Hey Tire Manufacturers.... WTF?

va_rider

va_rider

Wizard
fz1boone.blogspot.com
So.. got a new front tire installed today... a Bridgestone BT016 to match the rear... yeah it feels great... turn in is lovely and all of that... but... Looking at the tire made me scratch my head a bit.... so... I whipped out the tread depth gauge...

5/32" ...
WTF? Must have done something wrong...
Check again...
5/32" ... .... ....

ummmm once it hits 3/32", it'll no longer pass inspection.... so... I just paid $100 for 1/16" of tire????
 
It looks like the trend in the high performance "street" tires is to sacrifice tread depth in favor of dry traction and racer image styling. I have seen this going on for several years but it has really come on fast over the last couple years. I would say that just five or so years ago many of the new tires would have been considered ill-conceived for street use. Many times I have had to ride in water that's at least a half inch deep on highways. Only a bit of tread depth lets the water out from under the tire and even my stockers are on the dege of acceptablilty. It's one thing to run all but pure racing rubber on dry roads and altogether something else to try it in the rain. Even in racing they get a chance to change tires, but thats hard while riding on thee street. The manufacturers should be aware that street tires must cope with situations that track tires don't have to.
 
It's funny you mentioned that Aaron because yesterday when I got home with the bike, I too was just glancing over at the front end and said to myself that the front looked kind of worn. I only have just under 700 miles on them both. How is your rear looking at this point in time? Is it holding up to your expectations?
 
Hopefully you'll get another 2k out of it which should be on par with the previous tires you had. I think CanonFuji has about 1k on his 016's and still says they are the best he's had on the bike yet. Unfortunately he lost his chain today due to a faulty master link and was lucky not to kill himself. So now he's down until a new chain comes.
 
well, hopefully he only got away with a busted chain and no collateral damage from it passing around until it fell off.....if it did fall off...
 
va_rider said:
So.. got a new front tire installed today... a Bridgestone BT016 to match the rear... yeah it feels great... turn in is lovely and all of that... but... Looking at the tire made me scratch my head a bit.... so... I whipped out the tread depth gauge...

5/32\" ...
WTF? Must have done something wrong...
Check again...
5/32\" ... .... ....

ummmm once it hits 3/32\", it'll no longer pass inspection.... so... I just paid $100 for 1/16\" of tire????
Click to expand...

Exactly! This is why I sacrifice a very small amount of outright dry grip and feedback....and run Road 2cts. The tread depth on some of those supposed road tyres is criminal. Put a BT016 next to the Pilot Road and see! By the way, I have run BT016 on an R6. Loved 'em. But HATED the silly wear rate.
 
Thats interesting and the fact that really......legally that you were only getting such a little depth before they were not inspection worthy, mabe a good thread/sticky would be to do an exposay on tread depth of different tires and brands. Supose you crashed and hurt someone, you might be able to be sued for unsafe tires or some such acuisation as neglegence, when actually you may have only had 1,000 miles on a tire that should go 3,000. Thats totally bunk to be sure.......
 
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