Pirelli Angel ST or GT?

Craig321 · 27 Jul 2015 at 12:20

I need to get some tyres for winter and have decided on the Pirelli Angels (can't really be trusting my Supercorsas in mid winter!).

Does anyone know the difference between the GT and ST tyres? Some say the GT is designed for heavier bikes / pillion riding etc. but others say the GT is just the longer lasting better tyre?

Any ideas?

Thanks

TallPaul_S · 27 Jul 2015 at 12:27

Craig321 said:
I need to get some tyres for winter and have decided on the Pirelli Angels (can't really be trusting my Supercorsas in mid winter!).

Does anyone know the difference between the GT and ST tyres? Some say the GT is designed for heavier bikes / pillion riding etc. but others say the GT is just the longer lasting better tyre?

Any ideas?

Thanks

The GT's replaced the ST.

I've got 3000 miles on my rear GT already and it's not even started to wear, mind you that is on a 50bhp 400cc bike, a 130bhp bike might wear it out a little faster.

I've not used them much in the wet, but in the biblical rain we had friday I completely forgot about them, which can only be a good thing. With my old front tyre I was always 'aware' of it not giving the best grip, these were lovely.

Craig321 · 27 Jul 2015 at 12:30

Ah, that clears that up, thank you

My Supercorsas have done 3k so far and are still pretty good. A tiny bit squared off from a long run on the motorway, but nothing too bad. Hopefully the Angels will do even better.

Sensibly I'll keep the Supercorsas for next year if they're still good by the time I replace for winter. Not sure how I feel about sticking old, partially squared off tyres back on, but then I'm also not sure how I feel about getting rid of perfectly good tyres

TallPaul_S · 27 Jul 2015 at 12:40

Yeah they're basically an update, better cold/wet weather grip and durability. I think they make a version for big heavy bikes, the standard GT is just for normal bikes.

I'll get a pic of my rear tyre for you, it is going slightly square, but only very slightly, I do 200 miles a week commuting on 95% straight roads so it's going to happen regardless.

wazza300 · 27 Jul 2015 at 12:49

either will do imo,i have the gt on the front and just replaced my worn out rear st with another st as it was slightly cheaper

I cant tell any difference between the two regarding grip

they hold the world endurance tyre record so you'll get a lot of mileage out of them

Craig321 · 27 Jul 2015 at 15:41

TallPaul_S said:
Yeah they're basically an update, better cold/wet weather grip and durability. I think they make a version for big heavy bikes, the standard GT is just for normal bikes.

I'll get a pic of my rear tyre for you, it is going slightly square, but only very slightly, I do 200 miles a week commuting on 95% straight roads so it's going to happen regardless.

Cheers. Would be good to see how they wear & also what they look like once they've done a few miles

benji182 · 27 Jul 2015 at 19:10

Where do you live?

Its supposedly summer here in the UK

TallPaul_S · 27 Jul 2015 at 19:10

IMG_20150727_183050743 by Paul Sims, on Flickr

IMG_20150727_182928506 by Paul Sims, on Flickr

You can see the profile is just starting to square a little (bad phone camera pic), but in the first pic you can see the harder compound band in the centre a little clearer.

IMG_20150727_182953010~2 by Paul Sims, on Flickr

And this was at a couple of hundred miles old.

IMG_20150525_160702644 by Paul Sims, on Flickr

I'd say, at very worst, they're a third of their way worn in the very central band, which would mean they'll last 9000 miles. I reckon I'll easily get 10k+ out of the rear without issues based on their current wear rate.

This tyre has done 800 miles to Wales and back, 320 miles of which was motorway. Then 1800 miles of commuting (straight roads, 2 decent corners on my whole commute!), and lastly 500 miles of Sunday riding (corners!). So that's roughly 2000 miles of straight line roads, and 1000 miles of twisties.

Craig321 · 27 Jul 2015 at 19:37

Nice, thanks

. They look good, nice & meaty! Would like quite nice on the Speed I think. They look like they scrub in nicely.

benji182 said:
Where do you live?

Its supposedly summer here in the UK

Hah yeah, supposedly. It is almost August though, and I can feel the weather getting colder already, plus I hate rushing stuff, so would rather have the tyres in the garage ready, then I can book fitting in advance and also need to order the front lift bar thingies for my abba stand so I can get both wheels of at the same time.

TallPaul_S · 27 Jul 2015 at 19:45

Yeah they're very good tyres. Pretty damn good in the twisties too, this was on the 2nd day of my Wales trip, zero chicken strips.

IMG_20150619_105526262_HDR by Paul Sims, on Flickr

Have you thought about picking up a 2nd set of wheels, chucking the supercorsas on one set and the GT's on another? Doesn't take long to change over wheels.

Oh and bear in mind that rear tyre is a 160/60 so pretty narrow compared to the 180/190 or the Speed.

Craig321 · 27 Jul 2015 at 19:47

That did cross my mind actually but kind of disregarded it as I thought it'd be really expensive. I will have a look into that though cos then as you say, it's a few min job to change over. Would actually work really well considering the disk and sprocket aren't on the wheel, so it just slides off.

Be a bit more of a pain for the front though.

TallPaul_S · 27 Jul 2015 at 19:57

Craig321 said:
That did cross my mind actually but kind of disregarded it as I thought it'd be really expensive. I will have a look into that though cos then as you say, it's a few min job to change over.

It's a shame the 2015 R model doesn't come with the forged wheels, you could have bought a set of non R wheels, then had the supercorsas on the forged set and the GTs on the normal wheels.

tom_e · 28 Jul 2015 at 09:17

Craig321 said:
Nice, thanks . They look good, nice & meaty! Would like quite nice on the Speed I think. They look like they scrub in nicely.

Hah yeah, supposedly. It is almost August though, and I can feel the weather getting colder already, plus I hate rushing stuff, so would rather have the tyres in the garage ready, then I can book fitting in advance and also need to order the front lift bar thingies for my abba stand so I can get both wheels of at the same time.

Stick a bag of sand on the back or get someone to push down on the back end, much cheaper

Craig321 · 28 Jul 2015 at 09:19

tom_e said:
Stick a bag of sand on the back or get someone to push down on the back end, much cheaper

They can hold it while I drive 20 mins down the road to get the tyres changed

tom_e · 28 Jul 2015 at 09:47

Craig321 said:
They can hold it while I drive 20 mins down the road to get the tyres changed

Better make sure they're a really good friend

pugheaven · 3 Aug 2015 at 01:29

GT is imho the best all round road tyre available. I'm on third set, big miles, epic on track... Stunning in the wet. I'll never change tyre.

swampy · 9 Aug 2015 at 21:23

I take a guess TallPauls bike is a honda cb400

TallPaul_S · 9 Aug 2015 at 22:46

swampy said:
I take a guess TallPauls bike is a honda cb400

You would be correct

CB400 superfour VTEC

Craig321 · 22 Oct 2015 at 15:47

Got mine on at last. Taken them out for 2 blasts today, they're so good in the corners!

Well worth it. Feel really nice and manoeuvrable at slow speeds as well, but that's probably more cos my old original tyres were starting to square off

They're more scrubbed in now. Pic above had never been ridden

tom_e · 22 Oct 2015 at 15:49

I really fancy a set of GTs but can't justify the £250 when there's still plenty of life left in my old tyres and they're not terrible.