K75 Spitfire vs. Battlax tires

[pjar]

Hello, I've emailed the below message (in red) to Bridgestone and received no answer. I was wondering if there were any tire guru's who may help with the question. I've just started riding after a 20 year hiatus and am relearning how to choose tires. Bridgestone recommends the Spitfire S11 for 1988-1989 K75, and the Battlax BT 45 for 1990-1995 K75.

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me why the Spitfire S11 is recommended for the '88 K75 motorcycle and not the Battlax BT45.

My bike is a 1988 K75. You chart recommends the Spitfire S11. My MC was purchased used, with the Battlax BT45 on the rear and the Spitfire S11 on the front.

Is the Spitfire S11 recommended for the '88 K75 because of handling, treadwear, stability, OEM specs, etc.? In other words, why is the Spitfire recommended for the 1988-1989 K75 and the Battlax recommendation for 1990-1995 K75?

With the Spitfire on the front and the Battlax on the rear the bike seems to handle quite well and grips well on wet roads. I notice a little horizontal sliding in the rear on dry roads when cornering hard.


Regards, Pete

 

[jpevehouse]

Got no experience with tires but just wanted to welcome you. I purchased a 88 K100LT after twenty years off. Broke down on the way home but I'm up and riding- commuted twice this week.
Mine has Avon Roadrunners on it but I've heard good things about the Battlax tires. The price on the Spitfires are pretty tempting thou. Good luck and see ya around.

 

[PineGreen]

I have done a little research, very little. I looked at a couple of on line stores for B-stones. I have a 95 K75 and searched for the tires you mentioned. BT45s are available for my bikes rear, 130- 90-17. However there is no BT45 lsited for the front 100-90-18. The Spits listed have tires for both the front and rear of mine. At Motorcycle Superstore.com The prices for the Spits are great. Depending on finances, they seem the bargain. I have run BMWs for over 30 years and have always stuck to Metzelers. My K75 and 92 R100RT both have Metzelers Lasertecs. I swear by them, never had a slipor a slide. Plus,I think the tread pattern on the front tire looks cool. take a look at them

 

[WalterK75]

I replaced my Metzlers with the Bridgestone Battleax BT-45V front and rear. I wanted to use these as they are supposed to have longer road life. The rear is dual compound. So far I'm pleased with them. I don't notice any difference in riding. Now to see how many kms I get out of them.

Here's Bridgestone's page about them.
http://mc.bridgestone.co.jp/en/products/battlax/bt45.html

 

[roncooper]

I ran one set of Battlax tires on my 91 K75RT. They handled well wet and dry.
At 6000 miles the rear was at the wear bars and the front had 3/32nds left.

This was one up and not a lot of twisties.

I get 10-12,000 out of Metzler 880s rear and 20,000 front.

 

[sleeper]

... different wear on front vs rear?

Here's my 2 cents worth: Just did my first tire replacement on the 95 K75RT purchased last year. Bike had BT45's, front and rear, and that's what I used for my replacement. Got 10,500 miles out of them and probably could have done another 800 miles on them before hitting min tread but I wanted to get fresh rubber in anticipation of long road trip. Riding style is 80% 1-up, and not enough twisties - mostly commuting to work 120 miles r/t.
When I got the fresh BT45s delivered for my first attempt at self-installing the tires (I succeeded), I noticed the front tread depth was significantly less than the rear. I am obviously new to bike maintenance but.....is that normal for all brands of tires and is that because the rear is expected to wear faster than the front?

 

[pjar]

Reply to thread contributors . . .

Hi all,

Thanks to ALL for the generous feedback.

jpevehouse, thanks much for the welcome. It only took me about 3 hours to figure out how to post a thread on the forum (my virgin attempt). My commute to work is through dairy-farm-back-country roads and am happier than ever to be riding again. My previous bikes were '73 R60/5 (handled a bit like a drunken cow, but still my first love) and an R90/6. Boy the K75 is sure smooth!

b52g, I've heard good things about the Metzeler Lasertecs and will check them out. I've also eyeballed the Spits on Motorcycle Superstore and the price does seem great.

I'll persist on trying to contact someone at B-stone regarding why they recommend one tire and not the other and post that feedback from them. I'm interested in how a manufacturer determines a specific tire to a specific model MC. At this point I'm leaning toward replacing my worn back tire with a Spit.

Ride safe!
pete

 

[jpevehouse]

Pete, sounds like we should change commutes. Mine is 33 miles one way on a straight flat highway- no fun stuff. Not bad traffic thou and I am next to Texas hill country for weekend drives.

Our past life exerience sounds simuliar also. I had a 73 R/75 that I would up selling to get a Gold Wing (mistake). Rode the heck out of that toaster.

I have had my K100 less than a month but it came with a thin rear tire and a new front. I think it has Avon Roadrider- not the Road Runners like I said earlier. I may stay with that - until I have to replace both.

 

[BUDDINGGEEZER]

I noticed the front tread depth was significantly less than the rear. I am obviously new to bike maintenance but.....is that normal for all brands of tires and is that because the rear is expected to wear faster than the front?

This is normal and 2 rear tires to 1 front tire is not abnormal in some instances.

Ralph Sims

 

[98lee]

Bridgestone does recommend the BT-45 for the K75S. They figure that S riders want to be able to ride more aggressively. They recommend either tire for the rest of the K75 series depending on riding style. You can't put too much faith in their fitment guide as there are numerous obvious typos in the recomended sizes including rim diameter. But here is their description of the two tires:


BT45
Sport Touring Bias-Ply tire designed for older sport bikes and mid-sized sport-touring bikes. Features a Dual Tread Compound (DTC) rear tire which offers longer mileage and stability from center, while also maintaing a excellent grip and performance while cornering. Available in H and V-rated sizes.


