Pirelli Scorpion Trail tires on BMW

[Old Can Ride]

I went to a BMW dealership with my son on Saturday, he wanted to look at the 650cc to 800cc Beemers. One of the first things I noticed was that all these BMW bikes came with Pirelli Scorpion Trail Tires that are 95% road and 5% trail. BMW use to come with 80% road and 20% Dual Sport tires, not trail tires. I know that overall Pirelli makes some great racing products that stick to the roadway like glue, but the soft rubber gives bad mileage numbers. Years ago when I use to race, I would use nothing but Pirelli tires to race, but other brands for the roadway. Pirelli has been around forever. I see the Scorpion tires are Z performance rated. Has anyone used the Pirelli Scorpion Trail Tires? How is the road mileage on these tires? Are these tires any good on the dirt trails and dirt roadways?

 

[Deleted member 1183]

Scorpions came as original equipment on my KTM950SM when I bought it in 2006. I used them throughout and liked them . They were grippy tyres with good handling characteristics, and I had utmost confidence in them. Last year my dealer told me that Pirelli had changed them and the older versions were no longer available. They can only improve I thought. Wrong. The grip is still there but the handling is not. The tyres are now tramlining from new and give a very uncomfortable feeling. I can ride thru this but I will not be getting them again. I found similar handling traits on the Tourance EXP's on my Triumph Explorer. They are also an "improved" tyre and also made by Pirelli. My next tyres on the SM will be Bridgestone T30's. I may move to Annakee 3's on the Triumph.

 

[Old Can Ride]

Thank for the information. I do like Bridgestone tires, as they are a good price value. Bridgestone T30 looks to be a great 100% street tire, and an improvement over the Bridgestone Touring 023 100% street tire I am currently using. I like the 023 a lot also. Only found one problem with the T30. The T30 is available in a lot of sizes right now, but the 17 inch is not available right now from the vendor I use. The 17 inch is suppose to be available soon in 2014.

 

[Mojave]

I had a rear Scorpion Trail mounted on my NC700X a couple hundred miles ago. It is a fine handing tire, much better than the stocker. There are no bad traits. I've had the bike heeled over through sweepers at over 90 and it was steady as a rock. Straight-line stability is perfect, ride is smooth and quiet. The Trail actually works pretty well in the dirt, with a twist of the throttle I can break into and hold a feet up completely controlled slide in second.

I was going to go with a Road Pilot as I've had good luck with them on sportbikes, but after reading the Scorpion reviews I decided to give them a try. So far I'm as pleased with them on the road as I would be with a Road Pilot. Offroad they do work better than a Road Pilot, though I've not tried anything that would really tax the tire.

 

[davidc83]

I had the Scorpion trails mounted on my bmw g650gs for 15,000 miles and hated them from day one. They were squirrely at low speeds-any undulation in road was a PITA-high speeds they were good and they did last as long as the stock Metzlers (sp?), but I went back to the Metzler Tourances after the Scorpions were done.

 

[Mojave]

Interesting that a tire that has generally very good user reviews in the general motorcycling community is basically running negative here, very small sample so far.

Davidc83, why did you keep a tire that you "hated" for 15,000 miles? I could see for a couple thousand, but if a tire irritates me I just call it a bad job and change it to something else I hope doesn't irritate me. Of course, I'm one of those poor creatures that can't get more than 6,000 miles from any tire on a full size bike.

Aside from full knobbies on dirt bikes (which have been good) I've only run one other Pirelli - a Route 66 - on my Sportster. I absolutely loved the tire for 2000 miles as it did really well on dirt and road, but then it delamed on the side wall. I started noticing a "thump" in left turns. It got worse fast and by 2,500 miles I had a new Shinko.

I think I've tried every "dualsport" tire in existence on my, at various times - R1150GS, 650GS Dakars (two of them), DRZ400S, and DR650. From 606's to now, the almost pure street Scorpion. Most of the tires work well for a thou or so but wear fast, start getting noisy, and generally not make me as happy after 3,000 miles or so. The really ex$pensive ones seemed hardly better than a cheap model.

