What's new is the addition of a third compound to the rear tyre, making five strips of tread in all, and a range of use that claims to break new ground. The BT-016 will replace the 014 as a street sports tyre, and yet Bridgestone boast that it offers longevity for sports-touring and outright grip on trackdays. That's bold talk.

The technology itself is impressive. The extra strip on the rear tyre is between the centre and the edges. Steady speed cornering on this part places smaller demands on the tyre, as lean angle isn't great.

Its biggest job is driving hard out of a corner, with the bike half upright, so Bridgestone altered the molecular arrangement of the compound so that its entire structure is directional to favour strong drive grip.

The soft edges, front and rear, are the same as the BT-002RS trackday front tyre, and the rear section is basically that of the BT-021 sports-touring tyre. The perfect do-it-all rubber, or Frankenstein's condoms?

Bridgestone invited us to test in the demanding MotoGP amphitheatre at Jerez, and on 100 miles of varied roads too. The importance of this tyre was clear from the rollcall: Stoner, Melandri, Capirossi, West, McWilliams, Elias, and Haslam were all in attendance and riding.

Hours of playstation practise allowed me to get stuck right in and, from the first session, I was both hugely impressed, and elbow down. We've long been fans of multi-compound tyres. They do away with compromise in a similar way to twin-speed compression adjustment in your suspension; in this case, giving you a fast-warming, stable, lasting tyre with excellent side grip.

The front tyre delivered impressive entry speed. Tread shuffle is banished, apparently thanks to the slicker 6% cut ratio.

Each compound in the BT-016 has a different working temperature, so at the end of a 20-minute session in 26° heat and with 40° track temperature, performance remained consistent. You can defiantly consider the 016 as a trackday option.

The dusty, treacherous, narrow roads weren't very inspiring. Nor were the dull collection of naked bikes. However, trying to hustle a heavy, under-damped, under-braked Z750 asked plenty of the front tyre's loyalty. The end of the route was much faster, and I'd bagged a B-King too. It hit the 165mph speed limiter on the A-road, and then sat against it for minutes at a time on the motorway. I expected the rear tyre to look tortured, as a combination of fat power and weight are notorious tyre killers, but it was perfectly smooth. That promises long life, and ticks off the last of the claims made for the 016.

Bridgestone UK has moved this tyre in its range with a greater overlap with the BT-002RS trackday hoop, and that makes sense to us. This is way more than just a street tyre. All that's left to prove is grip in the cold and wet, but we expect big things.

The all-new BT-016 is breaking out of the top of the sports sector and has one foot in the fast "road/trackday" market. It's safe to say we're bloody impressed, so give em a go if that sounds like your riding diet.

RC8 is a corner speed hero and can only do this with a very confident front tyre.

You can trail the brake in deep and corner speeds are high for a street tyre.

The rear is even better. Soft edges allow the lean, and the drive zone is fantastic, allowing big throttle openings on a Fireblade with your knee barely off the ground in a way that the OE BT-015 can only dream of. It communicates brilliantly and slides progressively, so you can push your limits. It's actually better at stepping over the limit than the trackday BT-002RS, which we've criticised for breaking away too suddenly.

It’s impressive stuff, at the technical level if nothing else, given the production processes involved. Imagine trying to perfectly align five flat, long strips of ‘rubber’ to make a single compound and do it on a mass production level- while simultaneously ensuring the consistency of every tyre.

There’s little worth in tyre designers and compound chemists coming up with fabulous ideas if they can’t progress from hand-made race tyres to mass-production road tyres. But Bridgestone, being the biggest tyre manufacturer in the world, has the resources to push these technical barriers. Which partly explains why Bridgestone’s assault on Michelin’s erstwhile dominance in MotoGP took the Japanese company only six seasons. From 2002 (when Jeremy McWilliams claimed the last two-stroke pole at Phillip Island), to its first race win with Mokoto Tamanda in Brazil 2004 culminating in Casey Stoner’s world championship on Bridgsetones in 2007. From supplying prototypes to small teams to being the ‘must have’ (eh Valentino?) tyre in six seasons – that’s impressive industrial muscle flexing.

Just like MotoGP?

The point is that when Bridgestone decided to enter MotoGP, it did it to win, and now, it’s telling us that we road and track riders are getting “genuine MotoGP technology,” which sounded like a bit of a dig at a rival company, but maybe it was just me.

