Pirelli Dragon Supercorsa Pro - Review
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This Pirelli is a crossover product designed for Hypersport machines, trackday and fast road riding. With its track biased shape the Supercorsa certainly encourages fast turns and offers high levels of grip in the dry and when up to temperature in the wet also.
Pirelli Dragon
Initial Thoughts
Trying a tyre that has one foot firmly planted in trackday's and the other on the road is always going to yield a different result to a regular road tyre, track tyres have to endure higher temperatures over sustained periods in order to offer consistant performance all the time, one shortfall though is that on the road you may not actually get the tyre to a working temperature - no matter how much like Rossi you think you ride!
The Pirelli Dragon Supercorsa Pro offers a massive amount of dry grip leading you deeper into corners, later on the brakes and ultimately hooning around at your favourite pace, the profile of the tyre really coaxes you into hitting the bends and while they are not as stable as one of their road biased cousins they certainly inspire that 'hero' feeling when everything comes together. In the wet however they are a different story on public roads, generally taking a smidge too long to heat up before getting the grip down where you need it and as taking it steady is the order of the day they can be quite a pain to get working.
When they are working though they are superb, certainly more of a tyre for track riding with tyre warmers getting them ready if the weather is wet and slippy. I was fortunate enough to not encounter as many wet days on these as I have on other models which has left me to really get the most out of them, the edges of the tyres slightly bobbled from high speed cornering and unfortunately thecentres squaring off as more motorway miles have to be done on them and this is their ultimate downfall.
Wear rates were high across the entirety of the tyre and with only 2900 miles on the clock before I had to replace them they are not the most economical of tyre, on the track where outright grip is paramount they are superb but if you are looking for a long lasting tyre that is your compromise.
Construction
- Racing Tyre, homologated for public roads use, derived
from top race winning pirelli product
- High-speed and braking stability thanks to radial
construction with patented 0° steel belt
- Outstanding handling and excellent response and control
thanks to optimised contour profile
The Dragon Supercorsa Pro has been superceded by the newer Diablo Supercorsa Pro tyre but is still available at certain stockists
Editor reviews
Reviewed by Leigh Godson August 22, 2009
Last updated: May 29, 2010
Top 10 Reviewer - View all my reviews
Conclusion
For me the dry grip from this tyre was right on the money and the wet grip equally so when the tyres were warmed, this did not really happen as quickly as I would have liked though and led to a couple of tentative rides.
Feedback from the tyre was good and when up to temp they never tried to let go but did start to slide progressively when the road surface was not up to scratch.
The real rub on these tyres is the longevity, with only 2900 miles clocked before they were done they did not offer the best economy but that is the decision you have to make between grip and miles - usually!
