Just put 3500 miles and one light trackday on these on the ZX-14. Rear still has lots of tread left, at least another 1K. Front is down to the wear bars on the sides.
Overall impression of the tires was extreme neutrality. Absolutely even response, no stand-up or fall-in. No raingroove tracking. No headshake. The bike has begun running wide on corner exit, but I suspect that's a combination of the worn front, and of my failure to raise the rear height back up (this rear is a 190/50, previous was a 190/55).
The 016 is a multi-compound tire, two in front and three in the rear. I was hoping to get better "effective" mileage from it by having the tire profile stay intact longer - I do quite a bit of commuting and other highway work. I don't really think it has worked particularly well - I'm getting better MILEAGE from the rear, but there is still a noticeable flat spot and that resistance to turn-in is developing. Also, I found the outermost "sticky" compound of the rear tire to feel odd. The bike moved around a LOT more when it got fully onto that edge; I was always aware of it happening. In fact, on the one trackday I did, I started aiming the bike "inside" the curbing as it would consistently move several inches out. Predictable, and not alarming, but kind of odd.
Obviously the wear rate of the front tire is a concern. This is very unusual for me on this bike; I have never worn a front out prior to a rear, or even come close. The trackday I did was in mild temps and moderate speeds, so I wasn't expecting any unusual wear. I'm actually kind of happy to have something closer to even wear front/rear, but this seems to have teetered over to the other side. Effectively, I'm still getting the 3-4K mileage I expect out of a set of tires, with about the same amount of that life having a sub-optimal profile. I was hoping for a better result from my first experience with multi-compound tires: better profile maintenance; somewhat better overall tread life, and improved, or at least consistent, traction at higher lean angles. I didn't get any of those from the BT016s, and don't plan to try another set. I'm thinking Dunlop Q2s next...
KeS
