This is a strange one, and then again, it's full of intrigue, education, safety and performance. You wouldn't think so, if a tire company called and requested your presence at Daytona Bike week to introduce you to their new brand of cruiser tires. Tires, they're black, rubber and round, ain't they? But we were broke and couldn't make the run, besides the Pirelli name has that Ferrari jingle to it, so I took them up on the gracious offer. In the end it turned into much more than just a free plane fare to Bike Week.
I'll tell you a story that sort of paints a quick image of my relationship with tires. In the '60s and '70s, a large part of the riding experience revolved around bike tires, compositions, and tread patterns, but I didn't know it. I use to say, “I'll go down once a year on a slippery corner, in gravel, or on leaves in a street.” Riding in the '80s and '90s changed that impression. I hit a deer at 80 mph, but never slipped in a corner, went down in the rain, or even took a spill on a sandy surface. Did motorcycle geometry change? Did handling or suspension advance with the new millennium? Hell, no, but tire design, fabrication, and chemistry improved constantly. So I packed my bags and headed to Daytona Beach.
Here are the basics: Pirelli opened their garage doors in 1872 in Italy and over the decades, expanded into Germany and ultimately Brazil. They grow approximately 7.7 percent a year in all their lines, which include motorcycle, cars, trucks, earth movers and agricultural vehicles. Some 70 percent of their biz is based around cars, SUVs, and motorcycles, and 30 percent is industrial-based.
Pirelli spends the largest budget, 3.7 percent, on research and development. They’re currently considered number one in Europe and South America, and number two in the U.S. The massive Brazilian factory produces conventional tires, whereas radials are built in Germany. They are testing nuts. They test motorcycle tires up to 700,000 miles in a year, sometimes 14 tests in a day. One of their test riders was on hand for the Daytona presentation. They own an old racecar track in Siracusa, Italy, on some picturesque coastal region, and he rides constantly. All testing is now performed with extensive data acquisition equipment and they hold 48 MX World Championships.
As the presentation progressed, the Pirelli team covered the company mantra, including a sporty attitude, passion for their brand, and their Italian heritage.
Then Kevin Allen stepped up to discuss the latest Pirelli brand, the Night Dragon line of tires. He described these round rubber straps as a performance V-Twin offering. His message was arousing, fascinating, and intriguing. He wants our market to view the Night Dragon as a performance tire, as we would consider a cam, carburetor or big bore kit. He wants to prove to us that his tires will increase HP, gain traction over mileage, improve handling, and be a clean looking alternative to OEM tires.
Over three years of testing, Pirelli focused on grip, mileage, and handling. They widened the contact patch and changed the tire shape and dimension to improve the patch on the ground by 8 percent. They studied tread patterns and groove design. They worked over the structure of the tire for best pressure distribution, heat displacement, and improved riding comfort.
The tread pattern varies from front to rear. The front tire tread pattern must split and peel water away from the rear tire contact patch area, so it must be designed to perform two functions. The grooves must remain open. Then the composition was studied to enhance grip with 30 percent polyesters, three blended polymers with high TG and carbon.
This crew of engineers, manufacturing gurus, testing nuts, and marketing guys were so Night Dragon-confident, they planned a ride for us the next day. You can imagine the doubts of a passel of moto-journalists, a scurvy lot of condescending writers who peer defiantly down their noses at anything that threatens to move in our slight and humble industry. We would see what the morrow would bring.
The glistening coastal morning was blessed with perfect weather as we straddled a dozen stock Harley-Davidsons decked with new Pirelli Night Dragon tires. The adventure began as we rolled out of the hotel parking lot onto A1A heading south toward the Kennedy Space Center 63.9 miles away. We peeled over the Port Orange Bridge and experience slippery steel gratings, but the tires hung on for a confident grip over the salty surface. We experienced a half-dozen steel bridge experiences during the day and the response was consistently strong.
We continued south on highway 1 and rolled left onto the sandy Kennedy Parkway. Florida lowlands contain a constant myriad of corner sand traps, but again, the Pirelli grip dug into the ground beach stone to find traction.
I'm not kidding, I noticed an immediate difference in the ride. It was smoother than most tires I've encountered. We made several photo stops and I took the opportunity to quiz the engineers. They told me that stock OEM tires are designed to last 5-6000 miles and the Night Dragons would survive almost the same, depending predominately on whether the pilot is an aggressive rider on not. They also pointed out how the tread pattern funnels the water away from the rear tire patch area to allow as much contact with the wet pavement as possible.
They explained how critical the tire pressure is when it comes to tire wear, handling, and heat dissipation.