On my dualsports I've been using Shinko 700 "Trail Masters" for a while. These do OK on dry desert, are good on the road, only last 3 thousand, and are cheap. I also like that I NEVER get flats, which seems weird to me as they seem pretty wimpy for the sharp lava I ride on. The 606's I ran I liked (aside from the "singing") but I'd get a flat every 1000 miles like clockwork.

 

[davidc83]

Mojave: the reason I kept them were $$$, and my daily commute is 76miles round trip with 60 being interstate-above 40-45mph they were good, just at slow speeds and thru parking lots did I really despise them; I cannot justify spending $400-$500 for tires and not using them (I cant change my own tires due to shoulder injury years ago). The Metzlers on the bike lasted for 16,000-17,000 miles and were the same price, so I switched back.
Heck, I get 17,000-18,000 miles on my Pirellis MT 66s on my cruisier. One thing I do is I keep the tires at max pressure and check them weekly (during spring, summer, fall, I ride everyday)

 

[Mojave]

Wow, I get maybe 5000 out of a cruiser rear on my Sportster, which I cruise at 70-75 mph. I check and adjust pressure before every ride, which is usually only on weekends. I usually run 38-40PSI on a rear. I sometimes think it's the roads in Kali that eat tires. And it was a MT-66, do they call that a Route 66 also or am I confused? So, it sounds like you had better luck with those then I did with mine.

I generally change my own tubed tires, kind of like an old knight sleeping in chainmail I suppose. I do enough offroad alone I have to be able to repair a flat with short tire irons. Tubeless tires I don't even try to change though I suppose I could. I take my wheels in to a place that matches Motorcycle Super Store price, and mounts the tire and balances the wheel for an extra $10.

 

[davidc83]

Mojave-The Pirelli's are MT66 Route 66 tires (some people call them rt66s and some mt66s-same tires). I have a friend who go almost 30,000 miles on his mt66 when he had it on the rear of his old Honda SLX.

 

[davidc83]

Wow, I get maybe 5000 out of a cruiser rear on my Sportster, which I cruise at 70-75 mph. I check and adjust pressure before every ride, which is usually only on weekends. I usually run 38-40PSI on a rear. I sometimes think it's the roads in Kali that eat tires. And it was a MT-66, do they call that a Route 66 also or am I confused? So, it sounds like you had better luck with those then I did with mine.

I generally change my own tubed tires, kind of like an old knight sleeping in chainmail I suppose. I do enough offroad alone I have to be able to repair a flat with short tire irons. Tubeless tires I don't even try to change though I suppose I could. I take my wheels in to a place that matches Motorcycle Super Store price, and mounts the tire and balances the wheel for an extra $10.

No one around here changes tires for $10, even the local motorcycle shop, they all charge $60-$90 per tire even if you take them the wheel and buy their tires. Cycle gear will change the tire on the wheel for $10 if your buy the tires from Cycle Gear and you take them the wheels.

 

[Mojave]

30,000 miles!!!!! I don't remember what the MT66 thread looked like at 2,500 but I don't remember thinking "hmmmm, looks brand new, wonder why it delamed!".

The place I buy my tires at is an independent repair shop. I've long since given up going to a dealer for any reason. For a while I considered getting one of the cheaper but decent tire machines - Nomar. Spooning tires is usually hard work and can even make me cuss at times. I almost bought the Nomar but became aware of this nice business that would mount and balance for basically nothing - if you buy it through them. Otherwise it's $25.

David, you seem to be a very serious rider. I just ride for fun and when the weather is nice. When I was younger I commuted on and basically rode motorcycles everywhere. Kids changed that. After the trucking kids all over stage I went back to riding but only recreationally.

After 37 years of riding around on the back of my bikes my wife is starting to ride her own - she has a Ninja 250. She's very excited about it, like I was about the 1973 RD250 I bought new I suppose.

 

[Mojave]

OK, here's a 600 mile update on the Pirelli Scorpion

I should have bought a Road Pilot.

This tire is wearing FAST. 600 miles and it's getting a flat strip. I've had several PR2's and they would basically look new for a couple thou.

