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Pirelli Night Dragon tire

Posted by Kenn Stamp
Thursday, 13 March 2008
Page 2 of 2 So there we were, approximately 15 journalists all decked out in jackets, jeans, boots, and full face helmets riding along on our Harleys. Boy I bet we really scared those guys with the tats, sleeveless shirts, and no helmets that were riding around. Our first stop was to be for photos. Now all you readers out there see is the beautiful pictures that adorn the pages of motorcycle magazines both in print and on the web. What you don't see are the literally dozens of passes made over the same stretch of road over and over again while the photographer(s) runs around like a nut trying to get just the right angle. It would probably be funny to watch if it weren't so freakin' boring! Oh what a tough life we journalists lead (sigh). This photo session was to be a little different though. Oh sure, there was still the repetitive corner taking, the waiting in line to go so that there is the correct amount of distance between each rider (1 rider per picture please), waiting for the other group to be done, and watching the Running of the Photographers (much more dangerous than the Running of the Bulls). What made this day different was the added fun and challenge to see who could lean an Electraglide the furthest. Alright so there was only one other Electraglide being ridden that day and I really don't think he was aware of the competition, but I still think I won. I did learn a very important thing that day about these Night Dragon tires; Pirelli wasn't kidding around when they said these things had good grip. I was pushing that 'Glide very hard and I only had an issue when I got the floorboards to fold up enough that I was leveraging the front tire off the ground. At that point I could feel the front end start to push through the turns. These tires will definitely outperform most, if not all, of the bikes they are put on. After the photos it was off to Kennedy Space Center where Pirelli had arranged a special guided tour as well as lunch. The tour was neat as we got to go places that mere mortals (read: non-journalists) aren't allowed. One of those places was closer to the shuttle launch pad by about 2 miles than any other tour since the shuttle was sitting there waiting to launch in one week. One of the coolest parts was driving right past one of the crawler transporters as it made it's way toward another launch pad. Our tour guide said that they have actually seen turtles outrun the crawler as it is moving along. Reminded me of some students I've had in my MSF classes. We had to cross a few drawbridges heading to and from the Space Center and crossing those highlighted another nice feature of these tires; they don't squirm when crossing bridge gratings. Every cruiser/touring bike I have ridden always gets that little squirm going when crossing those gratings, but the Night Dragon equipped E-Glide didn't. Pirelli says that this is due to the design of the tire and the choice of compounds used. The tire was designed to flex over those kinds of irregularities and not transmit them to the bars. Not only did this work like a charm over the bridge gratings, but it also completely eliminated the wiggle in the bars when going faster than 50mph. Pirelli, always dedicated to providing the most well rounded press event possible, even arranged for it to rain on us as we made our way back to the hotel! I can only imagine what kind of pull they have to get Mother Nature to oblige us lowly journalists with rain so that we could test the wet weather capabilities of the Night Dragons. Alright, so they claim they had nothing to do with the rain but I'm not sure I believe them. It was immediately obvious though that the tires performed admirably in the wet. We didn't get a chance to do silly things in the rain but I could feel that the tires were settled and had no issues when run through a few patches of standing water. I have ridden on three different models of Pirelli tires recently and haven't found one yet that didn't perform at or above the level of it's design goals. If you are looking for a street tire that might spend more than 50% of it's life on the track Pirelli makes the Corsa III for you. Looking for a street tire that might see a track day in it's lifetime? Pirelli has the new Rosso (a set is currently being reviewed by us) in it's line-up. And now if you need a new set of tires for your cruiser but want better handling and grip without sacrificing too much tread life, you can spoon a set of the new Pirelli Night Dragons on and have a tire that will most likely out-perform your bike. Head on over to Pirelli USA to view more info on the Night Dragon (info coming soon). Check out the Pirelli Night Dragon thread in our Bike and Product Review Forum to comment and view more pictures from Kennedy Space Center. << Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>

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