The point here is that the five compound rear tyre isn’t so much about using the compounds that Stoner et al have been using, rather the BT-016 is produced utilising construction techniques originally developed for the MotoGP effort. Well, when you think about it, there’s not a lot of point in spending millions of yen developing tyres in MotoGP and then not milking it for all its worth, is there?

And yet, I rode on Bridgestones tyres that had BT-016 embossed on the sidewall on the launch of the 2008 Yamaha R6 and they were nothing like these new aftermarket hoops bearing the same name. Which is to say that the Original Equipment (OE) spec tyres on the R6 launch bikes (and on the GSX-R600 and GSX-R750) are nowhere near as good as these BT-016 tyres.

Truly, all you would have needed to do was hop on a 2008 R6 shod with these new BT-016 hoops and, after a lap pf the track, you would have spotted the difference. I made a bee-line for an R6 at Jerez and did one session, at the end of which the only question on my mind was ‘Why?’ Why did Yamaha ask for BT-016 designed to its peculiar specification? Why did Yamaha risk putting a crap OE tyre on its bike? Why did Bridgestone consent to Yamaha’s requests for such drastic modifications to the original tyre concept? Money, probably; the saving of and making of. The point is, if you have been put off the BT-016 OE tyre, try the aftermarket one.

Stability

Anyway, the aftermarket BT-016 is a great tyre that can be ridden with massive confidence on the track on anything up to 750cc. Really. I rode as hard as I could, got on the gas coming out of corners as hard as I could, braked as hard as I could (you get the idea) and was rewarded with drive out of corners, stability on the brakes, good feedback when trailing the brakes into corners, allied to stability and good bump absorption while on the side of the tyres. In short, these are tyres that fill you with confidence.

Once I hopped on to the 2008 Fireblade on worn tyres on a warmer track, there was less edge grip driving out of corners at big lean angles, but any slide was more of a shock than a scare and there was never any danger of it getting away from me. On the next session I tried to repeat the sliding experience on a GSX-R1000 and, on newer tyres I had nothing but fun. The point is that you can get slicks to spin on a litre bike if you are so inclined (sic), so a little bit of movement is only to be expected on a sporty-road tyre like the BT-016.

In terms of wear and wet-weather performance, well, only a few thousand miles on British roads is going to tell us how they really work, but in Spain, you would have been a happy biker.

The BT-016 is available now and come sin all shapes and sizes. Actually, they only come in round and black, but believe me when I say not all the black stuff is the same.

COMPOUND INTEREST:

According to development Department engineer Takaki Hayashi, theBT-016 was about two years in development.

"Obviously the process of making a tyre with different compounds came from MotoGP but the work done in the race department is secret and it took us a while – until late 2006 or early 2007 – to start the road tyre development. Initially we worked in Japan at our own track, on the roads and at race circuits before doing more work in Europe. It was hard to get the different compound layers to ‘blend’, because we didn’t want the riders to feel the transition from one layer to the next, we needed a smooth transition from upright from upright to full lean. Getting that right was probably the hardest part of the development."

And why is the OE BT-016 spec’d on bikes so different? "Well, the Bridgestone development tyre department is different from our OE department, although we obviously share information. The basic parameters of the tyre, like the tread pattern, were agreed between us. But Yamaha wanted the BT-016 the way they wanted it delivered at a certain time and we, in the development department, continued to work on the tyre. Which is why the aftermarket BT-016 has 5LC and 3LC technology and the OE-spec tyres don’t.’

Two Magazine Launch Test

What: Bridgestone BT-016
Who: Bertie Simmonds
Where: Jerez, Spain
When: 14th March 2008