 

[davidc83]

Hey Mojave, You could say I am a serious rider (I got back into riding in 2007 after a 25 year hiatus). In Jan 2007, I bought a Suzuki GZ250 and put 11,000 miles on it in 6 months. I took it on a 2500 mile bike trip in 5 days, but when I got back, I told my wife I would be looking for a bigger bike. In Oct 2007, I bought my Suzuki C50 Boulevard, new, with 1 mile on the ODO; the bike now has 67,000+ miles on it. In April 2009, I bought a new BMW G650GS with 30 miles on the odo; when I traded it in for the new Honda NC700x, the baby beemer had 36,000+ miles on it. Oh yea, I have a 2009 Kawasaki KLX250SF I keep in storage in Florida when I go to Florida and want a bike to play around on. I bought it new and it only has 3000 miles on it. So that is about 117,000 miles ridden in 7 years, not too bad.

I wish I could get my wife to ride, either with me or on her own. She wont. She used to ride dirt bikes as a teenager but lost all interest in motorcycles. :-(

 

[Mojave]

That's some serious miles. I've was pretty steady over the years 1971 to kind of a break in 1985 -1991 when two babies came. I went to work and places only on motorcycles unless I really needed my truck. Since that time it's completely causal and fun rides. I've owned 80 odd street bikes and maybe 30 dirt bikes over the years and I 'm guessing 600-700K miles. I do try to experience the different styles - adventure, sport, even one "cruiser". I wonder why I haven't own a Hayabusa yet, I'll never have anything with apes, I've a weakness for Italian bikes, I love riding old Brit bikes other people own, I keep trying to buy a KTM but a little voice keeps saying "nope".

I think a bike you might appreciate, and would certainly ride the hell out of, is a Airhead. I've own three - 73 R75/5 LBW, R80/7, and a 71 R75/5 SWB. The best was the 73. it was a smooth and fast bike in the mountains, very comfy too. I got it because I heard BMW's went forever and I was tired of wearing out Jap bikes every 25K. I was prepared for it to be weird and funny handling but it clicked with me right off. I got a few great years on it but that was the bike I sold when my first kid was born. There are lots of R100's (decent brakes) around - these are certainly peppier than the NCX but you'll only get 45mpg. Slowly but surely the old airheads are turning to the darkside - oilheads. It's hard to deny the 30 more horsepower! I've had two or them, a R1150GS and a R1100S BCR (Boxer Cup Replika). I've had two Dakars so I know (and like) the Rotax engine. I sometimes think I rather have one of those then the NCX, but then I remember that I can't keep those off trails and the whole vicious cycle starts again. An analysis cycle in which I decide the bike I really should not have sold was the 05 DR650SE. Procycle has a 790cc (!!!!) bigbore kit for the DR now! 55 fat horsepower in a 350 pound bike, that's enough for me.

 

[davidc83]

I enjoyed the Rotax engine (my own opinion-the best single cylinder engine out there) but I got tired of listening to a thumper. I prefer twins, either v or parallel.

 

[Mojave]

Have you ridden a Ducati? I must say the combination of runaway power and smoothness is attractive. Because of various spine issues none of the affordable Ducati options would work for me - I want upright, some wind protection, and plush suspension. I did have a MTS1000 Multistrada which was a great bike that checked all those boxes, but those 2 valve Multi's have serious problems with the gas tank and are pretty delicate offroad.

 

[davidc83]

No, I haven't ridden a Ducati or a KTM. Don't like the looks of Ducati and I really wasn't impressed with the Duke 690 (looked at possible trade of the BMW G650gs for the Duke but I liked the looks of the Honda better). Everywhere I looked people liked the quality look of the Duke 690 but I just didn't see it.

 

[Mojave]

I usually like the styling of Ducati up to maybe 6 years ago. Simple trellis frames etc. But they have to change to be "new". I generally don't like the overall styling of KTM but I do appreciate the details.

I test rode a Duke 690 last week. Mucho power but I knew almost instantly that bike wasn't for me. It's like your GS shrunk two thirds and a magic wand put 30 more HP and a bunch of vibration in it. I do recommend trying out a Ducati air cooled bike - the engines are charming. I doubt such a bike would work for your big miles because except for the Multi the bikes are hard to sit on for more than a few hours. I rode my Multi to the tip of Baja and back and it did fine on that 2,200 mile 7 day trip.