i went through the canyon yesterday, and my rear tire got stuck with a nail in it. so now I'm getting new tires. I'm choosing between the bridgestone hyper sport s20 and the bt016 pro. when i looked at how the tread was designed, i thought that i would want a bt016 pro rear tire, and a hyper sport s20 front tire. does anybody know if this is a good idea, because it seems like it is to me. i checked out the chart while on the revzilla website.

Bridgestone Battlax Hypersport S20 Rear Tire - RevZilla

the link to the tires and chart is above. I'm sorry if this is a repost but i couldn't find the answer to the question through the search function.

Cheers

 

Get the matching set, so both S20 or Bt016. Don't mix and match them

 

Conventional wisdom would say to use matching tires, but I've seen people mix/match Pirellis to great success on the track. I'm guessing nobody's done the BT016/S20 matchup yet so you're gonna have to be the guinea pig.

What's the reason you want to mix and match them like that?

 

okay so i thought everyone would give me a reason not to do a different tire in the Front and Rear so i decided to go for the s20 set. but since i haven't installed them yet and gotten confirmation that its not a bad idea i think I'm gonna return my s20 rear and get a bt016 pro rear. i really wanna try this because looking at the chart that bridgestone provides on the revilla website (link is above) it looks to me that a bt016 Pro has more soft compound in the rear then the s20 does, and the s20 has a more soft compound in the front then the bt016 pro does. so if i got a two different tires with high amounts of soft compound i figure it would help me feel a bit more confident. I'm not to worried about tread life, I'm more worried about traction. i ride 50 miles on the street during the week, and around 250-350 miles every other weekend, mostly through the canyons and freeways. since 650/900 miles of the month are usually spirited riding i want to feel worry free about the traction of my tire, not that the added traction would make me anymore reckless. i think i have the right idea about how the compounds work, but if i don't someone should really inform me..please.
cheers

 

The grip is a balancing act you could probably work out with tire pressure test n' tune. The ratio of soft compound to medium compound is probably balanced between the two within a set (the S20 probably has less soft in the rear to the front for a reason from an engineering standpoint), but like I said, I've seen it done before by some very fast guys with much success with the Pirellis so who knows? Even GP guys will mix n' match soft/medium/hard compounds to find the balance they are looking for.

Another thing you might want to consider is the profile of the tires. I think the S20 and BT016 are pretty similar, but the curvature of the tire also plays a role in how they work with each other. If you can find a fresh BT016 to compare your S20 to, I'd line them up and see if they are that different.

All that being said, either tire is around on par with GP tires from 10 years ago and it's very unlikely you'll be outriding either set. I can understand it from a "confidence" point of view, but it's probably unnecessary. If you're good enough to understand feedback from tires, I'd say give it a go. If you're not sure how to read tire grip from the seat of your pants, I'd say stick to a matching set.

 

If you wanted a more confidence-inspiring tire, you should have gone with something with a taller, dual-compound tire like a Michelin Pilot Power 2CT; the middles are a harder compound for longevity on the highway rides, and the sides are a softer compound for grip in the twisties. From my years of experience, Bridgestones tend to be pretty hard no matter which one you get. If the ground is cold or the tires are cold, you better mind your Ps and Qs until they're a little more toasty.