20 Years of Moto.it, Piero Misani (Pirelli): "The sensors will amaze us."

Hello Nì, it's a pleasure to be here with you.

And anyway, I've been working in the motorcycle world for 32 years, so I'm getting a bit old.

Absolutely. I grew up with the sound of engines in my ears. I lived near the park and I was studying, and to be able to buy motorcycles—because back then my parents weren't too keen on letting me buy bikes of a certain displacement—I decided to make myself independent by working as a waiter during races. But it had an advantage: the waiter's uniform became the pass to get in and watch the race directly from the pits.

Yes. I started with motorcycles at Pirelli. I joined Pirelli in 1985 and immediately began working with motorcycle tires. The most beautiful experience was bringing radialization to the motorcycle world.

Yes, certainly. The most important milestone, which I mentioned earlier, was radialization. It actually started a bit before 20 years ago—it began in the late 1980s for us. But the key moment was 1992, when we started to impose on the market—and I can say impose—the zero-degree steel belt technology. The market back then wasn't yet accustomed to using steel in motorcycle tires. I remember when I went to Japan for the first time to explain it to our Japanese clients, they looked at me with almond-shaped eyes wide open, saying 'Steel in a motorcycle tire?' But it turned out to be an important innovation. So the early 1990s, the first half of the 90s, saw radialization come to fruition. For the first time we managed to make a radial tire work both on the highway for sport touring tires and on the track. We were in fact the first to bring the zero-degree radial to victory in competitions, especially in Supersport, because with Casoli we won the first world championship with a zero-degree front and rear tire.

Once the structures were sorted out, companies realized they had to invest heavily in processes. Partly because radialization meant that the machinery available in factories was no longer suitable, and partly because industrial competitiveness demanded more efficient processes. This might seem like an internal company benefit—producing efficiently in Europe, because we continue to produce in Europe—but this is also a benefit for the end user, because these highly automated process projects have led to extremely high quality levels, consistent quality. So today the user can be sure of having uniform performance no matter which product they buy.

The third evolutionary phase, I'd say. Yes, the third evolutionary phase we see marking all sectors of industry. Major innovations are in the world of materials, whether it's computers, automotive, or tires—every field is marked by that. The latest products have achieved performance levels, homogeneity, balance, and optimization never reached before. With the Diablo Rosso III, we managed to create a track product—essentially a super-sporty tire—that can be used on the track but also has road characteristics in wet conditions, in the cold, in the heat, in every condition. That was unthinkable 10 to 15 years ago.

Absolutely. The winning model is collaboration with motorcycle manufacturers. We're doing it with pretty much all of them. We have a significant presence both in Europe and Japan for original equipment. We certainly have a special relationship with Ducati. In the mid-2000s, we signed an exclusive supply contract with Ducati—more than a commercial contract, it's a technical collaboration. Working with them has been very productive in bringing innovation to market. Not just technical innovation, because technology is a means—the important thing is to deliver something usable to our end user, the motorcyclist. It's not just about adding silica to improve wet grip; it's also about creating new market segments. The Multistrada is the first example that comes to mind, where we managed to establish the use of a purely sporty tire—because a 190/55 is a sporty size—on a bike like the Multistrada, or the Diavel with its 240 that handles like a bicycle despite such a massive tire. This type of partnership highlights another aspect of innovation: innovation in market segments and niches that then become entirely new segments.

The motorcycle world is characterized by the fact that it's about pleasure. People buy a motorcycle not just for commuting but for the riding pleasure, the bike itself, the passion. This means certain segments will certainly develop further. There will be more and more riding in closed areas, on dedicated circuits. Back when I was buying those motorcycles, I used to fool around on the roads.

The very first was a Guzzi 50, then a Benelli T90, then a V35, then a GS 500 and a CX 500, then I moved to BMW, and eventually landed at Ducati.

Yes, in the sense that we'll have much more eclectic tires. What we see today is that while it's easy to identify a supersport track bike, a street sport bike, or a sport touring motorcycle—to categorize them in that way—there isn't a one-to-one correspondence with tire characterization. You can mount different types of tires on various motorcycles. A sport touring tire can be fitted on an old supersport, or even on an enduro or a true sport touring bike. Likewise, a supersport tire can go on a track bike, but also on a naked, and some people even put them on a Multistrada. So the tire world must ensure that tires have a broad spectrum of performance—from cold to hot, wet to dry—but also a broad spectrum of application across different motorcycles. However, sport motorcycles used predominantly or exclusively on track will be increasingly technical and high-performance, and on that terrain the tire must work in ever closer contact with the motorcycle's electronics. What's changing is that absolute tire performance alone is no longer enough. Once we talked about grip, stability, stability under braking—all extremely important parameters—but the tire must be able to communicate with the motorcycle, with its electronic systems. In this regard, we're developing tires focused on this. We're about to launch the new Diablo Supercorsa SP in collaboration again with Ducati. These tires are born with attention to interaction with the motorcycle's electronics. This is increasingly important—it used to be just interaction with the ECU; today it's interaction with the vehicle's control and stability systems.

