Tires for the Multistrada already? The bike has only 1,500 miles on the clock, but I haven’t been very fond of the Pirelli Diablo tires that were fitted at the factory, and I wanted to try something new and different for the benefit of our readers. (UPDATE: The Pirellis are/were apparently called simply “Diablo”, not “Diablo Corsa”; see comments section below).

It’s nearly impossible to conduct an objective evaluation of motorcycle tires — or any tires for that matter. That’s why published tire comparison reviews are very rare. There are too many variables and it is extremely difficult to get the kind of repeatability necessary to objectively evaluate tire performance in a meaningful way.

Sure, it can be done, but only under controlled conditions, where the environment and testing procedures are “scientific” and repeatable. This means that consumers have to assume the tire manufacturer’s data — if any is provided — is accurate and useful.

Instead, what we’re typically faced with is some narrative spun out by the marketing department in the form of a press release, which naturally claims that Acme’s new RoadBlaster Grab-n-Go tires are, no doubt about it, the greatest thing since carbon black.

Notice I used the word “objective”. There are plenty of subjective motorcycle tire reviews around — they’re known as opinions, and you’re reading one right now. But true objective testing, with real data on grip levels, wear and temperature charts? Very rare indeed.

So all I can do is provide a subjective opinion for the Michelin Pilot Road 2 tires recently fitted to the Multistrada. Since this is an opinion from one rider about a specific tire on a specific motorcycle, my findings may vary considerably from other Pilot Road 2 owners using the tires on the same or other motorcycles. But since webBikeWorld readers typically have a voracious appetite for information, and since our mission is to help our readers make informed purchasing decisions, I think this narrative will indeed be useful.

Background The Multistrada 620 came with the original version of the Pirelli Diablo tires. Pirelli now has another version, called the Diablo Corsa III, that may indeed be different from the version described here.

I noticed right away that the Pirellis felt like they had a “hard” compound; apparently, Ducati’s primary goal was to outfit the bike with a decent set of relatively inexpensive tires designed for basic riding and for long wear; nothing wrong with that, actually.

It also seemed to me that the tires took an exceptionally long time to warm up, but I have no real data to back this up. I would describe it like feeling that I had to tiptoe around on the bike for the first few miles of every ride — longer than what I consider to be normal — until the tires offered decent grip. But even then, I never felt 100% comfortable that the tires were providing all of the grip that the bike could handle.