wr250X Tires

So, the stock rubber on the US released wr250X is:

Front: Bridgestone / BT090F Radial G / 110/70R17M/C 54H

Rear: Bridgestone / BT090R Radial G / 140/70R17M/C 66H

So, what have you replaced the stock tire with and what problems or advantages have you encountered?

Sizes, either wider or narrower? Brands? Street grip? Off-road handling?

Seems on other forums there are always questions about what tires go on wr250x's.

Can we get a specific thread here that discusses tires for the X so we can just link people to this site and this thread?

I'd love to know what options there are for our bikes.

Here's my thread on Distanzias: click me

Yes, a 150/60/17 absolutely fits on the rear of an X

No Problem.

I had distanzas, not a bad tire but they didn't offer me enough grip on pavement (I don't ride on dirt).

Right now I'm running Bridgestone BT016 120/70 and 150/60, they grip extremely well and took quite a beating on the BeaveRun track.

Dark wrote:

I had distanzas, not a bad tire but they didn't offer me enough grip on pavement (I don't ride on dirt).

Right now I'm running Bridgestone BT016 120/70 and 150/60, they grip extremely well and took quite a beating on the BeaveRun track.

Any issues with the Bridgestone 150/60? Somebody on one of these forums once said not all 150's fit the rear wheel as nicely as the Distanzia does.

Dark wrote:

I had distanzas, not a bad tire but they didn't offer me enough grip on pavement (I don't ride on dirt).

Right now I'm running Bridgestone BT016 120/70 and 150/60, they grip extremely well and took quite a beating on the BeaveRun track.

Do you think the BT016 will last longer than the 090?
I replaced my rear recently with BT090 - only this was NOT the 'G' suffix version, specifically designed for tube, which is unavailable. Bridgestone told me it should be fine, & I have experienced no ill effects. Tyres stick like sh*t, so I'm happy. Bridgestone have also recommended BT013's - interesting to see if anyone's tried these??? I have only seen (I think), Michelin only do the 140 section tyre - seems very rare, & IMO a bit of a mistake by Yamaha not to design the X with more mainstream tyres....

Precisely why I'd like to get as much info as possible on tires for the X in one thread.

The more information on options the better.
Especially if people have direct experience with 150 sizes.
There's a lot more choices available in 150 for the street.

motokid wrote:

Dark wrote:

I had distanzas, not a bad tire but they didn't offer me enough grip on pavement (I don't ride on dirt).

Right now I'm running Bridgestone BT016 120/70 and 150/60, they grip extremely well and took quite a beating on the BeaveRun track.

Any issues with the Bridgestone 150/60? Somebody on one of these forums once said not all 150's fit the rear wheel as nicely as the Distanzia does.

I have ridden on 3 different 150/60's on the wr250x.
Avon Distanzia's
Michelin Power One's
Pirelli Diablo Rosso's

Of those 3 the only one that fits the rim well enough to use the whole tire is the Distanzia's.
The other two left around a half inch chicken strip that is unusable.
They still gave good traction and won't hurt anything to use them, you are just sacrificing a little contact patch when you squeeze a bigger tire on.

Hopefully this will help for quick access.

I am running the ContiForce SM tires on my WRX.
Link
I'm running the 150 rear with no issues once I trimmed the plastic chain guard a bit. I find they hook up really well on the pavement, be that road or track. They've also done a lot of off-road trips in the rocks including Moab and they seem to be holding up well. They've got 6000km on them so far and they're still going.

What I really like is their weight. They are advertised as a light tire with quick warmup time for motards and they are. The day I put them on we were also putting on a pair of Pirelli Diablo Rossos on my wife's Monster. I couldn't believe the difference just in the front tire.

f3joel wrote:

I have ridden on 3 different 150/60's on the wr250x.
Avon Distanzia's
Michelin Power One's
Pirelli Diablo Rosso's

Of those 3 the only one that fits the rim well enough to use the whole tire is the Distanzia's.
The other two left around a half inch chicken strip that is unusable.
They still gave good traction and won't hurt anything to use them, you are just sacrificing a little contact patch when you squeeze a bigger tire on.

So the tires themselves worked great? You could ride them to your fullest ability? You just couldn't use the complete profile to the edge?

The obvious trade-off being that you could not order those specific tires in a 140 size right?

There was no clearance issues with any of the 150's you tried?
No chain rubbing? No need for custom spacers?

