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Never Saw This Before: T31 GT

5K views 37 replies 16 participants last post by  N4HHE 
#1 ·
Have known the time was coming soon for this tire. Had 7900 miles last time I checked records and this oddity had already started. Rode 290 miles Friday in the rain on this. Checked records and surprised to find this is now my all time longest wearing front tire at 8900 miles. This officially makes the T31 GT my favorite front tire. Cord showing in the bottom of tread grooves. The grooves are not gone yet but a line of cord is showing. How the heck did they make one narrow cord rib there?

 

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#6 ·
Yes, fingernail test proves it is hard and not paint. Tire has been mounted 9 months, 8900 miles.

I think it was there 1000 miles ago but didn't pay much attention as the tread was deeper then.

Another posted a picture of his tire with more tread and same white markers. Am not going to worry about it until I have a white line half way around. Not until the markers merge into each other.
 
#11 ·
Yes. But this seems unusual for being white and beneath the wearing tread. Seems it would be harder to discharge static electricity if not in contact with the road. It is clearly a deliberate manufactured artifact.

Think I'll just have to wear the tire down until more of this mystery is exposed.
 
#14 ·
I've noticed this on my current T30 GT rear and it got my attention. The tire has about 11,000 mi on it and is soon to be replaced. I'll be mounting a T31 non GT this time.

I did not notice the white stripe on the T30 front that recently came off. That tire had just under 12,000 mi.

So I'm very happy with the mileage and handling of Bridgestone tires on my bike. Just kind of peculiar with this cord looking anomaly. I'll keep an eye on it.
 
#15 ·
RaYzerman is correct; it is an antenna thread. And when you are going down the road, it is in contact with the pavement as the tire flexes.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Have known the time was coming soon for this tire. Had 7900 miles last time I checked records and this oddity had already started. Rode 290 miles Friday in the rain on this. Checked records and surprised to find this is now my all time longest wearing front tire at 8900 miles. This officially makes the T31 GT my favorite front tire. Cord showing in the bottom of tread grooves. The grooves are not gone yet but a line of cord is showing. How the heck did they make one narrow cord rib there?
With all the tire threads going on this is actually a good testimonial to see. They aren't very expensive either, it looks like! Dang near same price as the Continental Road Attack set in my ebay watchlist already...hmm. How to do they handle the canyons?

EDIT: Actually yeah the set is quite a bit more expensive..haha
 
#17 ·
T31's (GT's) are excellent tires IMO. More than capable of being ridden quite quickly in the twisty stuff (which I have to travel quite far for:( ).
The price to tread life ratio is very good...I get about 11,000-12,000 km out of a rear and about 16,000-18,000 km out of a front. Been using the Bridgestone T30/31's for years now, many sets, and have never felt that grip (due to the tires) was a problem wet or dry. If a rider is finding the limits of them on public roadways, he/she is probably riding faster than is safe.
 
#18 · (Edited)
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#19 ·
Never seen anything like that before ! Antenna tread ? Ya learn something new all the time ! If I hadn’t read this and had a set of these I’d be freaked out & looking for a new set and from the pictures, being there’s so much tread left to have the cording showing I’d be looking elsewhere, but since it’s an intended design ...... I wonder if Bridgestone marketing had any input on this or if this is common practice elsewhere in the world ?
 
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#27 ·
Tar snakes are slippery because, compared
to asphalt, they are smooth and tires can't
get any "bite". Hence - they slip.
Tar snakes are generally raised above the pavement. Narrow enough we can't hit one square and ride on top. So the tire is lifted and rests on the snake perhaps 1" off to one side or the other from the center which was supporting the motorcycle a moment prior.

Can easily understand how this will upset steering but much harder to understand why it doesn't affect some tires as much as others.

In my case in the rain I'm pretty sure there was some slippage that doesn't occur on tar snakes in the dry.

About 16 years ago Alabama DOT repaved a 270° cloverleaf on I-565 in Huntsville. The contractor did a poor job resulting in pavement tears within a few days. Filled the gaps with asphalt and stitched the seams with tar. I hit it a week or so later on GL1800 in the wet. Squared the corner so I ht the patch straight up accelerating to 70 MPH for the main road. Tire spun on the tar snake. A little blip but was thankful I wasn't in a lean.

Searched for and found email address for ALDOT. Wrote that I was disappointed the pretty new pavement required repair so soon. That as a motorcyclist I have a learned fear of tar snakes and my rear tire chirped over each tar snake during moderate acceleration to merge on the big road. That had I been leaned to turn my motorcycle would have slipped sideways to unpredictable results.