S11
Bias-Ply general purpose replacement tire for large late model cruisers as well as older bikes from the 1970's and 1980's



Which sounds more like the type of riding that you want to do?

General purpose cruising or Sport Touring with higher performance cornering?


If your choice is higher performance sport touring, I would recommend that you try the BT-45s over the Metzler Lasertecs. The Bridgestones are much more linear in turn -in. The Lasertecs require more mid-turn lean angle correction.

The Bridgestones get very slightly better tire mileage.

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/ has very good prices, no cost very fast shipping, and usually have the tires in stock.

 

[gawga_boy]

this may or may not be helpful.

http://translate.google.com/transla...zubehoer/reifen/test-youngtimer-reifen/101744

 

[98lee]

this may or may not be helpful.

http://translate.google.com/transla...zubehoer/reifen/test-youngtimer-reifen/101744

Don't ya just love stuff that has been translated by non-english speakers!

But if you go to the bottom where the tire names are in red and click on each tire, you will find that the BT-45 came in first and the Lasertec came in fourth partly for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

 

[gawga_boy]

this is the better one. It has the points chart.

http://translate.google.com/transla...108924?ref_id=108438&sl=de&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8

 

[gawga_boy]

Don't ya just love stuff that has been translated by non-english speakers!

Yeah the auto language translators can be quite a lot of fun to read.

 

[pjar]

Bridgestone does recommend the BT-45 for the K75S. They figure that S riders want to be able to ride more aggressively. They recommend either tire for the rest of the K75 series depending on riding style. You can't put too much faith in their fitment guide as there are numerous obvious typos in the recomended sizes including rim diameter. But here is their description of the two tires:


BT45
Sport Touring Bias-Ply tire designed for older sport bikes and mid-sized sport-touring bikes. Features a Dual Tread Compound (DTC) rear tire which offers longer mileage and stability from center, while also maintaing a excellent grip and performance while cornering. Available in H and V-rated sizes.


S11
Bias-Ply general purpose replacement tire for large late model cruisers as well as older bikes from the 1970's and 1980's



Which sounds more like the type of riding that you want to do?

General purpose cruising or Sport Touring with higher performance cornering?


If your choice is higher performance sport touring, I would recommend that you try the BT-45s over the Metzler Lasertecs. The Bridgestones are much more linear in turn -in. The Lasertecs require more mid-turn lean angle correction.

The Bridgestones get very slightly better tire mileage.

/www.motorcycle-superstore.com has very good prices, no cost very fast shipping, and usually have the tires in stock.

Hi Lee,

Your response makes sense. I'm puzzled why Bridgestone would specifically not recommend the BT-45 for an '88 K75 when it can only offer better handling on corners. I was curious why they don't straight-up offer a choice in the listing. I'm curious about the logic of not giving the rider the choice (in the listing). You assume that they think '88 K75 riders on average won't appreciate the improved cornering, hence not providing a choice with a dual listing.

I guess it isn't too far fetched to think that some marketing guru decided that choice would create confusion causing reduced overall sales.

My daily commute offers about 18 twisties (round trip) and handling in corners is important to me (especially during the winter night rides).

Thanks for your Lasertec vs. Bridgestone comparison feedback. Sounds like you've had personal experience with both.

Pete

 

[11212]

k75 spitfire

please let me add my 2.5 cents--i have had 6 k75's since '93(no s's) i have put cheng shin himax c906 on the front of them all(this is a me33 look a like. i am not an aggressive rider so they did last 11-12k.always used a decent rear tire(on sale). thank you

 

[pjar]

Thanks 11212,

I didn't know cheng shin himax c906's existed. Incredibly low price too. I'm amazed at the diversity and usefulness of the responses.

I did get an official response from a Customer Service/PDIC (whatever that means) Manager from Bridgestone. It seems they thought I was asking a question about tire size. I've resubmitted my question to them and will keep all informed if I get an answer.

pete

 

[98lee]

Hi Lee,

Your response makes sense. I'm puzzled why Bridgestone would specifically not recommend the BT-45 for an '88 K75 when it can only offer better handling on corners. I was curious why they don't straight-up offer a choice in the listing. I'm curious about the logic of not giving the rider the choice (in the listing). You assume that they think '88 K75 riders on average won't appreciate the improved cornering, hence not providing a choice with a dual listing.

I guess it isn't too far fetched to think that some marketing guru decided that choice would create confusion causing reduced overall sales.

My daily commute offers about 18 twisties (round trip) and handling in corners is important to me (especially during the winter night rides).

Thanks for your Lasertec vs. Bridgestone comparison feedback. Sounds like you've had personal experience with both.

Pete

The recommendation is more related to replacing what came standard on the bikes both in speed rating and in load capability. Same with their car recommendations. The S came with the Metzler Laser (before that was replaced with the Lasertec). I believe the other K75s came with the Metronic (a lower performance, higher milage tire).

The recommendations do not list every upgrade possible, just the minimum replacement. Going with higher performance tires is at the choice of the owner.

Yeah I've burned up ALOT of Lasertecs until I finally got curious about the good things that I'd heard about the BT45s on this forum. I'm on my third set of BT45s and am very pleased. A noticeable improvement.

 

[Zagando]

I got my BT-45s from SW Mototires out of Tucson---the price was right and they FedX'd them pronto---will do the same again when it comes time to replace them.

Can't go wrong with BTs, IMO. Very sticky=added fun as well as safety.

 

[BILLK75]

spitfires

I have a 1993 K75RT. I am on my 3rd set of spits I get about 15k out of the fronts and 12 to 13 k from the rears. I commute 60 miles rt each day year round, rain or shine. I have never had a traction issue to date.