[QUOTE=dangerous]Yeah go on start something here an post it
208 frount and 220 rear is what I'm running on the Storm, no problems what so ever and I'm hoping to get 10,k out of them.
[QUOTE]
I only got 5 or 6k out of my D220 rear- can't remember for sure, but it's written down at home so I'll check.
OK, you asked for it, here's the rant I was talking about. Anyone with a new Fazer should find this handy.
Puh-lease remember, I didn't write this:
As you probably know, there is more rubbish talked about tyres than anyother motorcycle product - I've lost count of the amount of riders I've spoken to who know more about what makes a bike handle than our development riders, some of whom are former GP riders! Some of the threads that I've
read on various sites over the years have left me amazed - some of the claims that owners have made for Brand-X tyres in comparison to Brand-Y tyres go completely against all in-house and independent testing that I have the results of. So I thought I'd try and clear a way through the clutter and
give you the definitive, official Bridgestone UK line on our motorcycle rubber for Fazers. If you abide by this information you will have no handling problems, if you listen to the bloke down the pub who thinks he knows better, you will have problems. Trust me when I say that if the information the bloke down the pub gives you differs from this information,
he does not understand tyres and how they work.
Choose the correct tyre:
I'll start with the one thing that many riders overlook - just because a tyre is available in the sizes to fit your bike it doesn't necessarily mean that it will suit your bike...not all tyres are suitable for all bikes. For details on this see my comment below about the BT-010 and the FZS1000. The
BT010 is the UK's, if not the world's, most popular sports tyre, and if we don't approve it's fitment on the FZS1000 there must be a good reason. The same goes for other tyres in our range - the BT-012SS fast road/track day tyre is too "full-on" for the FSZ1000, the new BT-012 gives more than enough
grip for this bike, even for track day use. None of the major tyre manufacturers approve the fitting of their entire range of tyres for every bike, and this stands to reason - why should we expect an extreme-performance tyre to offer its best when fitted to a bike that was developed for general all-round riding? It's more important to choose the tyre that best suits your needs and the bike's purpose. E.g. If you're going
on a European jaunt the BT-020 sports touring tyre would be a better choice than the BT-010 or BT-012 sports tyres. If you use your bike for transport as well as fun the BT-020 would again be the best choice. But if all you use your bike for is fun and the occasional track day you should probably choose the BT-010 or BT-012.
Grip:
Don't worry about the grip available from your tyres. This may not be something you're used to hearing, but grip isn't omething you should beworrying about - let us do that for you. The grip level available from the latest sports touring tyres, such as our BT-020, is comparable with full-on
sports tyres of just five years ago. So don't worry about grip, we've already got that sorted, concentrate more on what type of tyre suits your purposes, and for that information see above. And don't focus too much on the compound - there's a lot more to how a tyre grips the road than just the compound.
If your tyre slips, don't automatically blame the tyre. Think about where it happened - was the road surface contaminated, was it on a greasy roundabout,was the road surface worn out? If the road surface is not contaminated
modern tyres give plenty of warning before they slide and if you've ignored those warning signs you can't really blame the tyres.
Running tyres in:
Running tyres in takes approximately 100 miles and involves more than simply scrubbing-in the tread surface of the tyre. When tyres come out of the mould they have a smooth surface and to obtain optimum grip levels this smooth
surface needs to have it's entire surface scrubbed-in and the best way to achieve this is not to rub the surface with emery paper, but to go for a ride. The first few miles should be spent riding upright so that you have a broad band in the centre that has been scrubbed-in. You can then start
increasing your angle of lean while always keeping a portion of the scrubbed-in area in contact with road. Scrubbing-in can be achieved by an experienced rider in as few as 10 miles, but this does not mean that your tyres will be fully run-in. Running tyres in also involves seating the tyre on the wheel, and this is not achieved simply by fitting the tyre to the
wheel. Running-in also allows all of the components of the tyre to seat in against one another - by overheating a new tyre you can cause lasting damage that means the tyre may not achieve its optimum mileage. While running-in new tyres you should not subject them to hard acceleration or braking
forces.
