For the last day or so, I've been breaking in a set of Pirelli Rosso Corsa III tyres on my FireBlade. Introduced at the end of last year, these tyres are set to replace the fantastic Corsa IIs, which personally, I really like and currently have fitted to the 1098s. For the last year or so, and with a monster commute, I've been riding around on a set of Angel GT tyres, designed as a touring/long life tyre and have been really pleased with their performance, so was really interested to get some softer rubber on and see how they felt. With a few hundred miles under their belt, I was able to test the tyres across a myriad of different conditions at a variety of speeds, on a selection of different road types and I'm really pleased with them. At one point I was riding along freshly soaked tarmac and the tyres performed brilliantly, with no serious performance issues. Yes, in the wet you can't really ride like in the dry, but I felt confident through the twists, turns and trees on the A272 between Billingshurst and Petworth to not really worry about the conditions and just think about where to put the front wheel. As you can see, the tread pattern is similar to that of the Supercorsa, the sportiest tyre in the Pirelli range, but has additional treads to help disperse water from the edge of the tyre. As you would expect grip is very good across the whole tyre in the dry and I was able to run fairly quickly through some smooth sweeping corners. Feedback also seems good...now I'm not going to sit here and proclaim that its like being hard wired into the road surface, feeling every single nuance of the tarmac, but you do get a feeling of grip levels when pushing on. Without the ability of a back to back test like in Performance Bikes, this is very hard to quantify, but needless to say, they feel as nice as the Corsa IIs. My biggest concern at this point is longevity, which is something that didn't really concern me about the Angel GTs. The Rosso Corsa II's seem to struggle a little bit, but that's the sacrifice for exceptional levels of grip when warm. For the next three weeks of so, I'm still having to do a fair amount of motorway/fast truck road mileage, which is concerning me a little. With a round trip of around 220 miles three times a week and no car, I'm worried that I'm going to destroy the centre of the tyre before really finding out what they can do. Yes, I can always buy another set, but it will annoy me if I have to replace them in 3000 miles time because they're down to the wear markers. All in all, I like these tyres. They don't make riding any harder than it has to be and I'm looking forward to seeing what they are like on track when I head up to Silverstone to attend the California Superbike School in a few weeks.
Good write up. The Rosso Corsa and the Rosso 111 are different tyres though. I think those are the Rosso 111.
Good write up i would be interested to know how they do for mileage i was thinking of putting some of these on my bmw s1000rr to go touring with if they do 3000 miles i would be happy.
Did the CSS level one yesterday and the tyres gave lots of grip all the way to the side. Very pleased. Will keep you updated regarding the mileage
Rosso 3s are going on my Tuono in a few weeks. I've been running Rosso 2s on my Monster 1100, Streetfighter 1098 and the new Tuono. I rate them highly for road use on torquey engines.
Having put Rosso Corsas on my monster at around 5000 miles, I think I might go for a set of Rosso IIIs next, from the website it seems they are multi compound tires where the centre is of a harder compound for upright cruising i.e. motorways and the sides are softer for grip. I have zero complaints about my Corsas, they're phenomenal for grip and are very confidence inspiring, I fear they will square off quicker than the Rosso IIs that were originally on the bike, but am only about 3000 miles into their life and they seem to be doing well, from your brilliant write up I have no doubt the IIIs will be as good as the Corsas for my particular needs! So thanks!
Guys, firstly my apologies! I'm the git who got the free set of Rosso III's and should have tested and reported by now. My bike has been off the road with an issue for the last 5 weeks but I'm getting it back today or tomorrow with the new tyres fitted. Next week I'm off with a couple of mates to Scotland so will be doing 1500 miles over 6 days. I will let you know how I get on with Pirelli's latest offering.
Not sure if these were the OE tyres on my s1000. If so, fantastic grip. But dont go touring on them. Struggled to get 1500 miles!
Being that the weather is unreal atm I went for a of big spin today, I did check the tires before hand, the rear is close to 1mm in the centremost part and it's squared off slightly, there's about 2-2.5mm on the sides. So I'll be looking to get a rear Rossi III this week, I just wanted to ask about front rear compound mixing, I think I read somewhere that its better to have softer at the rear would that be correct? Or is it the other way around? The front is still about 3mm and hasn't really squared much as far as I can tell. With the new rear I'll be running Rosso Corsas on the front and Rosso IIIs on the rear, would I be better off getting a Rosso III for the front also? Thanks!
You would probably be okay with a RC3 on the back and an RC2 on the front, although it would appear the RC3 is a little harder. You could replace both and have the RC2 as a spare for the front..maybe. I ran a Supercorsa on the back and an RC2 on the front for a bit...but had a crash on track when pushing way to hard
I actually have the Rosso Corsas on at the minute, they're much softer than the Rosso IIs, which is probably why they lasted about 3k compared with the 5k I got from the Rosso IIs. Would soft front hard rear be alright? I am thinking of maybe going for another RC and trying to get 3k more from the front, rather than getting two new tires now.
@mattmccabebrown Nice write up! I am also thinking of swapping to them for an upcoming big Eurotrip. One point of housekeeping though which needs clarification else it is confusing: you repeatedly get it wrong on the name of the tyre you are referring to. You have the Rosso 3. There is no such tyre called "Rosso Corsa 3". There is, and remains, the "Rosso Corsa" (commonly known as DRC) which is a tyre one up from the Rosso3 in the range, and one down from the SuperCorsa. Pirelli use 'Corsa' for their track biased tyres.
