A few months back while on a trip I spent a few hours riding in very heavy rain. I had wet weather gear on and my dri-rider Nordic2 boots. All nice and cosey but about 1½ hours into the rain I noticed I was getting water inside my left boot. A short time later I could feel that cold trickle down my right ankle as well and by now now my left boot was very squelchy. This had not happened before despite quite a few rainy trips.

The last month or so we've had regular rain here and I've had to commute in light rain, sometimes without my wet gear and untill recently it's never been a problem. Something I've noticed is that the ankles of my pants and my casual riding boots (a pair of zippered work boots) are getting saturated. A few days ago I was out after a heavy shower and the roads were reasonably wet. Once again my ankles and boots got saturated even tho it wasn't raining at the time.

It wasn't difficult to conclude that spray must be coming off the front tyre and as I changed from a BT45 to a BT023 on the front around Christmas, this coincides with the problem. Because I'm fairly tall, my wet weather pants tend to ride up a little and it seems that the spray from the front tyre is finding its way to the top of my boots. Checking out the tread pattern on the BT023 the grooves are angled out and back which would stream road water back to the riders feet.
This is annoying me so much I'm thinking of ditching the tyre. I've had to start carrying around spare shoes and socks!!

Any one else experienced this?

Extend the front mudguard? I did, but for a different reason. I did it to protect the oil/water pump cover from being roadblasted but the idea might help you?

Too wet! Ha! We should be so lucky as to have that problem in this region.  We're in serious drought, and there is no relief on the horizon.  The dry, high temps in the coming week are expected to be above 100f.   And to think that we are still in June.  July and August promise to be challenging months this year. With temperatures that high, I lose all desire to ride a motorcycle -- and that's saying a lot.

Hey Nige have you worn those sock covers over your boots? you know the ones for keeping the dirt out, I'd be getting some old wet weather pants and cutting the bottoms off and making myself some extra protection slip ons mate, if they strap tight to your boots then they should stay up your shin and thus keep the spray from getting in.

Dai wrote:Extend the front mudguard? I did, but for a different reason. I did it to protect the oil/water pump cover from being roadblasted but the idea might help you?

I'm not sure that would do it Dai. From what I can see the water is being pumped out almost sideways and is swept back to my ankles. Its the tread on the tyre.

Keith, I thought of that. Maybe extend my pants legs down somehow or probably find a pair that fitted me better I'm a cheapskate and bought them at Aldi. Other than the fact that they could do with another inch or two in the legs, they're not bad. I thought that for a longer trip I could wrap some duct tape around the bottoms to try to seal them off but that would only work with the DriRiders.
Bottom line is I shouldn't have to do any of this. Wasn't a problem with the previous tyre. What's really p!ssing me off is that just to do a short comute, if the road is wet, my legs get wet.

Anyway.... I just really wanted to see if anyone else had also found this a problem with the Battlax BT023 front tyre. Seems like a design fault to me.

Cheers

I wouldn't call a tread design that channels water away from the rubber on the road a bad design - just the opposite.

I can see your point but I'd have to call it a design flaw if the rider gets unduly wet with spray from the tyre. I've easily done over 2k klm just in the wet over the past 12 months with half of that on the BT023 and I can see a difference with the amount I get wet and its particularly annoying on short commutes

Hey Kaptain, both my bikes have Bridgestone radials on the front the rs has BT023 and the naked has a T30, and I have no such problems. I do my fair share of riding in inclement weather here in Guyra , and my boots don't get excessively wet but my toes do get bloody cold some mornings leaving for work at 6.30am in sub zero temperatures. It was -5 here on Friday with a huge fog, I'd only travelled about 5k's of the 40 km trip to work and my visor had already frosted so bad that it couldn't be wiped off with my gloves any more as my gloves were also white with frost, bugger the fog on a cold morning.
Sorry I cant shed any light on your tyre issues mate

Kaptain, it sounds like you need the old bread bag trick. Grab a couple of bags that sliced bread is delivered in and put them on over your socks before you put your boots on. Feet stay dry even if the boots get wet - I'll admit not a great solution if it is very hot weather but then it doesn't matter about getting wet as you dry out really quickly.

I always carry a couple in my pack for when it looks like I'll definitely have a length of time in cold wet conditions.

smithy wrote:Hey Kaptain, both my bikes have Bridgestone radials on the front the rs has BT023 and the naked has a T30, and I have no such problems. I do my fair share of riding in inclement weather here in Guyra , and my boots don't get excessively wet but my toes do get bloody cold some mornings leaving for work at 6.30am in sub zero temperatures. It was -5 here on Friday with a huge fog, I'd only travelled about 5k's of the 40 km trip to work and my visor had already frosted so bad that it couldn't be wiped off with my gloves any more as my gloves were also white with frost, bugger the fog on a cold morning.
Sorry I cant shed any light on your tyre issues mate

smithy... reminds me of the days back in the '70s riding my little ducati around the Central West (Bathurst Oberon Lithgow) freezing my you-know-whats off. Used to wrap up with a couple of newspapers inside my belstaff and around my legs.

Thanks for the feedback on the BT023s

Gaz80 wrote:Kaptain, it sounds like you need the old bread bag trick. Grab a couple of bags that sliced bread is delivered in and put them on over your socks before you put your boots on. Feet stay dry even if the boots get wet - I'll admit not a great solution if it is very hot weather but then it doesn't matter about getting wet as you dry out really quickly.

"The old feet in the sliced bread bag trick eh Chief. That might just work".
"99. Go out and buy 2 loaves of sliced wholemeal.... and ask them to slice it thick, I'm feeling a little peckissh".

I'll give it a go Gaz.

Over many years I found you old boot and glove rain protectors to be best as they also keep the wind off and reduce wind chill.

When TacKler was here he had issues with wet too. Noted he uses flying boots which we used to sometimes use but there is one major flaw in wet, they actually channel the water into your boots. Must have rain protectors to stop that happening otherwise you get very wet feet.

I use the K in cold winter weather too and found the rain protectors do a fantastic job of keeping warm on even 3 hour rides and no heated grips. For tyres I have stuck with BT45 and just ordered more. 6 months from my front.....lot of riding in all weathers.

Large size freezer bags (well depending on the size of your foot and I need large ones) they take up very little space and will let your feet breath to a small extent.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll try some of those.
The Nordic2 boots are waterproof. No problem there. I've ridden for hours in rain without any problems in the past. Water is finding its way into the top of the boot and its only recently since I've had the BT023 on the front. I think my solution will be to try and get a better seal with my wwpants over the top.
As for a quick trip to the shop for some milk or a 15min commute in light rain??? I'll just have to see what I can work out.
I've read discussions on other forums about tread patterns and water dispersal but nothing relating to excessive spray problems.

One thing I have noticed is that the angle of the tread pattern on the BT023 front is opposite to that of the BT45