Bridgestone S23 Tyres

I can't seem to find my original post regarding a new set of Bridgestone S23 tyres to my Street Triple 765rs so hence the new post. I was offered a set of Bridgestone S23 tyres at trade with free fitting to loose wheels, a simple enough task to remove the wheels, not so unfortunately, first off the wheel spindle was seized in solid and no amount of gentle coaxing would shift it, the heat gun sensible applied failed to shift it, so it was the internal bearing puller to the rescue, and this did the job nicely, offside inner bearing was completely worn out, evidence of heat on said bearings, the axle shaft was in a poor state with deep pitting and heavy corrosion, as was the spacer. I thought a straightforward but expensive job, as everything needed replacing, it then got interesting, some parts where on backorder, some had been discontinued (what on a 3.5 year old machine, anyway I chased down and located the necessary OEM parts and these parts are not cheap, so a full set of new bearings and seals, new spindle, new spacers, and new chain adjuster blocks, whilst waiting for parts to arrive I cleaned up the rear swingarm and linkages as these had surface corrosion, prepped, primer applied and then painted, I removed the chain rubbing strips and a load of grit was stuck to the swingarm under the strip (road grit and chain wax wat a mess), all cleaned up and looking like new, after cleaning up the wheels I had the S23 tyres fitted, and a week later had all the parts, a quick rebuild and thorough wash she is good to go, so tomorrow it will be out for a ride to see how the S23 tyres perform. What is a bit of a puzzle is in June 2023 in preparation for the IOM S100 I completed a 12,000 mile service including the valve clearances, the suspension was stripped down and I re greased everything, including the wheel spindle on re installing the back wheel, at that point everything was in excellent service condition, I can only think a couple of winter ride outs I had led to salted road residue getting into the hub, as it did throw a show shower on one ride, that said I did a pretty thorough job of cleaning the bike straight afterwards. It is a good job I do have the necessary tools to do all the work needed, given these bearings are parallel you do need a blind bearing puller, I know people who have used items such as expanding bolts amongst other things but there is a risk of damage to the wheels. When you really dig deep into the street triples the parts and build quality is not what it used to be, it may well be that given these are wholly made in Thailand apart from crankshafts, cams and cases, something has certainly gone wrong, yes the engines are fantastic as is the chassis, but the standard of finish and assembly is poor, and not suited to British weather, warmer climes have no real issues, but UK Weather they are not. Would I buy another Triumph unfortunately not, given the spares issue, both expensive and often hard to source some components, and the poor build quality reinforces my decision, in some ways I was like a stick of rock with Triumph written right through. The early Hinckley machines are fantastic, the quality of finish on say the 955i Speed Triples amongst others is great compared to what we have now, so a new make is on the horizon for me. My chopper project has somewhat stalled, due in part to some house upgrades, I say upgrades it is more a full on resto, I got inspired by the quality of the rooms at the Hotel Eiger recently. Ride safe all from an ageing Rocker.

 

A couple more photos.

 

I kept an open mind on the S23s, these had been released in January 2024, well after a short sensible run out of 10 miles on a tight twisty local road I was impressed, they were scrubbed in so to speak after the ride, what was apparent from the very off is the plusher ride, the tyres softened up the ride compared to my usual Metzler Racetech RRs, however the Metzler are a road legal race tyre so are not designed with comfort in mind, back to the Bridgestone's, I went out for a longer ride today and somewhat very spirited, the lean you can get on these S23s is nothing short of brilliant, nothing seemed to faze them, I got great feel from them, they are quick to turn in and hold firm on a fast exit, once you get a few miles up the road then they are good to go for whatever you throw at them, I genuinely believe that for road riding the limit will never be experienced they are that good, track use possibly, but you would really need to be pushing beyond my ability. The tyres were unfazed when I did some planned heavy braking, so again top marks from me. I can't comment yet on wet weather performance but I don't doubt they will be good. The photo is from the 10 mile short round trip, so even at this the lean angles you can get is impressive. Ride safe all from an ageing Rocker.

 

I have run the Metzler Racetech RRs for a good few years now, I had Supercorsa's before that, even though the RRs only last a few thousand miles I just factor the cost in as general annual running costs, I would have gone for another set of RRs, however a chance for a set at trade, and free fitting to loose wheels was to good to say no to, hence the change to the S23s, when they wear out I will go back to the RRs, unless a similar deal was offered which I am doubtful, the reason I was offered the deal was the amount of business I put their way. The new breed of tyres are light years in front of those of just a few years ago. Some tyres also behave differently bike to bike, it's a case of finding a tyre that suits both machine and rider style, for spirited road riding most do prefer a more performance tyre, the down side is they wear out pretty fast compared to a harder compound touring/sport tyre, for me it's not a case of the latest this or that, it is what works for me on the road, going back to the sixties and early seventies I recall using Dunlop TT100s on various machines, a real improvement on the OEM fitted ones, however these bikes had a lot less power and basic suspension front and rear back then. Ride safe all from an ageing Rocker.

 

Went for a ride out with my 2 sons today, went via Lyth Valley and onto Bowness, quick stop for water intake and made our way over Kirkstone Pass and onto Patterdale, however just outside of Milnthorpe with no warning signs the road had just been re surfaced, and what a mess it made of the tyres, the surface just stuck like glue to the tyres, it was no use turning round as the distance to be were we started would be more distance, so once back on the unsurfaced road, the tyres picked up road grit and stones, tar had found it's way into the tyre tread as well, the road should never have been open, until at least the tar had set. It puts a whole new meaning on sticky tyres, we pulled up and scraped of what stones we could from the tyres before going onwards, what a clean up job on the bikes we have to face.

 

The S23s seem to be showing no signs of tearing or blistering on the edges, the Metzler Racetech RRs that I normally use did, granted they are a much softer compound, whilst only I have only covered 1,000 miles I am pleasantly surprised how they are holding up so well, the RRs are a fantastic tyre but the downside is they only last around 3K at most. I doubt I will get the same deal on the S23s when it comes to a new set of tyres, and therefore I will go back to the RRs, but for now these are like night and day from the previous Bridgestone's I ran years ago. It took an awful lot of cleaning to get tyres and machine back to A1 from the aftermath of the Heversham road re surfacing debacle.

 

Some may think that tyres such as Metzler Racetech RRs and Pirelli Supercorsa tyres are not good in wet weather, my experience is a lot different, I have found these tyres are ok in the wet. Whilst at the IOM S100 a few weeks back the weather was dreadful, and saw very heavy rain, apart from sunshine on the Monday and Thursday, a number of practice sessions and races did run in wet conditions, not ideal but still good racing. Tuesday saw very heavy rain but did not deter my son and myself from riding a full day, we gave the mountain section a miss due to heavy mist with visibility the worst I have seen, combined with torrential rain. My son rides a Ducati Panigale 1299s running Pirelli Supercorsa SC2 tyres. I was following him on my STRS and the attached photos show the tyres do perform in the wet as long as you are riding within your limits. Ride safe all from an ageing Rocker.