The new BT-016s feature three compounds on the front hoop and no-less that five on the rear to give optimal performance and longevity. To test the tyres we were given a whole day on the 2.748-mile Spanish GP circuit of Jerez. Jerez has a little bit of everything in it: short, medium and long turns. Some fast, some slow. There’s also a good selection of both uphill and downhill braking sections, which is why the Spanish venue is such a good work-out for tyres. We had a selection of the latest 600, 750 and litre-class sportsbikes to choose from, so I decided to take out the big ‘n’ comfy Yamaha R1 shod with the newBT-016s to see what they were like. Like most modern tyres, the first thing that impresses is how quick these tyres are to warm up. Traditionally I wouldn’t want to be going hell-for-leather on new rubber until after at least three laps, but following Jeremy McWilliams showed that you could start to up the pace after only one single lap. Learning the track in the first 20-minute session, the Bridgestones behaved perfectly. For the second session I was on Honda’s new CBR1000RR Fireblade and I was starting to increase the pace as I began to learn the track. Side grip is exceptional – especially through the fast lefts of turns three and four, and the run up before Nieto, not to mention the fast right-hand kink before the final hairpin at Curva Ducados. Saying that even slow-old me had a couple of miniature slides on the blade. Nothing too scary, but hitting the back straight out of the Curva Sito Pons, the rear of the Blade began to step out just a little. To be honest, I’d probably put that down to the suspension telling me it indeed some adjustment, than anything to do with the tyres: after all, McWilliams and Ron Haslam (and some blokes called Melandri and Stoner) seemed to be having no problems at all! Stability on the whole is nothing short of superb, and if anything, these new BT-016s are even more stable under heavy breaking than the Diablo Rossos I tried at Catalunya a couple of weeks before. Hitting the brakes before hard for Curva Dry Sack and Curva Angel Nieto produced no major wobbles at all and I felt that – for the first time – I could hang onto the brakes way into the corner, something I’ve never had the confidence to do before. Even the odd bit of late breaking produced no squeals of protest from the front, it just bit into the tarmac and slowed down. No dramas, no problems, lovely.

An overnight scoot to Guadix and the launch of the GSX-R750K8 allowed me to enjoy the OE version of the BT-016. These will be on both the GSX-R600 and 750. The only difference on the OE version is that these versions only use single front compounds and dual rear compounds. Either way, once more the Bridgestones performed faultlessly despite a day’s hard riding at the track.

The BT-016s are available now and in a range of sizes that even includes the ol’ 16-inch Fireblades…

After enjoying the BT-016s on two tracks and a number of machines, one thing is clear – the Bridgestones aren’t just tyres, they’re excellent performance add-ons for your bike. Looking at the number of brilliant products out there from all the major manufacturers, it seems as if the tyre war is hotting up. And that’s good news for us. TWO

For the UK, the big market is still the sports sector, and Bridgestone’s new Battlax BT-016 Hypersport tyre follows on from the enormously successful BT-014 tyres. The new 016 sits below the racier BT-002 Racing Streets and above the sports touring BT-021s in their impressive range. If you’re a tech-head, you’ll love the BT-016s. During the launch at Jerez technical features such as HTSPC, MS Belt and three- and five-layer compounds were bandied about. Apparently al you need to know is that all this technology means these tyres offer progressive grip performance, sporty handling, good longevity and excellent high- and low- speed stability.

The new BT-016s feature three compounds on the front hoop and no less than five on the rear to give optimal performance and long life. To test the tyres we were given a whole day on the 2 ¾ mile Spanish GP circuit of Jerez. Jerez is a good place to experience tyres, as it has a little bit of everything in it: short, medium and long turns. Some fast, some slow. There’s also a good selection of both uphill and downhill braking sections. We had a selection of the latest 600cc, 750cc and litre-class sportsbikes to choose from – including the likes of the new Ninja ZX-10R and KTM RC8. For my first session out on the track I decided to take out a bike that I knew well – Yamaha’s YZF-R1 shod with the new BT-016s.

Like most modern tyres, the first thing that impresses is how quickly these tyres warm up. Traditionally I wouldn’t want to be going mad on new rubber until after at least three laps, but following Jeremy McWilliams with his traditional ‘spirited’ warm-up lap showed that you could start to up the pace after only one single lap. Learning the track in the first 20-minute session, the Bridgestones behaved perfectly. For the second session I was on Honda’s new CBR1000RR Fireblade and I started to increase the pace. Side grip is exceptional, though saying that, even slow-old me had a couple of miniature slides on the blade. To be honest, I’d probably put that down to the suspension telling me it need some adjustment, rather than anything to do with the tyres: after all, McWilliams and Haslam were having no problems at all. Stability on the whole is nothing short of superb, and if anything, these new BT-016s are even more stable under heavy breaking than the Diablo Rossos I tried at Catalunya a couple of weeks before. I felt that – for the first time – I could hang onto the brakes way into the corner. This is normally the preserve of racers and something I’ve never had the confidence to do before. The bike just bit into the tarmac and slowed down. Perfect.