They never bothered to reply but a couple weeks later the contractor was back. Scraped all the new pavement off the road and did it again, right. But just on the curved section.

Am guessing they pulled the asphalt too tight when they laid it down. That the asphalt needs to be compressed on the surface both vertically and horizontally.
 
#24 ·
I've ridden on roads just covered in tar snakes where you can't possibly avoid them (California 36 comes to mind). Brutal. If they are overflush to the pavement and it's hot they will squirm, and you lose traction in the transitions. I don't know what's a real good tar snake tire, but some are better than others.
 
#26 ·
The original Bridgestone GL1800 front tire was nasty. The first Dunlop Elite GL1800 tire was wonderful on tar snakes. "Why" is beyond the realm of understanding for mere mortals. There is nothing one could "look at" and determine how one or the other would behave. As we said in engineering, "One test is worth more than 1000 opinions and vuegraphs."
 
#32 ·
Not just your part of Ohio Ferret, that look is everywhere in Ohio! Ive seen miles and miles of it everywhere i go. Id really like to know how and why that snake nightmare is applied. Are we to assume there is a crack in the pavement under every one of those snakes ? If so, the pavement is toast !
Ive not seen it applied, but it sure looks like a manual operation to me, and if thats the case, its incredibly time intensive and seemingly uneconomic. Is a guy walking down the road with a hose coming out of a tanker, followed by a guy smoothing them over ? By the end of the day, those guys would be driven insane !
I hope it is indeed a better snake skin than the slippery beast we know, or those roads would be ice in the rain to all vehicular traffic.
Does anyone know more about this process ?
 
#28 · (Edited)
The absolute worst tires I’ve ever experienced were Maxxis on my 76. Gl1000 Wing pitch it over in a turn and they may just skip/slide over an inch or so. I went back a couple of times to look at the road surface and never found anything. Tar snakes with those tires were true “short stainers”. Thank goodness they didn’t last long.

My buddy who owned the shop I got them through was also a rider (gl1000’s & gl1800’s) and swore by them as the best tire he ever used after the Bridgestone Spitfires, I used to value his opinion a lot, after the Maxxis experience I questioned everything......

On the FJR, all the tires that have been on it past the oe’s have been better than the rider and even the oe’s weren’t really bad past the very short wear & cupping. Truthfully today’s tires are mostly all pretty good, of course being older and not finding the thrill in scrapeing parts anymore has given me much longer tire life generally except for the oe “stones” but I’ve grown to not be a Bridgestone fan due to the oe FJR bridgestones and the “stones” on my 07 Camry hybrid where the dealer had a batteries & tires for life deal when we bought the car new, those tires generally lasted between 12k to I think the high was 20k, just terrible, the dealer said they had seen as low as 6k,they weren’t great tires. The dealer put a lot of tires on that car for the 150k that we owned it, great car ! Terrible tires !

Anyway,,, happy Thursday. .
 
#29 ·
On my GL, the Dunflop Elite's were the absolute worst tire ever and many thought so... compounds are hard as Dunlops usually are, and they slip in the wet, easy to spin them with a GL1800.. Took forever to wear out though.
 
#30 ·
Ahh tar snakes....making grown men's a$$'s clench since......well, since they were invented.
 
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#31 ·
The 2002 Bridgestone GL1800 OE tires rode fine their entire life but for tar snakes. Just as with BT023 on FJR the front was gone in 6,000 miles, rear 10,000+.

The first generation Dunlop Elite for GL1800 were an improvement on the Bridgestone.

It is a mistake to judge all Bridgestone tires by the tire selected for "free" replacement by a car dealer. In 1993 I had a wonderful set of Bridgestone tires on my Infiniti. RE90 is the best I can remember. The Bridgestones on my Subaru are OK, unexceptional. Cost more at Tire Rack than the Michelin on Tesla. Used exact OE replacement on the Tesla, won't on the Subaru. Doubt I'll replace the F-150's Goodyears with same when time comes.

The BT023 is better than a Shinko 016. But I'm liking the T31 GT front better than the PR4GT or anything else I've tried.

While I like my FJR I haven't liked any Yamaha dirtbikes since the IT175.
 
#36 ·
"But I don't see any wear bars yet!"

However every 3rd tread groove from the left (right in picture) is worn to the bottom near center of tire.
 
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