In recent years, street enduros have achieved excellent technical and performance levels, and you are not mistaken if you consider maxi displacement bikes, particularly in the crossover versions, to be close to sports motorcycles. However, they stand out for their versatility: ranging from everyday use in the city, to roads packed with delightful bends, to long journeys fully loaded for a couple's adventure, which may include some light off-road sections.
The best tyres for these bikes must therefore be suitable for all situations and offer the best on asphalt surfaces of all kinds, whether on mountain roads, motorways or in wet conditions, but also allow you to get by on light gravel roads too. What's more, given the performance levels of the larger, increasingly street-oriented models, they have to reach a difficult compromise: combining the effectiveness of sport touring tyres and enduro tyres.
Pirelli has achieved this challenging goal with the SCORPION™ Trail II, which in 2015 created a new market segment by fully satisfying customer needs and the evolution of motorcycles, a goal certified by over 11 wins in comparative tests organised by the world's leading trade journals.
Today, Pirelli takes another stride ahead with the SCORPION™ Trail III, which features improvements that cover all aspects of an adventure-touring tyre. It is the sportiest tyre for street use in the SCORPION™ family, and is intended for current street enduros and crossovers ranging from medium displacements and above (over 400cc) to maxi bikes.
The quality of an adventure-touring tyre
The extreme versatility of street enduros and crossover bikes demands a number of important requirements from tyres: stability in all conditions; high grip; good mileage; comfort on bumps; reduced rolling noise; effectiveness in both on-road and off-road driving.
The new SCORPION™ Trail III is built around these goals and takes a step further than its predecessor, the Trail II. Some technical solutions are derived from the DIABLO™ sports range: the new tread pattern increases the full/empty ratio by providing more tyre surface in contact with the asphalt, which improves performance; the front tyre structures, derived from the Supersport experience, enhance the user experience and grip; the stiffness of the rear tyre ensures easy handling and high stability in all load conditions (a maxi bike can weigh more than 450 kg when riding with a passenger plus luggage).
The new compounds, for the radials always based on 100% silica for both the front and the rear tyres, are built to ensure excellent performance in both dry and wet conditions, in which the new tread grooves facilitate drainage. The structure of the rear tyre is multi-compound, soft on the shoulders with plasticiser resins to optimise grip when cornering and harder in the centre to offer superior stability and more mileage. Another feature, which has become very important today, is the ability to interact better with the machine's increasingly advanced electronic control systems.
Light off-road sections
The evolution of the SCORPION™ Trail III is therefore progressing in parallel with the technical developments of the bikes the tyres are designed to equip, moving towards excellent road performance. Although it is the sportiest tyre for asphalt in the SCORPION™ family, it is also designed to be used away from asphalt and on light off-road sections. The structure and the tread pattern, with alternating central and cross grooves under the imprint, generate control and traction, and the abrasion resistance has been improved, which is important for those who like to venture on gravel.
A very extensive range
The SCORPION™ range is very extensive: it ventures towards more off-road use with the SCORPION™ Rally STR, which has a knobbed tread design with excellent grip on the road, safe in the wet and fantastic comfort, and with the SCORPION™ Rally, which is better suited to off-road use.
Last but not least, it is completed with the MX line, introduced in 2006 for motocross competitions, a sector where Pirelli can boast over 30 years' experience with 81 world titles won. There are a number of models that differ depending on the type of terrain: The SCORPION™ MX Soft is for soft road surfaces; the SCORPION™ MX32™ Mid Soft is for soft to medium roads; and the SCORPION™ MX32™ Mid hard is for medium to hard surfaces. There are also tyres which are perfect for training, such as the SCORPION™ MX Extra X.
Also in the SCORPION™ family is the XC line of cross-country enduro tyres, available in two versions: the SCORPION™ XC Mid Soft for medium-soft terrain and the SCORPION™ XC Mid hard for medium-hard terrain.
