The Diablo is Pirelli's latest high-performance sportbike tire, built using the company's new ICS (Ideal Contour Shaping) tire-building technology.
Pirelli says its ICS tires more uniformly distribute pressure and stress over the contact patch, which allows the tire to heat up quicker and also avoid overheating in high-stress situations (such as on the racetrack). We were intrigued (and we're suckers for a cool acronym) so we dialed up Pirelli and had them send us a set. Being Super Streetbike, we requested a set of standard street Diablos (Pirelli also offers a Diablo Corsa for riders who spend a majority of their time on the racetrack) and mounted them on a notoriously tire-hungry Yamaha YZF-R1. We were pleasantly impressed by the performance.
Aggressive geometry makes the R1 sensitive to front-tire choice, and it generally intolerable of the triangular tires that Pirellis traditionally are. That said, Pirelli engineers must have tamed the profile of the Diablo a bit because it displayed none of the too-quick turn-in that we anticipated. Tread life is also stellar. We've got more than 1000 miles on the set now (including one Sportbike Track Time track day at tire-terrorizing Road America), and we're still less than halfway to the wear bars on the rear tire--a remarkable feat on an aggressively ridden literbike.
The Diablos are stable and especially predictable at extreme lean, though somewhat prone to sliding when pushed hard on the track. But that's what we get for taking a street tire to a 160-plus mph racetrack! If you're looking for a dedicated street tire with good manners, predictable handling and exceptional tread life, the Pirelli Diablo is near the top of this year's class. www.us.pirellimoto.com.