Bridgestone BT021s on the Road of Unspeakable Horror

[FLASH]

Had a group down last weekend and had some heavy rain for about an hour on one of the mornings. The local peasants are out muck-spreading, most of it all over the road. We were on a particularly "technical" stretch, switchback bends with succession of hairpins, some rather chewed up tarmac, gravel, rain and the aforementioned mud.
I'd recently switched from the Michelin Pilot Roads which came as standard fit on my F800ST to Bridgestones (21 rear, 13 front). The Michelins weren't too good in the wet and tended to beak away without any warning. The B'stones had been doing a very good job.....until this particular morning. I found that the rear would slide quite a bit in the bends and this despite the fact that I was picking my lines carefully. As I was leading the group I was aware that I still had to give them a good ride so decided to stop being a wuss and ride through it. Bike was handling fine down the straights, but began to systematically twitch in every bend. After about 15 minutes of this I decided to pull over for a look at the tyres. Rear looked fine but when I pushed into the centre of the tread ir pushed in almost as far as the rim. Bit flat, see....
Fixed it with the BMW kit and carried on as normal and had it plugged the next day. I was VERY impressed by how it had stood up with virtually NO air in it at all.
If you decide to put air in them they are very good indeed.

John T was down on his new BMW 1098 and had a ball on his semi-slicks.... (ask him)

Pip pip, campers

T

[jltownshend]

The things you do to let the "pack" catch up

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to witness your cornering as I was still making my way through said "pack"...again.

An interesting, and enjoyable (honest!) test, trying to keep the bike on the two strips of tread I had left. Still, at least I got more than 70 miles to the tank...unlike the day before.

Note to self: Pirelli Supercorsa Pros and real roads...NO!

John

[JoeC]

Had a similar experience when I picked up my used GS.
Had come across another Trixter (Darkness) and went on a ride out to Boxhill for a cup of tea with him. Back was twitchy and moving around in the bends. When got home took the tyre pressures - both were VERY low. Can't remember the front (think about 14psi) but the rear was 10psi - should be 42!! Was not a puncture just that the previous owner had not checked it.

[_IT_]

Not quite the same but.. I picked up my 1100 GS in london and rode it back to birmingham, it was fine on the motorway but then on the A roads it felt really twitchy and horrible. I pulled into a garage to check and noticed that it was spewing all of its engine oil over the back wheel!

Anyway i got it home after adding a liter of oil and tightened up the banjo on the side of the engine.. that was only the start of my woes on that bike..