2021 Pirelli Diablo Rosso IV to suit fast road bike riders

New addition to the Pirelli sports bike tyre range is the 2021 Pirelli Diablo Rosso IV, designed to suit the fast road rider. Biased towards road use, the Diablo Rosso IV comes in below the Diablo Rosso Corsa II which is meant for sporty road use as well as light track duty.

This means the Diablo Rosso IV will give high mileage and excellent wet road performance while still providing the sports motorcycle performance Pirelli is known for. The target market for the Diablo Rosso IV is the supersports or naked sports bike rider who needs a tyre for the curves and twists of a mountain road but does not need the pure track performance of, say, the Pirelli Supercorsa.

Construction of the Diablo Rosso IV is a zero-bias steel belt design, with a 20% less dense rayon core in the front tyre, increasing rigidity while improving ride feel and precision due to more room given for the rubber compound. The rear tyre features a three-stranded Lyocell structure, developed from Pirelli’s experience in World Superbike Championship (WSBK), with lower deformation and greater resistance to cornering stress and hard acceleration.

For Diablo Rosso IV rear tyres below 190/50-17 in size, carcass construction uses rayon, in a design like the front tyre that gives more room for the rubber and improving feedback to the rider. Tyre profiles have a multi-radius design with a sharper profile in the centre for quick changes of direction and a smoother curve at the edges for increased contact area and traction.

Compound composition uses a harder full silica content in the centre of the Diablo Rosso IV front tyre, comprising about half the tyre width. The sides are of a softer compound, also with a high silica content, to promote faster warm up and consistent grip when cold.

Rear tyre construction for the Diablo Rosso IV comes in two versions, depending on tyre size. For 190/50-17 and below, the tyre is made out of two compounds in a cap and base arrangement, with hardest compound in the middle and softer at the side with quick warm up and race track level grip.

The larger profile Diablo Rosso IV rear tyre, 190/55-17 and above, uses three compounds divided into five distinct areas. A high silica centre compound gives high-speed stability, wear uniformity and mileage with a quick warm up and traction on wet surfaces.

In the middle, an intermediate compound covers normal cornering angles with a full silica composition. At the shoulders, the compound is 100% carbon black and comes from the Supercorsa SC tyres used in endurance racing.

The 2021 Pirelli Diablo Rosso IV will be entering the market in the first quarter,, with the most popular sizes available first, 120/70-17, 160, 180, 190 and 200/55-17 with the 50-series and smaller sizes coming towards the end of the year. For Malaysia, the Diablo Rosso IV is expected to be on sale towards the end of 2021 although pricing information is not available as yet, with the full range of sizes scheduled to be available next year.