Review of Bridgestone TW201 TW202 Tyres - By Ren Withnell

My SLR 650 came from it's shop shod in Cougar tyres, a mismatched pair of road and on/off road tryes. They were quite horrible. I still rode around on them for 4,000 miles before getting round to putting on branded tyres. My love of Bridgestone tyres started when I got my first bike with tubeless tyres. You have to accept this review then as being somewhat biased as I have always liked Bridgestone and I am well known for brand loyalty

I'd talked with a few friends about which tyres to fit onto the SLR and of course everyone has thier own opinions. One chap who enjoys much off-roading suggested the Continentals as they have a proper "knobbly" tread pattern and fair well in the mud. Another suggested Avon Gripsters as they gave good grip and good mileage. He strongly warned me off Bridgestone claiming poor grip and heavy wear. I looked around this here net and came to realise that tyre choice among the "quality" manufacturers is based mostly on opinion and brand loyalty rather than cold hard facts. And like all these other reviewers I stuck with what I know, especially as the Bridgestones were well priced.

I do a bit of off-road riding. Not really serious mud-plugging as the SLR is really a road bike with off-road ideas and is too heavy to be pulling out of boggy marshes. I ride those farmtracks and natty little shortcuts that abound my area, occasionally tackling a muddy stream or rocky path. One particular track is made up of broken rocks that jar and bounce the bike. On the cheap nasty tyres I was always pleasantly suprised how well they gripped and smoothed the rubble. When I got the new tyres fitted I excitedly went to this track fully expecting to glide effortlessly across the stones. Hmmm. Though the road riding was without question much more stable and controlled, the off road stones felt like each one was attacking my bike and my spine. These tyres were very very hard. The bike was skittering across the top of the stones and the engine was jumping under power with it. Not happy.

This state of affairs continued and I left the rocky road for more comfortable dirt tracks. I then had a 2-up trip to Wales which warmed the tryes and plenty of normal commuting. I went back to the rocky road about 1,000 miles and 1 month later and behold!, the tyres are superb! I have checked the pressures to see if this caused the difference but they were the same as ever. It seems this tyre (perhaps all tyres) need a little time to soften up.

These are mostly on, semi off road tyres. The pattern is chunky but with large areas of contact for the road. They perform averagely in the wet and well in the dry, but then so do most tyres. It is deepest darkest winter at the time of writing abut I have noticed the tyres don't warm up much in use. I am used to more sporty road tyres though so I guess it's all relative. Hopefully the cool running will help them last longer. As for mileage, only time will tell. I'll add to this page these details when I know them!.

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