you're not going in a straight line enough.

What pressures are you running? Post more pictures - I want to see specifically the contour of the tire near the tread cuts (ie, if the rubber adjacent to the cut "lips up" or is "ground down").

Hmm, I want to be a smart ass here, have you gained any weight of late? What did you have for breakfast before going on those rides LOL all in good fun. Still there may be a point to it. I say your just riding harder and don't know it. Do know that some tires are sensitive to pressure changes and temps. Give it a bit, Mr. Scooterrash will be all over this one.

Leading edge of front cuts definitely cupping up.

cold psi this morning before I left; 35.5 front, 34.5 rear.

PM Essvar..
he is the BStone rep and my personal hero.....
Knows these tires in and out....

just a quick thought, it looks like you are getting faster. the increased front wear is due to increased entry and mid corner speed. have you noticed any body position changes in your riding style since becoming a trackhead?

What pressures are you running? Post more pictures - I want to see specifically the contour of the tire near the tread cuts (ie, if the rubber adjacent to the cut "lips up" or is "ground down").

By "less brake at corner entry" do you mean more entry speed?
I'm thinkin there's your answer.

One other adjustment was made at the same time the tires were mounted; I didn't have the extra cash to really do the forks right...so I had 15mm of internal preload put in, and went to 10 wt fork oil. The bike seems to handle very well... a noticeable improvement from before.

PM Essvar..
he is the BStone rep and my personal hero.....
Knows these tires in and out....

One thing I've found is that it's difficult (for ma anyway) to differentiate between gaging speed and rate of deceleration. You may well be carrying more entry speed than you think.
You may also be altering your line to the point that you are loading the tire more.
Just things to think about....

I bet you are just one of those fast guys now.

.. I don't think I'm riding faster..but I guess I just don't know.

Well, after talking to Jim at Mac's today, you are riding fast

Jim is a liar, he rides like a puss.

I am posting this in track time because I know you guys understand the finer points of tire wear and suspension..

Here is my conundrum;

I just got back from a 325 mile ride and noticed some strange (for me) tire wear.

I have gotten used to using up a set of street tires in less than 3K. At 13449 miles, I put on my sixth set of skins; Bridgestone BT016's. I chose these because I hoped to get at least 3K out of them without sacrificing grip.

The wear on the last 5 sets of tires (two sets of OE BT056's, two sets of PP's, and one set of Qualifiers) was pretty similar... the rears were toast, the fronts still had some left..not enough to justify another rear..but some skin left.

I am seeing completely different wear characteristics with the 16's; the fronts are going away first. The rear seems to be wearing about the same as any other tire...maybe even faster..but the front is going away fast!

I understand that these tires have two compounds on the front...the sides being softer.

One other adjustment was made at the same time the tires were mounted; I didn't have the extra cash to really do the forks right...so I had 15mm of internal preload put in, and went to 10 wt fork oil. The bike seems to handle very well... a noticeable improvement from before.

The question; why am I toasting the sides of the fronts all of a sudden?

These tires have 1665 (non track) miles on them;

Front; Sides are 1/32nds to the wearbars. Center is 2/32nds away. (started with 3/32nds at both points)


On the rear, I've used 4 of 6/32nds in the center, and 3 of 5/32nds on the sides;

Is it just the tire? Did my suspension changes cause this? Any ideas??

Well when I read your post a couple things stick out. One you said you put 15mm of preload in why? You want your front sag to be around 40mm and the rear around 32mm with 6-10mm free sag. If you are riding a busa it comes comes stock with .824 springs very light especially if you are around 200lb. And we know that the busa is hard on rear tires to begin with. 10wt oil will increase your dampening a lot compaired to the fish oil that the factory puts in there, which can cause tire wear. So if those are the two things you changed and are now having a problem. I would say to take a look at what you did a little closer. When you changed the oil did you take the forks completely apart and get all the crap out of the forks and all of the old oil out and off the stock parts?

Bring it to me and we can slap a sent of springs in there for you and dail your sag, compression and rebound for a reasonable price.

^^^ Yeah, what he said....and slow the F down!

I think you have 3 issues going on.

#1 this is a new tire to you so its wear characteristics are going to be different than the last sets of tires you used. Perhaps the front tire is softer than the others.

#2 your track experience has given you more confidence to carry more entry speed into a corner and you may be pushing the front harder as you scrub off that speed when approcahing the apex, before you get on the throttle.

Try getting onto maintainence throttle as you tip into the corner to put more weight on the rear.

#3 your suspension changes may have affected the bikes handling and could be causing abnormal tire wear. I would definitely look into having a suspension shop (GP suspension being very highly recommended) check your set-up and get it dialed in for you, your riding style, weight, bike and tires.

First of all...thanks for the comments..
I added more internal preload because I wanted more adjustment.. I'm exactly where I was before in terms of preload, but I've still got plenty of thread left to crank down..
I made the changes because I was using all the fork travel previously. The thought of being without travel midcorner did not do much for my confidence level.. I know I need to have it done right ... I need the 1.0 or better springs and better valving.. but the changes I did make have made the bike much more stable.. it may not have been the correct way to do it, but it is better.
I don't know if all the old shit was flushed out... I told 'em to.. I just brought the forks into my local shop.. the job was initiated by leaking fork seals.

Oh, and I am definitely 200+.... like 210.



Hey there speedy... I remember you being in front of me for quite awhile Sunday morning... I wasn't riding any faster than you were..



1.) I agree. My gut says the sides of the 16 are softer than any tire I've had on there previously.. I've got no data, howver, to support this theory....

2.) I know I'm getting more and more used to my bike.. I also know that my one trackday (and GOD I want to get back!) helped me a ton. Jim and Steven gave me a ton of pointers. With that said... I tell myself I'm not gonna push it as hard when I go out.. and honestly, the last three rides I've had (the only three on these skins) I have been relaxed.. yea, I was movin'.. but I wasn't working at it nearly as hard as before (prior to the fork work/tire change) The mid corner warbles are gone.. and I'm working on not using my brakes as much, so yea.. the entry speeds are probably up a bit.
I'm using maint throttle pre-apex now.. off throttle-tip in-maint throttle to just before the apex-smooth accel (working hard on that)-repeat.
3.) You are correct. I need to have the suspension done right..at least the front. I got a bid from GP prior to doing this and I just didn't have the dough..

Again, thanks for the responses.

Looks to me like you are riding the hell out of that tire on a fairly abrasive surface with a heavy bike and a less than light rider