Modern Vespa

Okay team, Angels or Rossi's for a 2017 GTS ABS-ASR. Please tell me your recent experiences with these. I don't want to know about other brands please.

I've run Angels on at least a half dozen scoots now. The tire isn't quite as sticky as Diablo Rossos, but it has plenty of grip for sporty riding. As such, Angels don't wear away as fast as the Rossos do.

I'd only push for Rossos if you take your scoot to the track.

totally up to you, only you can decide what you like in a tire and performance and wear your looking to achieve

Thanks for this, exactly the kind of response I wanted. I have never ridden on Pirelli and have an opportunity to get some at a favourable price. I'm looking for people's experiences re grip and life in wet and dry conditions.

I've been riding Rossos on my HPE for the last 60,000 km or so. Love 'em but I do wear them out quick, especially the rear.

Describe "quick". (I guess I should add Mate as a Kiwi talking to an Aussie).

I thrash the bike as hard as I can everywhere all the time. I get 7500 km on the rear, about 10,000 on the front. Some times less.

if only you would have stated that in your first post.

The Angel is a cheaper Pirelli tire designed for and marketed to the burgeoning Asian market. It will last longer than a true performance tire, but won't handle or corner as well. When the Chinese bought a sizeable part of Pirelli, they set about using the Pirelli name to sell Asian tires in the Asian market. The Angel is their most successful tire to do this to date.

The Rosso gives you what you expect from a tire with the Pirelli name on it.
It's difficult to say if the Angel would meet with as much success if it had the name of the Chinese manufacturing company on it instead.

What's not to love?

I have MY2021 wheels on my 2017 GTS300. The wheels came from a crashed scooter (at 2000km), with Pirelli Angels fitted. I guess Piaggio used them as oem at some point in time.

I ride in the wet frequently.
I like the Angels on my Liberty, and the City Grip II on my other scooter.
Don't care that the one isn't made in Italy, nor is the other made in France.
O.S.

The road conditions are much more important than the make/model of tyre. And by road conditions, I mean if the road is asphalt or cobblestone or etc. There is a huge difference in gripping power between riding on asphalt rather than cobblestone. And there are different types of cobblestone which are even worse than others.

With an asphalt road, you can use pretty much any type of tyre and it will be safe. From the cheapest asian tyres to the most expensive 'track tyres'.

With a cobblestone road, you need the most grippy-est tyres you can buy, and frankly you should use the largest diameter wheels you can get. Rome is notorious for wipe-outs by scooters (especially small wheeled Vespas) on its small cobblestones when wet. Milano has the large cobblestone squares which because they have less edges per square unit of measurement, are even more slippery than Roman cobblestones.

Choose your tyres according to your own particular use case.

A few years back, I had CG2 and Angels back to back on my GTS as a comparison and got some good info.

The Angels are slightly better on dry roads than the CG2, they really do handle corners quite well. The CG2 is quite a bit better on wet roads, primarily due to a higher silica content in the compound.

The Angels tread wear rate compared to the CG2 was about 20% greater on the front, 24% on the rear based on my moderate to slightly aggressive riding style. I don't thrash through every corner.

Anecdotally, I felt the CG2 is the better overall tire for my riding purposes.

As for the Rosso, it will wear even more quickly than the Angel, and probably not very good on wet pavement for long.

Top 2 choices for tires right now are the CG2 and the Angel.

City Grips all the way.

They grip in the wet and dry and they last forever.

I don't know how they do it.

Pirellis last about as long as a breakfast cereal.

Pirelli Angels wear better than you think.

The tires in the photo are the Angel that just came off of the rear of my 2023 Vespa GTS HPE and the City Grip that I put on as a replacement.

That Angel had just over 8,000 miles on it, including most of the 2023 Scooter Cannonball Run as I had to out it on in Guymon, OK after picking up a nail in New Mexico.

It wasn't quite down to the wear bars, but it had a plug so I felt it best to replace it now.

The Angel was a 140 width while the new and original City Grips were 130 width.

As for riding, they are both very good tires.

Bill

Thanks Bill Dog, I like City Grips but they're not as easy to get as the Metzlers that have been on the scooter. A friend works for the Pirelli motorcycle tyre importer and has offered me a good price to try them. Angels sound like they will do the job, Rossos too and those will wear quicker.
I don't ride very aggressively and generally get reasonable life out of my tyres.

I was pretty happy with the angels on the primavera.

That's fair.

Would you mind giving us some feedback when you do get them because I chewed through a set at 3000 miles and I found them a bit vague in the wet.

In an act of total hypocrisy the 1100 BMW is being fitted with Angel GT's at the weekend.

Does this favourable price have anything to do with the tires age? Check for cracking if older than 5 years. If you ride a lot, older tires without cracks should be OK. Depends on how they stored them.

We discussed this specifically. They keep all stock in the warehouse under 2 years old. He promises me they will be under 1 year old whether I get Angels or Rossos.

Absolutely happy to post feedback. Just need to get the tyre(s) and have them fitted.