swaroop

Rational Thinkers

[swaroop @swa45tch]

Pirelli, how many punctures and tyre failures should an adventure rider accept before it stops being called “bad luck”?

I recently took my BMW R 1300 GS running Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR tyres on a demanding adventure trip with a group of 15 motorcycles.

The other riders were predominantly on 400–800cc motorcycles, several using ordinary road-oriented tyres.

My experience?

Approximately 8 punctures and eventually a tyre failure/burst that forced me to abandon the Pirelli and find whatever replacement tyre was available locally.

And here is the part that is difficult to explain away:

The replacement was an Indian-made Apollo tyre, 150 section, sourced because that was what I could get in the area.

It then ran for the next 13 days — on-road and off-road — without giving me a single problem.

So an improvised replacement tyre successfully completed terrain on which a premium adventure tyre fitted to one of the world’s most capable adventure motorcycles repeatedly failed.

The photographs attached speak for themselves.

And this is not my first such experience. This is the second time a tyre failure has disrupted one of my critical adventure trips.

Adventure riders buy products such as the Scorpion Rally STR specifically because we expect them to tolerate demanding mixed-surface touring. Nobody expects a tyre to be puncture-proof. But eight punctures followed by a serious failure, while the rest of the riding group gets through, raises legitimate questions about durability, construction and suitability.

It was embarrassing riding a flagship BMW R 1300 GS and repeatedly stopping because of tyre problems while smaller motorcycles on far less exotic tyres continued normally.

More importantly, this goes beyond embarrassment.

In remote adventure riding, tyre reliability is a safety issue.

I don’t want a marketing response from Pirelli saying that punctures can happen.

I would like Pirelli to answer three simple questions:

Is this level of repeated failure considered acceptable performance for a Scorpion Rally STR?
Will Pirelli inspect/investigate this tyre and explain why it suffered so many penetrations and ultimately failed?
Would Pirelli confidently recommend the same tyre to an R 1300 GS rider undertaking another remote adventure after seeing this evidence?

BMW built a motorcycle capable of crossing extremely difficult terrain. Unfortunately, on this trip, the limiting factor was not the motorcycle.

It was the tyre.

Over to you, Pirelli.

@Pirelli @PirelliMoto @BMWMotorrad

#Pirelli #ScorpionRallySTR #BMWR1300GS #BMWMotorrad #AdventureRiding #ADV #TyreFailure #MotorcycleSafety #AdventureMotorcycling

[SilentFrame @SilentFrameM]

In Nepal, elephants were seen saving people from the devastating Flood...

Pray for Nepal 🙏

#Nepal #NepalCrisis #Nepalfloods

[swaroop @swa45tch]

@IAjitDoval_IND Heartbreaking 😢

[Abhijit Iyer-Mitra @Iyervval]

Ouch!!!!! If words could kill, Anupam Kher just spit roasted Naseeruddin Shah.

[swaroop @swa45tch]

@thecaravanindia Global leaders are your medium to verify the approvals this man has achieved. Stop pulling our country’s prestigious position’s image down

[Narendra Modi @narendramodi]

Highlights from a euphoric rally in Kolkata yesterday! It’s clear West Bengal is supporting BJP…

@BJP4Bengal

[William Seaborn @will_seaborn]

There are over 50 Muslim majority countries in the world.

And yet a Muslim PM of an Islamic country took refuge in Hindu majority India.

[swaroop @swa45tch]

@AskAnshul @helloNBNW @Nike People like me have such high regard towards @Nike but this disrespect and insensitivity by hiring a model with such ignorance about India is unacceptable. If it comes to brand against sentiments, trust me us @Indians will never choose the brand

[swaroop @swa45tch]

#myntra #cheating #consumerProtection #ConsumerRights #stupidtaxpayer #tumkur

[swaroop @swa45tch]

@bhavasarhemang @PanasonicIndia Same with me too, extremely pathetic!!

[swaroop @swa45tch]

Have you ever taken a shower under your AC !!! If you are looking for a refreshing experience with both shower and cool air, here is the Panasonic highly rated AI based intelligent AC for you. Pay a bomb to buy one and on top within 4 months get showered everyday tooo 😍😍😍

[swaroop @swa45tch]

24+ enterprises. 2,100 devices. 4,000 virtual machines. 1 #Monitoring #Platform. Discover why iVision chose LogicMonitor
https://t.co/EmWNP5Snu3

[swaroop @swa45tch]

@YouTubeIndia Ads are inevitable whether 90s TV channels or 2020s online channel 🤣🤣🤣🤣