Pirelli rain tires

Anyone know the difference between these 2 rear rain tires?

Thanks.

 

Only one of them is “Rain”, the other is “Wet” (commonly referred to as “Intermediate”).

The Rain is for when the track has standing water, and it is actively raining.

The Wet (Intermediate) is for when it isn’t currently raining, but the track is wet and Slicks won’t work.

 

Wha?

 

Which one is which? And why?

 

All the way right is the full rain tire. I’d imagine it’s softer because you can’t get as much heat into it for one. Sippons (can’t spell) are probably deeper to allow more water inside them. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone with intermediates at a club level but maybe and I don’t notice. In my experience if it’s wet but not raining, intermediate tire conditions, a wet will work for a sprint but you might cook it.

 

Gentlemen

The one on the left is a front rain, the one in the middle is a 160/60-17 block pattern rain, and the right is a 190/60-17 rain. The wet tires look NOTHING like these, see below.
https://www.pirelli.com/tires/en-us/motorcycle/all-tires/sheet/diablo-wet#gallery-2

 

Front wet

 

Can I get partial credit for being kinda sorda right?

 

NO....back to your cave!

 

I figured it was obvious the far left tire was a front, and the other 2 were rears.

 

Well if you look at his picture you can see two red arrows drawn into the picture pointing at those two tires...I’m shocked that you could actually look at that picture long enough to comment with the 2 different patterns on the rears

 

I didn’t even see the arrows until you pointed them out just now. I scrolled way too fast to see that shit.

 

Did you see the Indians?

 

I thought an intermediate was the DOT tire like they use in WSS.

 

Never mind

 

We used the MT60RS as DOT approved rain tires in the 90s. They were bad ass!

The Wet tires are NOT DOT approved and we use them in all race series around the world. Basically the front is a slick with a bit softer compound and grooves to evacuate water. The rear is Bi-compound and sides are a like a rain compound but not exactly the same, and it's rare to have the perfect weather and track conditions to use them. They are perfect if the track is damp with no standing water and that it stays that way for the whole race. If it gets more wet than use rains, if it's a drying track use dry tires.

 

Chris how many times have you Pirelli rains over the years?

 

Can you explain why Pirelli went with a totally different pattern for the 160 rear rain? I've always wondered why those are different from the bigger rears. Now I've noticed that the 140 rains also have the same pattern as the big tires, so I think the 160 is the only one that's different, right? What's the reason for that?

 

I don't know why it's different but I know the pattern on the 160 makes a great flat track tire!

 

Ahh a great question, so around the world the race 160/60-17 sales are tiny. What drives the sales of the size is the North America market and it's SV650 and Ninja 650 racers. So our 160 rain has the latest rain compounds and it's tread pattern comes from the days when all 600 MW bikes used a 160 rear. Because the volumes are so small (and not growing in the big picture of things) we decided not to spend the tens of thousands of dollars to make a 160 rain in the newer tread pattern.

Yep you won't find a lot of SV racers outside of the US or Canada. For the dry Pirelli offers a DOT and slick rear in two race compounds but I don't think all of our competitors do the same. And the reason why is the world wide volumes are small and demand is not there.

Time to clean the carb on the screaming 1972 Honda project on the bench and fire it up!
Jeff