@ Shewolf: Thanks

Edit: Bridgestone recommended me BT003 Racing (NOT BT013 as I posted by mistake earlier) as an upgrade to BT090. Haven't tried them yet, & they are around 25% more expensive than BT090. Also, tread pattern is only JUST legal in UK, & I'm not sure how they behave in the wet...
Anyone with experience of these?

motokid wrote:

So the tires themselves worked great? You could ride them to your fullest ability? You just couldn't use the complete profile to the edge?

The obvious trade-off being that you could not order those specific tires in a 140 size right?

There was no clearance issues with any of the 150's you tried?
No chain rubbing? No need for custom spacers?

@ Shewolf: Thanks

No clearance issues that I know of, just a smaller contact patch from the way the tire is squeezed on.

The only 150/60 I have had on my bike is the Distanzia, the others were on a friends wr250x.
The Diablo Rosso I barley rode.
The Power One I did 5-6 20 minute sessions at Jennings GP.

The Power One is a great track tire, but I would not recommend them for the street.
My friend was sliding all over the place on a cold day with them on the street.

Okay...so I'm just thinking out loud here.......but the difference between a 140 and a 150 is 10 millimeters.

That's 5 millimeters wider on each side. I have trouble comprehending how 5 millimeters of rubber can change things that much.

I get that the tire profile probably makes more difference than the width itself....but still.

Maybe a pound or two difference in psi could alter the tire enough to negate the difference?

At any rate.... what other tires have people used?

Also...the 120 on the front works just fine too. I'll certainly never work the strips off the edges of the front on my 120....but it's such a common size tire for the street. The choices for the front are endless.

Just a pic to show how usable the Distanzias are on our rims.
This is my front tire.
[img][/img]

Holy shit....you doing that on the street or on the track?

Either way....

Couple deals gap trips and two trips to little tally (TGPR).

You had to be grinding down hard parts to be using that much of a 120 front.

Right?

little peg scraping going on but not too bad.
I am around 135 pounds without gear so I don't compress the suspension as much.
I also am running the stock dogbone instead of the lowering link alot of people are using.
This keeps my pegs higher to begin with and allows more lean before the pegs scrape.

A fine testiment to the grip of the Distanzias on the hard surfaces....

Does anyone have some good baseline psi info for bridgestone b003rs tires. I have never used this model before and do not know where to start . This is a track only bike so I need to hear from folks who have had them up to temp at full pace. Also these are my first tubed tires so I don't know how that will affect the numbers . I run at an advanced pace at most track events so I would like to get this right for safety reasons.

I can't help you, but whatever you find out please post your experiences and thoughts here:
https://wr250rforum.forumotion.com/wr250x-specific-f15/wr250x-tires-t2422.htm

I'd go with what the other guys in your group riding motards are running as a starting point, anyway.

When I had my DR-Z400SM, I liked 23 psi on the street with Michelin Pilot Powers.

love2lean wrote:

Does anyone have some good baseline psi info for bridgestone b003rs tires. I have never used this model before and do not know where to start . This is a track only bike so I need to hear from folks who have had them up to temp at full pace. Also these are my first tubed tires so I don't know how that will affect the numbers . I run at an advanced pace at most track events so I would like to get this right for safety reasons.

+1: I really don't know what to get next. Part of me says get a high mileage tyre that can go a bit rough like Distanzia, but the other part says go for the BT003RS to go round corners even quicker! Problem is that you can only go so fast around street corners, before hitting diesel spill/pedestrians/horses/etc. Maybe its just best to stick with BT090, as bike was designed to run on them, & they're a pretty good balance between value for money, stickyness & mileage
I just wish they wouldn't square off quie so quickly

just ordered a set of bt-003rs's, 110/70 front and 150/60 rear, and some tire irons, lol.

after watching a few youtube vids of how to spoon on/off a tire i figured i'd give it a go. how hard can it be, right?

i'll keep you updated when they get here...

Vortac wrote:

just ordered a set of bt-003rs's, 110/70 front and 150/60 rear, and some tire irons, lol.

after watching a few youtube vids of how to spoon on/off a tire i figured i'd give it a go. how hard can it be, right?

i'll keep you updated when they get here...

Once you the bead is broken, it's pretty easy. Try to do it when the tires are hot and use lube.

Be very cautious not to pinch the tubes. It's not hard not to pinch the tubes but it takes caution.