed more than up to the job at hand.

It's worth saying that the day started wet (rivers running across the track, went to damp for the second session (with a few dry lines) and finished dry for the last few sessions, and the Diablos didn't give out once despite being ridden ragged in some very sketchy conditions

and:

Going back to Cadwell yesterday Chris and i had our best day ever,we both declared the little monster an absolute hoot,not as slow as we thought it was going to be and a real gem in the twisty bits.
The diablo's were quite simply stunning in the wet with lots of feel and grip as well as being very progressive when they did start to slide(Chris's words -not mine).

[MotoNik]

My only word of warning regarding the Evos is they can square off really quick if you do a lot of motorway miles or are a bit partial to the odd traffic light Grand Prix! :D

I had a set on my Speed Triple and was really pee'd off to have to replace the rear after 1500 miles!

Sticky though.

As an aside, Busters are doing Dunlop D208s for £149.99 at the moment. Not sure what they're like, but I'll let you know... They look like a more pointy profile than the 207s they replace.

Nik

[slug]

My 800 came with Dragon Evos as standard and I have stuck with them, however I am getting a little tyred :rolleyes: of having to replace the rear after 3000m it goes square and the bike starts to over steer in corners.

As far as grip goes, they have never slid in the dry (well apart from when I tried to brake in mid corner :o ) I dont ride in the wet or do track days so I cant realy comment, I think I may be a bit of plodder although I do indulge in the odd traffic light drag race ;) .

I phoned Pirreli about the wear and they reckoned 3 - 4K miles was about right, but they did say if I wanted to get more life out of my rear tyre I should fit a Dragon GTS (harder sports touring tyre) to the rear and stick with my Dragon Evo on the front. The chap on the phone was real helpful, he said the usual ratio is 2 rear tyres : 1 Front.

[peteS4]

well i run on Pirelli Diablos at the moment and not that keen anymore...... to start they were great but the rear has squared off and is now pants........... doesnt feel that good anymore, but that may be more to do with wanting looks and taking rear up from 180 to a 190..... looks great but takes the curve out of the profile so will be going back down to a 180 in future :(

[Zimbo]

Well, the original question is now redundant as it appears Busters have pretty much sold out of Dragon Evos, at £120 a pair I suppose I'm not surprised. Looks like Diablos again for me then :lol:

[peteS4]

but diablos square off and mess up ya corners......... i'm gona try bridgestone or dunlop next time

[Richard_S]

i actually called them yesterday - had a mad moment where I thought "**** son make some use of the information provided by the faithful UKMOC" - and after talking to a little welsh monkey it transpired that my size wasn't included. seems we have both been victims of the new world order. tis bollox.

[Zimbo]

but diablos square off and mess up ya corners......... i'm gona try bridgestone or dunlop next time

My experience is that Diablos begin to square off fairly early, but the actual rate of squaring off in the middle life of the tyre is lower than others I've used. At 4000 miles of fairly hard riding including some motorway runs they're still not as square as some other makes I've tried. I found 010s kept their profile longer but once they started squaring off they went off fairly rapidly - at 4000 miles the Diablo rear is actually better than the 010 by a reasonable margin. I found the 020 squared off even faster than the 010, and D207s faster still. I'll be sticking with Diablos I think!

[peteS4]

pants......... maybe though i notice the square much more because i went up to a 190 which gets streached over the 5.5 rim.....so may not feel so bad when i drop back down to the 180

[Gee]

If you have put a 190 on the standard rim it will be square when its new making the bike difficult in the corners. Totally messes with the tyre profile. The big fat back end does look sweet though. If you really want it get a half inch wider rim.