Mixing tyres:
There is absolutely no point in mixing tyres on the same bike. e.g. BT-010 front with BT-020 rear.
In the case of FZS600 owners, many did it because the 110/70ZR17 BT-020 was not available until early 2003 and if they wanted to use a BT-020 sports touring tyre on the rear they had no other choice. The problem with fitting this mixed pair on this particular bike is that stability is not as good as
with a matched pair of BT-010s or BT-020s. And this just highlights the possible pitfalls when fitting mixed tyres on any bike - if one type of tyre is designed as a smooth handling, totally neutral sports touring tyre and the other is designed as a rapid steering, ultra responsive tyre, why should we expect them to work together? If a bike doesn't handle when fitting mixed tyres it's not going to be the tyre's fault.
But the main reason why riders fit mixed tyres is to supposedly benefit from having a grippier tyre on the front while getting sensible mileage from the rear tyre. Well...we kinda know this. We are, after all, the biggest tyre manufacturer in the world and we really do know what we're doing. We know that the demands placed on a front tyre are different to the requirements of the rear tyre, and that is why the compound of our front tyres is different to the compounds of our rear tyres. So the front BT-020 compound is different to the rear BT-020 compound and the front BT-010 compound is different to the rear BT-010 compound, etc., etc., all the way through our various ranges of tyres. Now that you have this information you can see that it's pointless mixing tyres, Bridgestone is already giving you what you want when you fit a matched pair of our tyres.
Punctures:
Bridgestone approves the repair of it's motorcycle tyres in conjunction with BS159f, which precludes the repair of punctures in Z-rated radial tyres. Punctures are unfortunate and it doesn't help when the vast majority happen in the more expensive rear tyre. This is usually because the puncturing
object, which was lying in the road, is kicked up by the front tyre into the path of the rear tyre. I know that it upsets a few riders that Bridgestone doesn't approve the repair of our tyres, but we have valid reasons for this. As soon as an object penetrates the tyre a steady progression of road
contaminants starts to enter the hole. By road contaminants I mean diesel, oil, chemicals dropped by farm vehicle and trucks...all of the bad stuff that can seriously effect the construction of the tyre. If, as is likely, these contaminants settle between the tread strip and the carcass, a process
called delamination can start. Delamination is the separation of the tread strip from the carcass and the first visible sign is a bulge in the tread. If this bulge is not noticed the delamination process will continue until a catastrophic failure occurs. Unless you're very skilled or very lucky this usually involves crashing the bike as the tyre disintegrates.
If you notice during your regular tyre checks that the tyre has a penetrating object and you decide to have it repaired, do you know how long the object has been in the tyre? If the delamination process has started, plugging the tyre will not prevent it continuing.
If you get a puncture and the tyre gradually deflates as you are riding, the chances are that the tyre is ruined beyond repair by the time the bikes poor handling alerts you to the situation. An under inflated tyre runs very hot and this can lead to invisible internal damage. If the tyre deflates fast
enough so that by the time you bring the bike to a standstill the tyre is flat, the sidewalls will have come under such strain that the heat generated will have ruined the tyre.
But just because Bridgestone doesn't approve the repair of our Z-rated tyres, it does not prevent you having your tyre repaired by your local fitter. If you are satisfied that the repair that they make will be good enough then that is up to you. But I have to make it clear that if the tyre has been repaired, Bridgestone will not guarantee any further claim you may make on the tyre and neither will we guarantee the quality of the repair.
Personally speaking I would never repair any motorcycle tyre...my life is worth more than the cost of a new tyre.
(it carries on further to give heaps of info specific to Fazers, but it's too big to post in one go)
Thanks for allowing me to take up your time.
Bryn Phillips
Bridgestone Motorcycle Technical
Make your own mind up guys
cheers
R1FSR
Crikey, that was even longer than I remember! I had to edit it to make it fit...
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Originally Posted by gav
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