Throughout the launch of the new BT-016 Bridgestone constantly fell back on its MotoGP success even flying in GP riders to demonstrate the new road tyres potential at the sunny Jerez track. Bridgestone was keen to point out that the new BT-016 is heavily based on technology developed for MotoGP.

I could bore you with different belt construction and Bridgestone’s new improved wet weather technology, but what you want to know is, what are they like to ride on? Bridgestone fielded a full array of sports bikes for us to put the tyres to test on.

Simply put, the newBT-016 is hugely impressive for a road tyre – even on track. The front tyre feels very similar to the race BT-002 tyre I use on my Suzuki GSX-R600 race bike. Loads of feel and seamless, endless grip. It’s really impressive for a road tyre and I’m finding it hard to find a fault with the front tyre. On the road it was stable, even when pushed hard over the bumpy Spanish roads surrounding Jerez.

The five compound rear tyre is equally impressive considering it’s a road tyre, and not a purpose built track tyre. Side grip and feel is excellent and when the tyre does break into a slide it’s easy to control and predict. I’ve never felt so comfortable sliding a tyre. I could just hold the slide and feel exactly what the tyre was doing. This does not mean the rear tyre breaks easily, but after 15 minutes in the hot temperatures it was easy to provoke a slide, especially on the larger 1000cc bikes. Even when the heat had affected the tyres, they were still progressive.

In summary the BT-016 is mighty impressive for a road tyre and I’ll stick my neck on the line by saying they are more than good enough for the odd track day. Only experienced riders on powerful bikes will find its limitations on track, but for 90% of riders you’ll never need anything more. As an all round tyre for the road and track they are faultless and highly recommended.

With three different compounds at the front and five at the back, the BT-016 gives confidence at serious speeds and lean angles.

MotoGP has brought a lot of tyre development to the road, particularly multiple compounds. The BT-016 has three different compounds up front with five at the back. The firm proudly boast they were the first to produce dual compound tyres. The rear has a relatively hard wearing centre to give excellent stability. The shoulders are softer, which allows you to accelerate while the bike is still on its side. On the very edge is an even softer compound designed to give side grip and improved feeling at huge lean angles.

In addition to discussing tyre technology with the specialist bike media, Capirossi completed a handful of laps of the Jerez circuit in Spain, using a Suzuki GSX-R equipped with the new BT-016 Hypersport tyres.

Under the guidance of former GP rider Jeremy McWilliams - who was working with Bridgestone to set up the bikes at the track - Capirossi impressed the attending media and Bridgestone management with his skills around the Jerez circuit, putting the BT-016 through its paces.

The BT-016 is an advanced Hypersport tyre designed to maximise the performance of sports bikes on the road. Bridgestone has combined MotoGP construction methods with its latest multi-compound technology to produce a tyre that gives high-level grip performance in braking, cornering and acceleration. This allows riders to enjoy improved handling, stability and grip - as well as longer life and lower noise.

The next time that Capirossi will be on Bridgestone tyres is when he will be piloting his awesome Rizla Suzuki GSV-R around the Jerez circuit for the second round of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship on Sunday 30th March.

"I have been a Bridgestone rider for many years, so it was a pleasure to join them last week in Jerez for such an important event. The BT-016 is a great tyre, and gave me a really good feeling, especially at the front, which works really well and is very stable. The rear grip is also good, and it is the first time that I feel the road tyre is similar to the race tyre. I felt immediately comfortable. I now need to get some for my own Suzuki GSX-R1000 which I use on the road!."
Loris Capirossi

"It has been a privilege to welcome MotoGP riders to our Battlax BT-016 international media launch event in Jerez, a very important occasion for Bridgestone Corporation and Bridgestone Europe. This new tyre sees us transfer tyre technology from MotoGP into road bike tyres and we are thrilled to have been able to showcase that cross-over by having some of the best riders in the world in Jerez. I would personally like to thank Loris and the Suzuki Factory for their taking time out of their busy schedules to support us."
Kenji Shoda - Bridgestone Europe Director Consumer Products

Bridgestone have been using multi-compound tyres for over twenty years and the company claim the new BT016 represents their best effort yet. The front BT016 is made up from what Bridgestone calls 3LC (three layer compound) which means the centre compound's harder than the outside to help prolong tyre life, while giving good feedback when the bike's cranked over. The rear BT016 is made up of a 5 layer compound - a firm centre, encased by a softer mid-section designed for maximising drive out of corners and on the outside of the tyre is an edge compound, for when the bike's cranked over at maximum lean. Sounds good enough but does it actually work?

