The new Scorpion Trail II is Pirelli’s latest adventure bike tyre, a sport touring tyre with an ADV look if you will.
Based on the popular Angel GT, it has been redesigned to better suit road-focused bikes, with a new profile, optimised contact patch, and continuous block tread pattern.
The new tread pattern and profile are said to reduce heat build up in the tyre, and Pirelli claim this has the effect of increasing durability by as much as 50%, without the need for a harder compound.
The deep, steeply angled grooves in the revised tread pattern also channel water more effectively from around the contact patch, and along with new compounds, they are said to much improve wet grip.
Pirelli have also revised the construction of the tyre’s carcass to allow it to cope with the demands of even the most powerful adventure motorcycles.
They were recently reviewed by US based Motorcyclist Magazine, in their August 2015 edition, and they had this to say:
“The Trail IIs performed admirably during our dry and very cold pavement-only media test day, providing excellent grip, good traction feedback, and a quiet ride with slightly more vibration that a typical sport-touring tyre. Turn-in is predictable if a bit slow, and we noticed some tendency for the bike to fall further into the turn about mid-corner.”
Unfortunately there was no rain available on the test day in which to test the manufacturer’s claims of better wet grip. That will just have to wait for another day…
Find out more about the Scorpion Trail II here.