“You should run your tires at the high end of the recommended tire pressure spectrum,” they told us. “That's generates the least amount of heat and the tire will last longer. If you start with a low psi, the tire will develop more heat and wear out quicker.” Just a 4-pound psi drop can reduce tire life by as much as 30 percent.
From the National Wildlife Refuge, we leaned right onto Indian River Lagoon Scenic Highway and left onto Route 1 south again into the home of airboat rides and alligators, Titusville. We experienced a taste of stop-and-go traffic and Night Dragon braking as we exited onto Route 405 east into the Kennedy Space Center.
I experienced sort of a rush of American ingenuity and innovation as we entered the NASA facility on the coast, where numerous historic space launches were initiated. We were aboard the latest Harley-Davidson technology, testing the finest combination of tire development in Pirelli's latest line, and entering the ultimate in space technology from the Apollo program in 1968 to the Space Shuttle program, which started in 1981.
In a distant oblique sense, these flights are the ultimate motorcycles making Moon runs. It gave me chills from one presentation or display to the next to sense the level of teamwork, education, talent, and drive it took to make just one space mission a reality. From space exploration studies and innovations, a myriad of products have been developed and transferred to our daily routines, including radiation-blocking sunglasses, programmable pacemakers, protective clothing for emergency crews, car phones, microcomputers, high-density batteries, flat-screen TVs, solar-powered electricity generation, weather satellites, and so much more.
The more I spoke to the Pirelli engineers, the more I learned about tire design and variables. I hope to bring you more tire design and configuration information in the near future, and you'll get a real sense of how tires work and the factors at play.
For instance, tubeless tires are made and coated on the inside very differently from tube tires. Installing a tube into a tubeless tire is asking for trouble. The tire fluctuates with every bump in the road. The plys move and strain and a tube in a tubeless tire introduces extreme heat properties.
Radial tires work very differently from conventional tires and demand a much shorter sidewall in order to function properly in a motorcycle configuration. I will bring you more about how sport bike tires work in comparison to touring tires.
In the meantime, I grabbed a couple of comments off the Internet from other reporters who were on hand to test the Night Dragons:
Cycle World
First Look: Pirelli Night Dragon
Italy goes cruising
By Chris Worden
March 2008
From the looks of Pirelli’s own chart comparing the Night Dragon to other cruiser rubber, it appears to have a slightly shorter lifespan than conventional, high-mileage tires. But lifespan isn’t the goal here; this tire is about performance.
More comprehensive testing will provide better information about the usability of the new Night Dragon, but from first impression, Pirelli has done exactly what it set out to accomplish. Its next-generation cruiser tire looks like a winner…
Pirelli Night Dragon Tire Review–Motorcycle.com
Ride the Dragon
By Pete Brissette, Mar. 14, 2008
Photography by Tom Riles and Catherine Wedmore
There's a hole in the bottom of the sea! Well, maybe not, but Italian tire manufacturing giant Pirelli believes there is a hole in the V-Twin tire market, and the company has sent in a dragon to meet the need.How does Pirelli know about this market void? According to Kevin Allen, Marketing Coordinator for Pirelli's North American motorcycle division, consumers aren't the only people the company is hearing from.
“There's a dealer dilemma out there right now. Pro Street-tuned, dyno-tested, high-horsepower motorcycles exist and dealers are having difficulty delivering products that can put that power to the ground. With the Night Dragon, we're hoping to solve that dilemma,” Allen tells Motorcycle.com.
To illustrate just how important this newest tire is for Pirelli, a number of department and division leaders from the company assembled in Daytona Beach, FL during Bike Week to unveil the Night Dragon. Really, can there be any better place or time to unleash a new product for the V-Twin market?
So what exactly is the cause of the dealer's woes? In short, all you have to do is look to the TV, browse the magazine rack or attend any of the countless motorcycle shows to observe the proliferation over the past few years of large-displacement, high-horsepower, custom-built V-Twins. Heck, even OEMs are getting in on the act: Victory mass produces what are essentially turnkey customs with 106 cubic-inch powerhouses capable of roasting the rear tire when the red light turns green. Or how about the new monster, the Raider, from Star? Dealers, according to Pirelli, are having a hard time finding tires suitable for such machines.
The key element that the tire company focused on for grip was an improved contact patch. Pirelli claims an 8-percent larger contact patch than that of the next best competitor.
Piero Misani, Director of Research and Development, tells us, “The contact patch at the end of the day is the most important part of the tire. It's the part of the bike in contact with the ground.”
