2013 World Superbike
Getting closer to real-world street tires, Pirelli will be supply the 2013 World Superbike Championship with 17-inch Diablo SBK tires. The current World SBK riders use 16.5-inch tires.
Pirelli says: "This radical option will allow Pirelli to remain even closer to its philosophy, its unique approach towards competition with its continuous transferring of solutions developed in the racing environment into the hands of motorcyclists and into road going product through technologies and developments coming from the highest level production series World Championship for which Pirelli is the sole supplier."
Currently, Pirelli supplies 17-inch race tires to local Superbike Championship sin New Zealand, Holland, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, Canada, Malaysia and many other local championships. The series that still use the 16.5-inch tires besides World Superbike are World Endurance, British Superbike and CIV.
When the World Superbike Chmapionship moved to a unique supplier aggreement in 2004, Pirelli was forced to adapt to the 16.5-inch size used by other manufacturers at the time, but that is about to change in 2013.
Pirelli says the 17-inch slick tyre is the optimal response for those seeking top performance without having to modify the chassis: ultra-high performance without mounting a new set of wheels or changing the bike’s settings.
Over the past three years, Pirelli has greatly accelerated its tyre development to meet end users’ needs and the power delivered by new bikes: in 2009, Pirelli introduced the new 190/60R17 size, in 2010 introduced a new high modulus carcass (Pirelli Patent), continuously improving compounds and finally in 2011 introduced the new 200/60R17 size, Pirelli says.
Compared to the 16.5-inch slick tyre, the 17-inch one offers a thicker tread for better handling and consistency, its footprint in mid to full lean is approx 10% wider thanks to a higher profile and a carcass able to endure more side force, all those features will definitely bring great benefits to motorcyclists all over the world, Pirelli says.
The Superbike Worls Championship will be an excellent environment that will allow Pirelli, as sole supplier, to develop the best tyres for 17 inch, a size that is now more and more demanded by the market, thus remaining faithful to its motto "We sell what we race" and thus continuing to offer riders the highest quality products developed with the help of the great Superbike champions, Pirelli says.