It's a combination of all the tire's construction characteristics. To give an example, I can use ABS, which is the first electronic system we had to interface with. I use it because I think it's the most immediately understandable. People think braking distance is tied to grip—and partly that's true. If you don't have ABS, it's all about grip. But with ABS, grip is only one component. Torsional stiffness—without going into details—plays a hugely important role. What ABS does is release the braking system as soon as it detects a slip, then reapply it milliseconds later, otherwise you'd lose braking entirely. This is the so-called discontinuous operation. Between the ABS system and the asphalt is the tire, and the tire with ABS can work somewhat like a clutch, a sort of remote discontinuous shock absorber that dampens the step in ABS response, as if it were really a clutch or shock absorber. So it's not so much grip that plays a role—it's the tire's torsional stiffness that manages to dampen that. Exactly, so you can gain more meters by making a tire suited to the ABS's logic by working on the structure rather than on grip. And the same applies to traction control.

Exactly. And we'll see what other possibilities emerge in the future. In the car world we've seen how there's an incredibly important interaction now. On motorcycles the pace may be a bit slower, but the evolution is happening. Today we can say it's perhaps slower, but once a solution that's uniform across the entire market is found, there will be tremendous acceleration. We saw this with the introduction of traction control—suddenly it had explosive growth. For years people said it would be a long road, then it arrived and was pervasive. Today you can easily find excellent traction control systems on any street bike.

Yes, mechanically speaking, certainly when it comes to suspensions—and this would require a sector expert—active suspensions are being discussed. It's clear that the spring-damper component could remain mechanically fairly constant in its construction design. What's important is how you control it, how you vary it. So again, a collaboration between the frame, the suspension, and the tire is ultimately key.

I like saying it that way, but we're on the same page.

We let our colleagues in the car division push ahead on that. I'll be completely honest. The motorcycle works in a very particular way. In a car, the steering mechanism is fairly straightforward—it's linked to the slip angle. With a motorcycle, the camber angle and the slip angle are inherently connected—I can never separate lean angle from slip angle. So our situation is a bit more complex. Certainly every company is paying close attention to these future developments, but today air is still the fundamental structural component of tires, and I believe I can say that for at least the next 10 to 20 years we won't see these solutions on motorcycles. What we are evaluating, however, and what we will see increasingly, is sensor technology in tires.

This will certainly have a much shorter timeline. We're already fairly advanced with four-wheel vehicles, but I won't hide that in the two-wheel world too, being able to provide more information to the motorcycle's control systems is useful for rider safety. We've talked about various control systems—traction control and so on—but these systems don't know what's in contact with the asphalt. They don't know which tire is mounted, what its wear conditions are, whether it's a heavily treaded tire or essentially a slick. They don't know what friction is available on that stretch of road. So the world of sensor technology will truly be what amazes us, also because there will be a concept of shared safety. The moment the tire can give information to the vehicle, it will also be able to give information to other riders—the concept of the network. If I pass through a stretch of road that is particularly hazardous on a given day, this information needs to be shared. So in my view, the future—not too far away—will be the sensor inside the tire that will optimize control systems and also create enough data to inform all users about real-time road conditions.

Exactly. It depends also on how much the user rides the motorcycle during deep winter periods. Certainly, as I was saying, materials have helped us make tires today that handle everything from extreme winter conditions to scorching heat or thermal stress on the track very well. So today with a good sport touring tire, or even a super sport like the Rosso III, you can ride comfortably in cold and wet conditions. Snow is a different matter—compared to the car world, again, a car travels in snow; a motorcycle—we've done it in Sardinia with wide tires, but honestly, in snowy conditions the law doesn't allow two-wheeled vehicles to circulate, and it's genuinely difficult. For traveling in snow you really need a proper knobby tire, because it's hard to create a motorcycle tire that works on snow and is also effective on the track. I think today's tread patterns are capable of covering all these needs. We'll see in the future what happens, especially if legislation changes and there's more clarity about the possibility of using them. Using them, though, also means changing tires, which in a car is very easy, but on a motorcycle we also have to overcome a psychological barrier on the rider's part.

Well, regarding the future, a lot is being said about autonomous driving—in the case of cars, autonomous driving. This could naturally come up as a question. We've seen some examples. But personally, I believe the motorcycle world is still very much a world of enthusiasts. It can't be reduced to just commuting or simple transportation. When this question is asked, it already causes a certain terror among motorcyclists—the fear of being deprived of this. I don't think that will ever change. There will increasingly be the concept of parks—we do track days, as we mentioned, the day after a Superbike race, where users get to ride on the same track under the same conditions. We'll be moving more and more in this direction, just as in the off-road world we'll increasingly head toward theme parks, because environmental concerns mean that open spaces for riding will progressively close down. But that doesn't mean we won't continue to develop tires alongside motorcycle manufacturers to deliver maximum enjoyment—enjoyment in safety, as you often say.

Thank you. Thanks to all of you. Thank you, bye.