Let's put it like this: tyre launches are totally different to bike launches. Around 20 journalists are let loose around a MotoGP circuit on machines ranging from a BMW R1200 to the new 180bhp ZX-10R. That's 20 pumped-up, adrenalin-fuelled, egotistical riders giving it absolutely everything they've got all day long. It's a recipe for utter carnage. But despite the potential for mayhem we found the tyres warmed quickly, delivered consistent lap times and only degraded in performance when the tyre had reached the end of its life - around 1000 miles of hard track use.

Entry speed into the circuit's fast, sweeping bends steadily increased as confidence grew and the lap times dropped. Some of us had a moment or two from the rear end due to getting on the gas too hard, which can happen on any tyre, but the BT016 warns you're asking too much from its steel-belted carcas well in advance with a lazy twitch rather than a vicious snatch. The track performance is so impressive it's hard to believe Bridgestone are marketing the BT016 as a road tyre.

I could try to bamboozle you with the technical blurb thrown at us during the press conference but I reckon the following paragraph sums up Bridgestone's new tyre better than any performance chart:

At the close of play around 2800 laps had been completed by a host of testers ranging from ex-GP Gods to mere mortals like me. That's almost 9000 miles of near flat-out riding, with a generous smattering of panic braking, hefty throttle abuse and a healthy dose of missed apexes in over 30,000 corners. But despite riding as hard as we dared all day long we all kept it sunny side up - no highsides, no lowsides - nothing. That's impressive.

The new BT016 looks likely to maintain Bridgestone's position in the Hypersports tyre market, as we reckon it's one of the best road-based sports tyres we've tested. We'll give you another report once we've tested the tyre on UK roads in the wet.

If you're a road rider that enjoys a bit of track action every now and again then give a set a go - they're available on the 'net for just over £200 a pair. We reckon you won't be disappointed.

Time is the enemy of everything but antiques and wine. When it comes to motorcycle tyres, ageing is definitely an enemy. As the years roll by, the standard of a tyre performance effectively begins to drop off. Development is so fast in the bike tyre world that you're only usually king for a few years before rivals catch up and unseat you. That's been the case with Bridgestone's BT-014 best-selling and award-winning sports tyre which in recent times has been relegated from its position of dominance in the class.

But its replacement, the BT-016 could well see Bridgestone leading the way once again. Called a 'Hypersport' tyre, the BT-16 has been built for fast road-riding and trackdays. It is not a race tyre. I tried it at the GP track, Jerez in Spain and was impressed with the way it performed.

On a variety of bikes including a 848, 1098S, GSX-R750, GSX-R1000, CBR600RR and ZX-6R the grip, turn in speed, and stability were all excellent. Better still, when the rear tyre eventually let go, it did so in a safe and predictable manner allowing you to correct it quickly.

Faster men than me were also impressed. Former GP rider Jeremy McWilliams said he thought the BT-016s were extremely good and very hard to fault. He thought the front was especially grippy and stable under braking.

Another rapid rider, Ron Haslam, liked the manners of the tyres. He thought they were significantly better than the BT-014s they replace, a tyre which he has much experience of on his race school bikes. He liked the feel and feedback of the BT-016s, and said they were easier to manage once they reached the limit of their grip.

MotoGP champion Bridgestone is claiming the multi-compounds the tyres feature will help both grip and wear. The rear has 5LC (five layer compound) which is actually just three different compounds, and the front a 3LC (actually just two).

Mono Spiral Belt construction, featuring HTSPCC (High Tensile Super Penetrated Cord) gives the BT-016s trustworthy stability at all speeds (especially round Jerez's super fast corners), and the new pattern is said to reduce noise and add further grip.

After I'd tried the BT-016s on several bikes, I then tried the rubber they replace, the BT-014s on a GSX-R1000. To be honest I was quite surprised by how good they were. But the real different between the two started to show after just four laps. Where the newer tyres performance would stay consistent for the whole ten laps, the BT-014s would start to go off and slide a little. In a race between the two I'm sure the difference in lap times wouldn't be huge to begin with, but the BT-016s would start to be faster and increase that advantage each time.

They are in the shops now and will be around 5% more expensive than the BT-014s. Expect to pay around £200-220 a pair.

I'll be fitting a pair of the new Bridgestones to test on the road over the next few weeks and will let you know about wet weather grip and wear rates in a few weeks.