Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128353
The Pirelli Strada. he fact that I even survived long e no ugh to samp le Pirelli's new D iablo Strada sport -to un ng ti r e IS absol utely amaz ing. The day of the te st ride started from my hote l in dow ntown Palermo, Sicily, and headed for the mo unta ins and onto th e famous Targa Florio race track . If you haven't heard of the Targa Florio, think Isle of Man, but in Sici ly. Motorcycle s raced o n t he famous track Iro m 1920 to 1929 , and cars started racing there in 1906. Some of the most famous racecar drivers, such as Juan-Manue l Fangio, Stirling Moss and Enzo Fe rrari , com peted t he r e belore the trac k was closed in 1978 due to safety co ncerns. If you think that public road racetrack s such as the Isle 01 Man or Targa Florio are treacherous, think again, because it can't even comp are to negotiat ing morning rush-hour traffic in Palermo. I've ridde n moto rcycles and dr iven cars in som e 01 the craz iest cities in the wo rld places such as Barcelona, Madrid, London , Paris and New York - but nothing com pares to w hat I exper ienced in Palermo . Not o nly w ere the str eets wet Iro m an early morning rain, but they 're also polished, slick and provide litt le in the way 01 grip. These are all elem ents that one can adjust to - all the people on the ir scooters T we re riding way faste r than I was comfortable going - it's just w hat one 's used to , I guess. Sicilian drivers are the craziest moto rists I have ever see n. Their method 01 driving is to go first, go last, honk lots and look for oth ers last. Anarchy is the first wo rd that com es to mind. It's as il t he government just gave everyone in Sicily a vehicle lor the first time but forgot to mention that there are traffic rules . My favo rite scena rio is whe n, at inte rsect ions, drivers just go lo r it in no particular order until it clogs the en tire intersection. T hen all 01 the scooters , motorcycles and pedestrians squeeze through the gaps and further limit the motorists' ability to move . Everyone ho nks, re luses to make eye contact , and yet no on e se e ms angry maybe I'm missing the real efficacy of gridlock. My seco nd favo rite sce nario is splitting lanes against o pposing traffic, wh ich is mandatory lor eve ryo ne o n two wheels, grandma included. There is an imaginary tw o-way lane be tween t he cars, pretty scary w hen yo u think abou t it. As I discovered, the biggest bike wins, which meant that on the Ho nda Intercepto r o n my first Rn The Interceptor was the perfect bike to tackle the 45mile laps of the Targa Florio• .................... IT " . . . . . . . . . . . - 11. . ---- I . .... ... tm.81,l1 til. lO,a bag. , bill," ta u till 11.11 taJI I•• day and o n the Ducat i ST4S the second, I was king. The scooters would play chicke n with me until they realized that not only was I bigger, but I wasn't getting out 01 the w ay. The re is nothing like punting grann y back into her lane - I just ho pe she do esn't have mo b connections . www.cyclenews.com I'm not going to lie to you. It's probably not nec essary to fly all the way to Sicily to test tires . (My boss sure ly doesn't think so.) But alter ex pe rie ncing the new Pirelli Diablo Strada sport -touring tir es in th e exact location w here the tires we re developed, I'm sure it was the best place in the world for the intro duction. Not o nly is Sicily the site of Pirelli 's testing ce nter, but it also has som e of t he most exciting roa ds I've ever ridde n on. Oh yeah , and it has some of the best food on the planet. O nce o ut 01 Palermo and onto the Targa Florio, things got lun. Imagine this: a historic public roads racetrack in Italy, a good se lection of bikes such as the afo reme ntioned Honda and Ducati, and complete immunity lro m The Man. Yes, anarchy o nce again, due to the fact that Pirelli had obviously "made arrangeme nts" lor t he local police to look t he other way during our test ride . None 01 th e Pirelli re presentatives ever me ntio ned anything about this, but the presence of the local police at our posh five-cours e lunch kind of tipped us off. Only in Italy! Times are changing in the tire industry. Not on ly have tire manufacturers figured out how to make motorcycle tires last longer, but they grip substantially better CYCLE NEWS • DECEMBER 8, 2004 27