Bridgestone BT003

[JonKerr]

OK So a few days ago I got some BT-003 put on the bike preparing to hit the track next Friday. Since I've never run those tires I wanted to take the bike out for a short ride to break them in and get a feel for them on familiar roads. HOLY $#!T!!!! I've been using the BT023's since I've been commuting so much for the last year. But I've decided the bike is just going to be a weekend toy again and I'll be driving my car only. The 023's lasted forever (nearly 8000 miles the first set and the second still looked fairly new when I had them changed on Tuesday with 3800 miles on them.) but they always felt a little like they weren't in the road. Always kind of felt a little sketchy when I was carving the canyons. I knew the 023's were losing grip when I actually slightly spun the rear tire coming out of a corner on Palomar a month ago. Our bike shouldn't have enough power to do that with good grippy tires. But there was no hint of that with these 003's. They were insane. I just got home from putting 100 miles on them in the local canyons. Put a little lean angle on them but not as much as I could since I didn't want to put too much wear on them before I hit CVR on Friday. But the amount of grip these tires have is absolutely insane right from the start.

 

[Fizzer6R]

stickier tires might not last, but I say they are well worth it from the riding feel you get :thumbup:

 

[JonKerr]

Oh yeah, I can tell just form the balled up rubber on the tires after 100 miles that these aren't going to last long. That's why the bike is going to stay in the garage now until I load up to head to the track. Need to keep them fresh.

 

[dart1963]

Great choice for a track tire... Have you eyed other tires or do you know what you want to try next?

Unless you are made of money, or only plan on track riding, I wouldn't go with those tires for mixed track and street riding. Many of the people I ride with do track and street, the pilot power 2 CT and the Rosso Corsa are their tire of choice for a little balance between sticky performance and some mileage...

None of those are for me, I can't go changing tires every 2-5K miles...

 

[toofless]

Great choice for a track tire... Have you eyed other tires or do you know what you want to try next?

Unless you are made of money, or only plan on track riding, I wouldn't go with those tires for mixed track and street riding. Many of the people I ride with do track and street, the pilot power 2 CT and the Rosso Corsa are their tire of choice for a little balance between sticky performance and some mileage...

None of those are for me, I can't go changing tires every 2-5K miles...

the best way is to have track tires, (BT003's), and street riding tires, (BT023's), and switch them out for track/street...

i've never been track riding but for what it's worth i have metzler roadtec Z8's on my bike and i like em...

 

[JonKerr]

I'm not going to be doing a lot of track riding. Maybe 2 a year after this. But what I'm planning on doing is new tires for the track, then run them on the street but only canyon carving. No commuting. Then when they're done, I'll switch to the 016's. They'll be better for the canyons than the 023's since they have the same edge compound as the 003's but with a harder center and they'll be able to handle the occasional commute. I was riding to work probably 9 days out of 10. Now it's going to be more like 1 or 2 out of 10 so the 016's shouldn't wear out as fast as before. In theory, by the time the 016's are ready to be replaced, it should be time for another track day to put track tires on

 

[linkgt]

Sounds like a good plan to me :Sport:

 

[BrueThru]

Any comments about the 021's?

They came stock on mine.

I haven't done any research on tires for this type of riding. Just been reading posts on this forum and of coarse there is a plethera of opinions. So I haven't come to any conclusions yet.

The Battlax BT0021r has been doing well for me (6k so far) and wear is good. I'm not as aggressive as some of you may be but the tire seems to be doing well enough.

I honestly don't know what I should be looking for.

 

[JonKerr]

The thing about the stock tires on your first bike is you don't know any better. When you put a set of good sticky tires on your bike the first time, you'll be amazed. Most OEM tires are different than their aftermarket equivalent. The 021's on your bike are different than the 021's you'd buy from a shop and put on the bike. Usually they're a harder compound so they last longer. My bike came with Dunlop Roadsmarts and I thought they were fine until I put Pirelli DiabloRoso's on it. My idea of how a motorcycle should ride completely changed.

 

[pjallal]

learn a lot