V4 V4s / 44 Teeth

Panigales have often struggled on Pirelli from my experience. Carcass is very soft.

dunlops and Bridgestones I’ve found to be the best. Dunlop KR are the best. Not sure any if anyone at all would question that even. They’re the bollocks.

 

Sponsored by Bridgestone, definitely unbiased.

The V4 platform has been designed for the Supercorsa, its the best tire on the Pani for sports or track riding if you can stand the cost.

Look at MotoGP, they change the tire construction and half the field stops performing. I have tried every full sport/track tire on my Pani and I always come back to Supercorsas for going fast. If you are touring or going to the cafe then even Ching li vinyls will work.

 

Do you find your Panigale wears the front Supercorsa just as fast, or faster than the rear?

 

My ratio is about 1.5 rears to a front on average. If I am a ham fisted bozo on the road just enjoying the full thottle experience out of corners then I can chew 2 or more to a front. I dont know about the later bikes but my experience is that you ride the Pani on the front tire, almost as if the rear is inconsequential (its not!) but you have to muscle the bike around and work the front hard.

 

Interesting. I'm in the Dunlop KR camp. But my V4S came with Supercorsa's fitted so rather than waste them I used them at Donington when running the bike in (ok, not to the book ). I must say they felt pretty good and way capable enough for my pace...

 

That's the key, does it feel right for you, in the end that is all that matters, we are not chasing 10ths. On these monocoque frames the tire is a significant element in the suspension design.The carcass of a SC is a lot heavier and stiffer than say a Michelin PowerGP but the construction, plys and bias layers are very different not to mention profile. I am a big guy and put a lot of heat into the tire from the get go, smash and grab to warm them up and I have used dozens upon dozens of tires all all makes (currently Im on PowerCups which I also love for their quickness) but I always come back to Supercorsas which feel the best when pushing it. They are stupid expensive and a waste of money if you are the kind of rider who wears out the middle before the sides, useless in greasy or wet conditions and if I get 1200 good road KM's and one track day out of a rear then thats a good run, there are much better tires out there if you are not trying to be Pecco. Rosso Corsa 4's are great for touring and the wet, they heat up fast and for 90% of regular use they are absolutely excellent as are many other GT oriented hoops .

My personal experience is once you start getting into "will I, wont I make it territory" and leaning on the electronics as you release the inner hoon then SC's are a very very good choice with amazing grip and superb feedback.

 

The economy of a Yorkist.

 

stiff bike with little flex murders the soft fronts.

We used to up the pressure in the front of the sc*’s to stop them collapsing in on themselves so much. Worked wonders.

Pirelli have come along in the last few years. They used to go off cliff. They still do, but nowhere as bad.
At the price they are now though I’m not sure they make much sense at what £400 a set before any discounts ? You can’t run them properly until they’re dead like you can a KR or Vo2.

I’ve never been a Pirelli fan, I’ve crashed a lot on them without warning which I haven’t had on other brands. I will say this though, out of the box, the rears have the best grip (for about 10/12 laps) anyway. The rear Pirelli is a better tyre than the rear bridgestone in my opinion (and many others in the paddock have agreed with that).

Each to their own though.

 

I can see why perhaps the bike responded to 'another tyre' because I ran Dunlop Sportsmarts on my 899 years ago and I have to say they did feel good.

One thing I will point out though... the S22 tyre test they did a few years ago, where they were flown out to Jerez and tested all the different bikes, they comment that the Panigale V4 "Just doesn't work with Bridgestone, it just doesn't feel right, electronics calibration etc, it really struggled"

That's why I personally would try the tire off my own back, but never off the back of their article, given that they now have Bridgestone logo's on their leathers..........

 

I think the context of that comment was more that the panigale needs slicks to work best and that the 22 is a road tyre and the pani struggled the most on it.

that’s how I understood it anyway mate

 

Yeah, I get that, I just can't imagine it's night and day between then.

That said, for anyone who's never looked at a V02 Bridgestone slick off the rim versus a Supercorsa, you can literally fold a supercorsa in half, a V02 Slick you can sit on it as a chair and it holds it's shape near enough... I had no idea the difference in construction was so extreme.

 

I’ve ridden both extensively on track. The ultimate grip from a vo2 compared to an s22 is pretty stark.

whilst the s22 is a good road tyre and the front especially has heaps of grip for what it is (typical bridgestone) it’s not a patch on the s22 in terms of grip, feel and the profile is different also which again changes the handling characteristics.

 

Ha, yeah.... I wasn't about to lob a pair of 'free' Supercorsa's!
My logic with the KR's is that their massive grip may save me from shit riding mistakes.

 

I'd run Rosso Corsas for well over 10 years before I bought the 1299. It came on a brand new Supercorsas, and I was pretty impressed with the front grip in comparison. But I expected a 1299S on those tyres to be better. Though it looks like the front is going to be done well before the rear, which surprised me. TBF though the sales guy at Ducati Cambridge said for some reason the 1299 is the worst for eating tyres?

 

I’m not sure whether the 12 was any worse than any of the other panis. But certainly the Pirelli carcass is silly soft and as said before unless you run them hard they do shag quick.

Cartagena especially which is hard on fronts, we ended up running the Pirelli front in the 40’s from memory. Spoke to a few bsb sbk like Hicky and Laverty who’ve generally agreed with the idea on the Pirelli.

 

I've been running the front at 36, I'll try bumping it up a bit in the spring.

 

Interesting comment about how soft the SC is, Dunlops have typically been a very stiff tire but I have found the SP3's to be stiff in the sense that you can still ride them at virtually no pressure after a puncture whereas Michelins collapse totally, fortunately they are the only tires I have had punctures on. The SC are the absolute worst for punctures when they are worn . The factory recommends 31r, 33f on SC's, but on the road I think you are better 38f 41r unless you like buying tires every 5 minutes. On track 30f 26r seems to work for me. On PowerCups as a comparison the difference between track and road is extreme, I set the rear at 22 hot and road 40 cold!

I also agree with the comment that SC's fall of a cliff, there is nothing that feels so good as new set, but after one track day they are toast regardless of how much apparent life they have left.

Tire discussions are very personal, your weight and riding style, application, suspension setup, road condition and temperature all play significant roles. Regardless of previous comments while there are definitely personality traits between brands, you simply cannot go too far wrong on modern tires built for the intended purpose. It is far more important to keep a journal and log each ride, hot and cold pressures, duration, temp, suspension changes and any other observations. Over time you will build an objective picture that's really helpful whether road or track riding as far as tires are concerned.

 

Its the monster torque, it just shreds them. It is definitely the most tire hungry bike I have owned

 

Funnily enough, when I rode on the road, I always got punctures on Michelins