Up until now I've been loving Michelin pilot power 2's on the Tcat and had fitted the pilot power 3 to the srad before i had to sell her, I'm a pretty quick road rider and have to admit i am one of those idiots that will get my knee down at any and all given opportunities!
Due to our lovely 110/70 front we obviously have a limited choice of what I'd call decent tyres, so as I normally throw a sportier one on the front I thought I'd go for Bridgestones new S20, normal price is £95 but Bridgestone is currently offering £30 off a pair, I mentioned this to Matt up at Burwins, Essex road N1 and he honoured £15 off a single tyre, so at £80 fitted and balanced I figured why the hell not!?
Well, I've only done about 20 miles on it so far so she's obviously not scrubbed in but I have to say the first thing I noticed was how much better it soaks up lumps and bumps, and to be honest I've never ever noticed that before when changing tyres, it just absorbs them so much better, give me a couple of days to scrub them in and get confident on them and I'll give my full opinion of them!
Might use them as my next set though half tempted by a set of PR3's since everyone raves about them as well Currently running a set of BT023's with plenty of tread, so not in a rush to change
dead eye...i ran the bridgestones and the dunlop 207/8 on my 600 ,very simular tyres went through a few in ten years of ownership...got pr`s on the thou and cant fault them well worth trying on the 600
be interesting to see what those s20`s are like...will need new rubber come the end of the summer
I have always rated the pr3's rear very, very highly, 16000 miles out of a rear on an srad 750 (with bigger pistons, gas flowed head and race cams!) and I wasn't gentle on them,
The 2 times I've paired them I've found it takes me a long time to have confidence in the front, and strangely the more they're worn the happier I was with them, this is why I was putting pilot powers on the front which IMO are just brilliant, and the pr3 on the rear,
as the S20 is in the same field as the pilot powers I figured I could have a good comparison!
Some days ago, on my über jacked-up FZS, I scratched not only the peg but also a crash bobbin riding a pair of old BT-021s at a mountain's road. I catched, overtaked and left behind a lot of newer or sportier bikes. I felt like Jorge Lorenzo
I only achieved it before at a grippy racetrack with sportier Diablo Rosso's.
Sport-touring tyres have become so good the last years that there is no need of sportier ones for road use.
Yep, 16 Thousand, I think I had 15 thousand out of the previous one on the Thundercat!
I used to use the bt21’s but had 2 incidents with them-
1- rode it off the tyres at Rockingham international (on a banked corner! :rolleyes ) if it was a stickier tyre I think it would have held.
[size=78%]2- lost the rear end at the bottom of Caledonian road which resulted in- [/size]
10-06-13, 11:40 PM (This post was last modified: 10-06-13, 11:49 PM by unfazed.)
Had a similiar issue with going off the end of the tread without much effort with the BT21 and after a trip to Donington and a few hairy moments took them off and Focced them in the bin. Never used bridgestones again.
I find the PR3 good plus they last well, but for handling and confidence I find the Metezler M5 front and rear brillant.
My son had BT21s on a K5 Gisxer600 and was constantly using all the tread. He put M5 on and never had a problem either. Never got to the edge on the M5s
BT 21s were fine grip wise, but were slower to warm up than the PR3 and the M5 and I was not to happy about going to the edge of the tyre to easily.
12-06-13, 10:39 AM (This post was last modified: 12-06-13, 10:44 AM by Motorbreath.)
(10-06-13, 11:43 PM)darrsi link Wrote: Always found the BT21 rear to be very safe, but heard the fronts are shite!
There were early front versions which were shit, you have to look to some little letters that I do not remember on the side of the tyre to be sure
I like the front tyre a lot. Lots of grip but little wear. Rear is not so special, more wear, not so grippy but better wear/grip ratio than anything I have tested before. It is a very safe set I think, the rear always warns you at corner, more than Diablos.
BT21s also eliminated the handlebar wobble at about 80km/h the bike had for years. Great tyres, I am amazed as I bought them because they were the cheapest I found! (except for some ancient Michelin Road 1)
Hey buzz, yeah, the scorche marks are still there, just round the corner south of the canal, the council have since widened the path and its just past where the path pulls back to its original width by the parking spaces under the trees!
Well, I've covered 1000 miles on the S20 front but with the moist days we've had the past week today was the first that I got to have some fun, luckily I was given a job to Milton Keynes so I got to enjoy some of the good roundabouts on their grid system roads.
I like them, good feel going into the corners, helps ansorb the bumps, solidly dragged the knee a few times and scraped the hero blobs too.
Are they better than pilot power 2/3's? I'd say very similar, just have to wait and see how many miles it'll do but for the current price of £80 fitted I'm not going to complain in the slightest!
Punkstig, a request...
If you're gonna keep this thread alive, please remove the shot of the burning Fazer - it's breaking my heart every time I scroll past it! :'(
Currently running a set of BT023's with plenty of tread, so not in a rush to change
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