BRIDGESTONE R11 DOT RACE TIRE
PRODUCT TEST
P118
In Development
"One of the main goals with the
R11 development was to increase
the performance on corner en-
try," says Bridgestone's Project
Engineer, Keith Willcome. "And
it's the first DOT race tire we
have developed using the Ulti-
mat Eye technology. Ultimat Eye
is essentially a rolling tire dyno
that we developed for MotoGP
and Formula One. It allows us
to look at the dynamic contact
patch of the tire under load,
where we can simulate speeds
up to 260 mph with a 70-degree
lean angle."
One area where the Ultimat
Eye proved extremely useful was
in tread design, with Willcome
stating, "We developed the
groove angles to be perpendicu-
lar to the forces that you're going
to see in the tire. You have a
cornering vector, and an accel-
eration and braking vector, so
the groove angles are optimized
perpendicularly to give you really
good rigidity and great accelera-
tion performance."
Under the new tread pattern,
Bridgestone has introduced the
Variable Monospiral Belt (V-
The R11 will now
fit everything
from a YZF-R3 to
a YZF-R1M—but if
you don't have a
Yamaha, doesn't
matter!
