Goodbye Old Friends... Discontinued Tyres

It's 2024 and announcements of some exciting new tyres has been made, and stock is imminent of the Bridgestone Battlax S23 and the Metzeler Roadtec 02 ... but as a new year starts, an old year ends ... as new tyres arrive, old tyres are quietly discontinued.

It is true that some tyres need forgetting, such as the ... um... seems I forgot them, hurrah!

It's just as true that some tyres should be remembered, and perhaps bought up while they're still in stock and at low prices... and the main contender for that is the Bridgestone BT016

It may depend on how old you are as to whether you will miss the BT016, it came out in 2011 and it was a darned good tyre, which is why it's stuck around for 13 years! It got superceeded by the S20, the S21, the S22 and now the S23. The S20 got dropped from the range and the BT016 remained.

The Bridgestone BT090 were introduced before then, and stuck around as they were made in certain sizes for some of the older machinery such as the VFR400, and losing the BT090 will further reduce the tyre options for those bikes with some oddball sizes.

Avon are discontinuing the popular Trailrider tyre which I think is a big shame.
It has excellent road holding characteristics but it really looks like an aggressive off road tyre. For ADV riders who will never or hardly ever go off road, but still want the bike to look right these were my favourite choice. And as someone who handles all kinds of tyres on a daily basis, these ones 'felt right'.

Stock has run out of the Avon Sidecar Triple Duty tyre, but sidecar owners are often ingenious and adaptable people so they will find something that'll work.... hopefully Mitas will get some stock of the H06 Superside into the UK soon.

Every year there are some changes and departures that aren't newsworthy, possibly just a certain size gets dropped, or a different product code, and it's not worth getting into tiny details.

Sitting mid-range between not worth mentioning and whole tyre treads vanishing, there is the news of Bridgestone 'spec' tyres.

In brief, a 'spec' tyre is made for a specific bike model and it can either optimise grip based on a certain characteristic or it can help mask some minor issue with handling.

When 'spec' tyres are launched you'll find that manufacturers will INSIST that you use the correct spec tyre, but as time goes by they become a little more relaxed about it and will admit 'yeah run that bike on the standard tyre it'll be ok'.

Some bikes CAN be ok on standard tyres, some others should use the 'spec' tyres. KTM Superduke R really are better on the S22 SDR spec tyre.

It's now 2024 and Bridgestone are dropping some of their spec tyres... Manufacturers do continue testing after they release certain tyres, so if they say it's now fine to run the standard tyres then they're putting their name to it and they wouldn't do that if they were putting you or their good name at risk.

2024 is here, new tyres are here.... bring on the sunshine as I want to test some Bridgestone S23!!!

Ian