hey can anyone tell me, im looking to replace my ageing bt 020 rer with a conti force rear tyre. I Have a fairly new bt020 front, is this gonna cause me any major problems?
hey westie,
if you said you were keeping the same tyre manufacturer but putting a different model on i would say its not a problem. I would be very careful about using different brands though mate.
the problem you have is different brand have different manufacturing processes and very different casts and compounds and if you might find that the conti rear will have very different handling characteristics to your bt020 on the front, which could be dangerous.
can you not just buy a set of conti for the bike
Yeah, I’d be a bit wary and you’ll prob find the tyre place won’t do it anyway. Why not put a 014 on the rear which should work better with the 020 and hopefully they’ll wear out together. (assuming the front’s not new)
i wouldn’t i tried a dragon evo with a bridgstone 020 once, resulting in big ass slides no control nearly lost several times bad news keep to one type ie bridgstone or continental i would nix n match?
I’ve mixed tyres for several years without a single issue, inc Pirelli with Bridgestone, pirelli with Avon, Avon and Bridgestone
This came up a while ago and lots of different conflicting opinions. Tyre companies will say never do it, but think to yourself why they say that
In a magazine article in Bike a while ago it was stated that its usually only dangerious if you mix tyre types, ie radial and Crossply
Last time it came up almost everyone on here said don’t do it. Although at the time only 1 other person apart from myself had actually done it
. If you asked the same question in the Visordown Supermoto forum you’d be hard pushed to find someone with matched tyres.
Ideally matched tyres are better, but i certainly wouldn’t spend money un-neccessarily when you have a perfectly good front tyre.
The last time this came up the bloke in question had an SV thou and was in the same boat as you. He weighed it up and decided to try it. A week later he said it made no difference Can’t remember who it was, but he seemed happy.
My advice would be try it before you spend money on something you might not need. If you try it and don’t like it match them. If you try it and find its fine you’ll have saved yourself the best part of £100
This is all based on my opinion and you need to make your own choice, but I know when my BT012 goes on the back of my Z750 I’ll be putting a Pirelli Diablo Corsa on the rear, and I doubt the BT019 on the front will need changing so I’ll be mismatched until its nackard.
Sure, you wont have any MAJOR issues and the bike will work ok if youre just cruising around but dont expect peak performance and handling. The flaws will be emphasised more on sports bikes as theyre more sensitive to any changes especially tyres.
Personally i would not mix tyres and think it`s a false economy to do so.
A lot of riders may not notice the difference but having said that, a lot of riders (and i mean a lot) do not realise they`re suspension is miles out too.
fair point.
Ya pays ya money and takes yer choices. It’s true to say that the Fazer, good bike tho it is, isn’t the most critically setup of machines so perhaps you’ll never notice Westie.
But I always wonder what the insurance company / police would say if you had an accident (rare as they are on LB) ?
thanks all, well after some consideration i think just to be safe i am gonna order a bt020 rear, it may be more money but i just dont wanna risk and strange handling, especially as i am going back to devon later this month.
Hi B. I’ve just put a Hagon shock onto my Honda Hornet. Any chance of taking a look at it sometime?
PM on the way…
As I said its not perfect and you are better off matching them, but many people find it fine and not just for cruising I managed a fair few times to ride round the outside of my mate when he had the pegs on the floor and no more lean avilable using Avon wet fronts and Pirelli Diablo rearsat the end of the day, most riding on the road don’t push tyres to the limit anyway. I would imagine that a stiff sportsbike would be effected more than a softly sprung fazer thou. But at the end of the day its whatever your happy with its your money Westie As I said if I tried it on the Z and wasn’t happy I’d fork out for a new tyre, but the sussys on the Z are so ****e compared to my KTM anyway I doubt it will make a massive difference.
As for the police/insurance I doubt it will make any difference as mismatched tyres will pass an MOT.