2009 POST SCRIPT – BT021 Issue

BT021 Issues

This has been in the DRAFT mailbox for some time; sent from my mobile while whiling away hours doing something else other than riding late 2009. It seems a worthy whine. Of course, at the time I had no idea they would let me down as dramatically as they eventually did!

I think this would have been around October 2009.

>>>>>>>>

Bridgestone BT021R; I ‘m not living well with it. It‘s been the subject of a number of threads on the ST-Owners forums and I‘ve added my penny ‘s worth to a range of critcisms concerning it ‘s wear longevity and most interestingly to me, the squirrelly handling.

Crossing the bridge over the old Meon Valley Railway just North of Wickham has it‘s appeal as well as perils. With the Michelin Road Pilot 2s I‘ve enjoyed a ‘planted‘ ride through the left to right complex over it‘s inclined apex. Even the Bridgestone Batlax BT020s gave little to complain about at all but sensible speeds.
On both rear tyre sets the complex can be navigated safely at 70mph (caveat North for the blind double junctions and South, the triple humps - last of which gives uneasy lift just off the lean) and perhaps down to 50mph wet to account for a green surface beneath the trees of Bere Woods. But, with this BT021 rear there ‘s a brand new ‘wiggle‘ to be experienced North bound right on the crest.

It‘s unnerving, like a sideways 0.5m power slide: tail out perceptibly with resonating feedback through the bars right at the critical switching apex.
There are other surfaces the tyre screams for attention on, too. In fact, it tramlines snail trails. It‘s almost had me sack it and bugger the cost.
At 500 miles it began to break down at it‘s surface giving a really worn appearance and was at it‘s most troublesome. It was as much like the Sanya 125 (my first bike last year, Phut Phut), which had a small top box that acted like a sail exacerbating the most slippy sloppy Tyres known to civilisations making cornering more full of guesswork and luck than my CSE French exam.

I confess, I‘m used to the tyre‘s feeling of having a too soft sidewalk for the weight and centrifugal lateral forces of our Shadowfax cornering but that‘s not to say I like them!

Tomorrow I get my worn front Road Pilot 2 replaced by Ride In Motorbike Tyres in Reading. I was schedulled to fit the front 021 for a match having changed brands due to my last rear puncture on the first day of work but no way! The 021s are rapidly being agreed to as not suitable for the ST.

Given the amount of water on the roads today during a ride-length drop of rain this evening I‘m quite looking forward to a new front. The current one is just on the wear indicators; fine by law but a whole 0.6mm less tread than Honda recommend on their OEM BT020s...and no, the rear‘s poor behaviour is not due to the scrawny front as the last front, some 13000- odd miles ago was far smoother before the guys in Droxford highlighted the imminent dangers. And, no. I‘m not for reconsidering the 021s. To my opinion they are massively overshadowed by their stable mates the 020s, which in turn were eclipsed by the Road Pilot 2s.

Right. Back to tumble drying the helmet pads and gortex gloves. With this much of a soaking what else is a guy to do?