Bridgestone BT-R10 - I've found a new best tyre

Help & Advice Praise or Shame
1

Did a track day today with Flight at Brands, but unfortunately arrived with a nail in the rear of my Michelin Pilot Road 2. The front Pilot Power 2CT was nearly worn so I went to the tyre guys to get a new set (wanted to try the Pilot Pures).

Anyway, they didn’t have any Michelin tyres only Smelli and Metzlers.

The tyre guy offered me a set of the new Bridgestone Battalax R10s, which are a new road legal track / race tyre, the profile of which is quite different to the Michelins, allowing a riding style where you can brake hard straight up with good stability, tip in off the brakes before the apex and still have good traction when turning in to the corner, and then use the grunt of a litre bike to power out very hard.

This isn’t my idea of powering out hard, but ex WSB and MotoGP rider Simon Crafar, hard. He couldn’t get his race tuned GSX-R 1000 out of shape under power out of corners when recording the soon to be released Motovudu DVD, and he only got through two sets of tyres apparently.

Anyway, back in the slow lane, the tyres did feel different but not alien. Even brand new with the release agents still yet to be…er…be released, I could tip in and power out of Clearways pretty hard with no movement from the rear (Michelins would squirm a little on a day like today).

Front and rear were scrubbed in after two moderate laps and I was getting my knee down on the third.

Absolutely astonishing grip. I was riding like a fool for how cold it was today and made a few mistakes running wide, turning to early and having to correct my line, braking hard whilst banked over because and R6 rider kept stopping mid corner…The tyres just took it all in their stride and I never once felt like I was over the edge (which is a first for me…although running off at Surtees onto the grass did cut it close).

All I can say is, this tyre is astonishing.

The best thing though was seeing my lap times improve from Monday’s track day, which was wet, but there were some dry sessions towards the end of the day.

Monday
1:06.021 - SHOCKINGLY SLOW :smiley: (hadn’t been to Brands for two years or ridden the GSXR on track in as long but still crap).

Sunday
0:57.751 - shockingly slow :smiley:

The tyres have unfortunately highlighted how badly set up my suspension is however. The bike was wallowing a lot, but it helped when I smoothed out my riding.

Anyway, these tyres are awesome and I’d recommend you try a pair (although not cheap at about £290 :w00t: )

2

I think I was running the same times as you were on the Monday on the GSR. First track day and defo not last. top fun!! :slight_smile:

3

Any old Tyre should get you around Brands Indy in 57secs. :slight_smile:

4

:hehe:

5

is this the black gsxr you had that rebuild thread of? how is it running?

How long do these B10’s last for?

6

Maybe even square ones :smiley:

7

It is indeed mate.

It’s running well but I’ve a lot of money on it (I could have probably bought a newer bike :smiley: )

The B10s to be fair don’t look like they’d last very long, but I’ve heard riders have got 12 track days out of them so I don’t know.

I could probably run them for a season at my pace :slight_smile:

8

I ran a set of Dunlop Sportsmarts on my K7 - they were brilliant. I did 7 track days, 4000 miles touring, 2000 of those 2 up! (5.5k in total on a rear and front had some life left) Specially designed carcas to be run at lower pressures for track etc. I was raving about them to the tyre guy at brands and he said it’s the best dual purpose tyre he has ever seen.

Will be the first thing that goes on my new road bike :cool:

9

I used to fear Dunlops back in the D207 era, but I’ve heard similar praise about their recent tyres.

The Roadsmarts were supposed to be the best road / touring tyre when they came out I believe.

Might have to try those Sportsmarts.

Cheers Leon.

10

+1

or 1:10 as in the videos posted :smiley:

11

just for the record, it’s not that your suspension is set up badly, more that your shock (not built for your bike) is the problem :wink:

12

I know the shock is the problem (like I said to you on the phone), but also like I said (from what Colin @ Total Suspension told me)…It has a fault. :smiley:

Spoke to Steve Jordan just now (who did the original service work)…

Apparently it’s lost it’s gas pressure which happens occasionally when they are rebuilt. There’s supposed to be a self sealing…er seal, but they do fail.

Also, apparently the shimming difference between the shock I have, an Ohlins SU347 (designed for GSXR 600/750) and the SU503 unit designed for my bike is so marginal, it was deemed that the shock would work correctly for the GSXR 1000. The spring was changed for my weight and you set the damping controls.

Anyway, Steve has been so kind to allow me to bring the shock back in to be sorted.

That’s good service, considering it’s been almost 6 months.