Pirelli Angel ST

[fatbob]

Has anyone worn out a rear Angel ST on an RT yet? I have 5k on my first rear Angel ST and it looks like it could go to 7k. If you have, what kind of mileage did you get.

Thanks.

 

[Matt, Kazoo]

Well, I haven't worn them out yet, but have over 6K miles. Front still looking good, rear has started to flatten in the middle. I expect at least 8K miles from the set. No cupping on the front and still very quiet. Great grip as well.

[AZKomet]

Just installed on my GT. We shall see.....

[Antimatter]

I'm about 4K miles into a set. Both the front & rear still look pretty good. If I get 8K out of them and they stay cheap, I'll buy another set.

[Lone_RT_rider]

I just installed a set in September before the last BRR. I have about 1200 miles on them, but they have been some pretty aggressive miles. Matt's correct, they are pretty quiet. But then again I just came off a set of PR2's and I thought they were fairly quiet also. The original pilot roads in contrast were really noisy in turns and that condition went progressively worse as the tires wore down.

 

Let me give you my low down on a couple of criteria I consider when buying tires.

 

Roll in transition: When you start to lean the bike over and transition into a corner, the profile of the tire makes a big difference in not only the effort needed to make this transition, but the way the bike reacts during this time. I don't pretend to know how to design the profile to get the desired traits for this, but I do know that it does make a difference. On the Angel ST's, the transition into corner's is incredibly predictable and linear. The bike doesn't fall into corner's, but as you progress into the lean the effort that needs to be made never varies erratically. Of all the tires I have ever ridden, the Avon 45/46's had the best characteristics for this criteria. The bike felt 100 pounds lighter with the Avon's mounted, but then again I only managed 3500 miles from rear of my R1200RT. Given that, it was never a good trade off. The Angels seem to be well mannered for this.

 

Straight line tractability: How steady does the bike feel when I am riding on the expressway? How does the bike track when fully loaded (me and all my luggage with top box) on the R1200RT. The Angel's seem to be rock solid fo this. Even fully loaded the bike tracked well without feeling the least bit lethargic.

 

Expressway ride quality: I have had other tires that met all the other criteria you see here, but on the expressway they felt miserable. It was not so much the way the bike handled on the expressway, but just how smooth the bike felt over the long haul. For me, the Angels are butter smooth for this. The worst tire for this was the Metzler ME-Z6's. To be fair, I noticed this the most on an R1100S that I used to own. It weighs about 100 lbs less than either of my RT's.

 

Wet weather traction: I had read all the claims prior to buying the Angels. All the write ups raved about how well they did in the wet. I am here to tell you this is all very true. My proof came on the first day of riding at BRR. It was a day where the rains had just passed through and the roads were still laden with water. It was also still drizzling on and off. I was riding up NC 209 to Hot springs while following Mitch Patrie and for being wet, I thought we were going at a reasonable pace. About half way up 209, I realized that I was coming out of corners in completely wet roads at anywhere between 3/4 and full throttle while still leaned over. On the R1100RT I used to have, that wouldn't have been as remarkable, but for the R1200RT it's pretty good! The bike was sticking to the road in not much different of a manner than when it was dry. We also hit some grooved surfaces and I don't recall feeling anything crazy in the bike while riding over them. We did not hit any metal bridged in the wet so I have no information on that field.

 

Mileage: As mentioned above, I ride fairly aggressively in some pretty curvy roads. As a reference point, I managed to get 6000 miles out of the PR2's. I have heard of others getting about 10K miles from the same tires. The Angel ST's I think should be able to get 5 to 6K. I will report back as I find out. I wish I had more info on this field.

 

I hope this help's. I know it's a bit lengthy. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Shawn