Indeed. But merely enlarging the contact patch isn't enough, according to Misani.
“An increased size of the contact patch wouldn't be enough if you couldn't benefit from this size. The best way to capitalize on the larger contact patch is to ensure uniform pressure distribution.”
He emphasizes that Pirelli could certainly just use a high-grip compound, but ride quality and mileage are still important. This is where the tire's shape, size, and use of more durable compounds come into play. Using a compound focused strictly on grip would sacrifice tire feel and stability.
Topix.comPirelli Night Dragon tire
Posted by roboblogger on Sunday Mar 16
Words by Kenn Stamp
Tires are difficult to review.
That's all I could find, but I beg to disagree. There's way more to tire design than covered here, but we're going to additional tire science articles in the very near future.
Here's a list of the tire sizes available: Since I'm not savvy with charts on the Internet or anywhere else for that matter, this chart lists the size, rim measurement, rims permitted, max tire width, max diameter, load, recommended psi, and max speed:
MT90B-16 TL 72H N Dragon F F 3.00 2.50-3.50 N/A N/A 783 36-40 130
140/70B-18 TL 73H N Dragon F F 3.50 3.00-4.50 N/A N/A 805 38-42 130
100/90-19 TL 57H N Dragon F F 3.00 2.50-3.50 N/A N/A 507 38-42 130
MH90-21 TL 54H N Dragon F F 1.85 1.60-2.15 N/A N/A 467 36-40 130
130/90-16 Rein TL 73H N Dragon R 3.00 2.50-3.50 N/A N/A 805 N/A 130
MT90B-16 TL 74H N Dragon R 3.00 2.50-3.50 N/A N/A 827 38-40 130
MU85B-16 TL 77H N Dragon R 3.50 3.00-3.50 N/A N/A 908 38-40 130 N/A N/A
150/80B-16 TL 77H N Dragon R 3.50 3.00-4.00 N/A N/A 908 40-42 130 N/A N/A
180/60B-16 TL Rein 81H N Dragon R 5.00 4.50-5.50 N/A N/A 1019 40-42 130
150/70B-18 TL Rein 76H N Dragon R 4.00 3.00-4.50 N/A N/A 882 40-42 130
I find it interesting to post the notion that this is a performance tire with a max speed of 130 mph. I also noted the lack of sizes available, but I believe this is generally an OEM replacement tire and not designed for custom uses. Following is some Pirelli Company info. It might clear up anything I missed:
HIGH-PERFORMANCE CRUISER TIRE WITH AN AGGRESSIVE LOOK
New performance product range tailored to Harley-Davidson and metric cruisers
Modern tread pattern combines high-performance attributes and a great new style
Outstanding grip at all lean angles
Special compounds offer incredible straight-line acceleration and traction
New structural designs provide great stability and comfort
Most sizes available August 2008
STRUCTURAL SOLUTIONS NEW STRUCTURE: THE IDEAL BALANCE BETWEEN STIFFNESS AND FLEXIBILITY:
– New Front and Rear Profile
– Supports the bike at every lean angle
– Optimized pressure distribution on the contact patch
– Unbeatable dampening properties
– Best pressure distribution
– High level of riding comfort
NEW SEA/LAND BALANCE:
– Compact tread design maximizes the contact patch
– More rubber on the ground to ensure traction and grip in every situation
– Drainage
WET OR DRY: THE EMOTION NEVER ENDS
– Front tire tread designed to cut water layer, clearing the tarmac for rear tread
– The calibrated grooves between rear center section and edges of the rear effectively disperse the residual water
– Structure keeps tread grooves open in dynamic conditions
THE CONTACT PATCH IS THE KEY ELEMENT IN DELIVERING MAXIMUM PRODUCT PERFORMANCE:
– New dimension
– New shape
– Allows use of more durable compounds with increased levels of grip
– 10% larger contact patch
HOW TO DELIVER THE POWER TO THE GROUND:
– Grooves concentrated exactly where needed
– Ideal balance between style and performance
AGGRESSIVE DIRECTIONAL TREAD DESIGN:
– Tread grooves layout optimized to ensure uniform and quick warm up
– Stability and traction
SO PROVE IT, PIRELLI INITIATES 6000 MILE TEST RIDE
The Pirelli team is planning a long distance cruiser road test from Alaska to Florida through Canada, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Tennessee and Georgia. This trip will encompass slow and twisty mountain roads, fast open interstates, various pavement configurations of countryside riding, tough traffic urban areas, various weather extremes and dangerous road conditions. True American riding style.
Watch for more reports in the future.
