Damage to rear tyre has meant the unexpected cost of replacing both tyres on the Aprilia (front was close to replacement anyway). Dealer didn’t have the same tyres (Pirelli Diablo Corsa), so opted for Bridgestone BT20. Whhooooossshyyyyafukkaa – it’s like the bikes lost 50 lbs or I’ve traded in for a Ducati. Sharper handling, supersmooth roll into corner, awesome confidence.
Tyre and machine in perfect harmony and just waiting for the bloke to catch up

Any favourites – and what’s the bike that wears them?

Pirelli Diablo Stradas for me, on a tuned & lightened Ohlins-n-GSXR sprung Suzuki SV650S. Work a charm but I’ve had some wear issues… TBH I’ve never felt I need sticky tyres on the road, I’ve got a set of supercorsa pros for trackdays but they don’t make me any faster anywhere else, they just give me more confidence. Used to use sticky tyres til I discovered I couldn’t keep up with a mate of mine who was on sport touring tyres, and figured if he can do it so can I.

But I’ve found the front Stradas wear wierdly, if I’d not got these ones cheap I’d be annoyed, I had to bin a front after only about 5000 miles because the sides had worn too fast and unevenly and the bike was falling into corners. Not good enough from a sport touring tyre. So it’s got an old Sportec M1 on the front just now, and I figure I’ll try the Roadsmarts next. Or Avon Storms maybe

Always had Dunlops (208s)or Diablos on my Monster and the Z750.
Just gone for dual compound Michelins though because I’m clocking the miles up commuting everyday.

So far, so good.
Much better, in that they’re wearing more evenly – so avoiding that ‘falling off the flat’ feeling while cornering.

[edit] ‘Only’ 5000 miles! I’ve been going through a set every 3500 max 🙁

Interesting. The rear Corsa was ok, but the front one was developing a bald strip right of centre, like I’d spent a thousand mles going round roundabouts.

Tried a couple of types of Avons a few years back, never got on with them, no reason, just never comfortable with them

“Only’ 5000 miles! I’ve been going through a set every 3500 max “

Yeah, I didn’t mind getting 3000 out of a sporty tyre, but the Strada’s a harder sport touring tyre, 5000 miles is pathetic for a tyre like that- the Metzeler Roadtecs I had before are almost the same tyre and the front lasted 11000 miles (and 3 trackdays) before it gave up. What was annoying was that for 4/5ths of the way round there was still loads of tread, it was just erratically worn. I got more life from a regular Diablo, which is stickier too. So not so good.

I honestly reckon that the big difference between modern tyres isn’t really quality/grip, it’s just confidence and feel. These modern long-range tyres grip better than the best road tyres in the world did a decade ago, and that was enough then. But it’s harder to go fast on them, they don’t inspire confidence in the same way, I’ve had to learn to trust them slowly where the supercorsa pros just instantly made me go fast.

Sounds like the same thing you’re describing actually bigbutslimmerbloke. Mate of mine had the same with Diablos of some sort on his Ninja too. When you look at the tyre you can actually see the wave in the surface, really ropey. I rode for weeks like that too, it was orrible, I was checking the frame bolts etc because I thought something had dropped off 😆

NW: “..These modern long-range tyres grip better than the best road tyres in the world did a decade ago..”

Absolutely.
These dual compound tyres are “Sports Tourer” – but they’re better than me and my “sports” tyres from years ago, that’s for sure.

I’d love to be able to choose my tyres 😉

Just fitted a pair of Avon Storms to my Sprint 1050. Fantastic. it had bridgestones on when i got it – the back badly squared off and the front ‘cupped’ messing up the handling. I’ve used the Storm’s predecessor, Azaro, on my previous Speed Triple and they were good, too. British as well!

I’m a big fan of Bridgestones.

On my GSX-R750 and GSX-R1000K1 I had BT010s, BT012s, then BT014s. My ZX-10R had BT015s and so does my current GSX-R1000K8.

I just don’t seem comfortable on anything else.

I tried those Maxxis SportMaxx’s and for the money they were ace. Other than that, i’ve never had a problem with Diablo’s but I don’t expect much more than 3k miles from a set