Longtermers: Bridgestone BT021 Tyres

Longtermers: Bridgestone BT021 Tyres


Mileage total: 12500 miles (7000 1st set/5500 2nd set)


Contact: www.bridgestone.co.uk/tyres/motorcycles


Looking for a tyre that can offer outstanding grip, confidence inspiring cornering, good comfort, and higher than normal durability can be a gamble, as bikes are far more destructive and demanding to their tyres than their four wheeled counterparts. The BT020 sports touring tyre managed to set a benchmark for a quality sports touring tyre, and gained a respectable following allowing Bridgestone to eventually have the opportunity to supply various manufacturers to use it as an original equipment fitting.

To design and produce a successful replacement to this can only be imagined to be a major challenge, and the fruits of this challenge became the BT021.

Launched around 2 years ago, the BT021 has started to become a popular tyre to the extent, like it's predecessor, to be used as standard fitment to various new bikes including the new Kawasaki ER6-N and F, to full on sports tourers like the versatile continent crunching Yamaha FJR1300.

Bridgestone appear to have pulled all the stops to create a technically exciting specification, including ultra stiff polymer cord belts, quiter tread patterns, and a dual compound tread cap to allow enhanced grip when the bike is cornering. With all of these features plus a reasonably competitive pricing, is it all Bridgestone aspired these new tyres to be?

BT021 Bridgestone's sports-touring flagship tyre.
Notice the distinctive front tread, cut in such a way to reduce "Air Bumping".
(Sounds like some sort of French eighties dance craze, nice.)

I have owned two sets of these tyres over a 12500 mile period on my Kawasaki Versys, and I must say I am perplexed and disappointed with some aspects of these tyres and the way they behave.

I was initially impressed with the relatively low mileage to completely scrub these tyres in, which was achieved well within the usual 100-120 mile mark of most bigger bike tyres. The grip levels of these though after a couple of months started to vary, but not for the better.

During the colder months these would take a good few more miles than some others to develop enough heat to give a secure level of cornering grip, whereas the hotter summer months would have the tread overheating causing some alarming squirming, and odd slides.

Wet weather performance was predictable most of the time, but on more than a few occasions the steering would go dead, losing feedback and in turn knocking rider confidence.
The consequences of these “funny moments” has to be accepted to differ between different bikes and different riders reactions, but nevertheless an unwanted trait when least expected.

It's not all doom and gloom though, as the first set lasted a commendable 7000 miles, which on a bike that is used all year round, for commuting and holidays, and the odd fast Sunday ride; is very impressive for any bike tyre generally.

This first set were subjected to two extremely long motorway journeys which would have had most other tyres fairly much squared out to the wear bars. This only became apparent after the second of these journeys which was a 2800 mile round trip to Italy and back, and still had two months of constant use until they were deemed too knackered to carry on riding with.

However, the second set managed a hell of a lot less mileage, which was down to some experiments with lower air pressures to try and alleviate the odd wet weather handling quirks , but unfortunately this was not a complete fix.

With the pressures reduced from 36psi/42psi to the handbook pressures for my bike which are 32/36; the wet weather grip appeared to be far less skittery and more predictable. In the dry the bike felt more confidence inspiring at most speeds, although now the offset of all this improvement was now an overall increase of tread wear, which eventually took it's toll on the front, at an alarming rate.

The front tyre when it recently parted company with the bike was in a shocking state; both shoulders nearly flat to the extent that the cross section of the tyre's crown was egg shaped, whereas the rear was carrying all sorts of damage and sharps through having minimal tread depth.


Conclusion:


Value: 7/10
Performance: 7/10
Durability: 8/10

Overall: 7/10

Bridgestone have managed to produce a tyre which is kind of on a par with the BT020's, but I personally do not think that it surpasses them in most aspects of use except for comfort which is partly in thanks to it's belting and supple soft compound shoulders. Price wise the BT021's are out smarted by others, namely Continental's Road and Sport Attacks, which are cheaper and are more capable performance wise. Despite this, the BT021's are a jack of most trades, but unfortunately are master of none; in other words they are capable in an average kind of way, they perform reasonably, but don't expect them to be the best sports touring tyres you'll ever part cash over.


(sorry folks)


Gordie