Inside the Tire Development and Testing Process

Keith Willcome, Manager of Product Strategy and Business Development at Bridgestone Motorcycle, joins host Heather Wilson Schiltz to break down tire development, technology and performance. From his early days as a field engineer to overseeing product strategy across North America, Keith shares how rider feedback, testing, and racing all shape the rubber that keeps us rolling.

Whether you’re riding motocross, trails or street, this episode will help you better understand tire construction, pressure tips, and what truly sets a high-performance tire apart. Plus, Keith gives a peek at his personal dirtbike collection and why he still loves riding old-school bikes like his ’88 KTM.

🎧 What You’ll Hear:
• How rider input shapes tire design and development at Bridgestone
• Understanding tire compound, carcass construction and tread pattern
• Tips for changing tires: how proper lubrication of the bead and the rim will make your life so much easier
• Bridgestone’s testing: Ulitmat Eye technology and Formula 1/MotoGP heritage
• How pro racing tech trickles down into tires for everyday riders
• Keith’s mechanical engineering background and career longevity at Bridgestone Motorcycle
• Proper tire storage tips for winter or long-term downtime
• Keith’s favorite dirtbikes and why he’s eyeing an AHRMA race

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🌐 BridgestoneMotorcycleTires.com

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“We have a machine that we developed through Formula 1 and MotoGP when we were the spec tires for those series. And it’s called Ultimat Eye. It’s like this big test drum, and it has thousands of load sensors on it. We can run a motorcycle tire on there up to 300 kph, which is like 186 miles per hour. And then we can sweep it up to 60 degrees camber angle. So we can simulate any road course in the world, any street, any load we want on that tire. And then it’s measuring the footprint of the tire dynamically.

Because if you press a tire against a plate of glass and look at it, that’s a static footprint. And it gets very different when you start adding speed and camber angles and things like that. So being able to visualize that footprint dynamically is really important. And it helps us tweak that design so we can get pretty close to what we think is going to be a final design on the drum. And then we’ll take it to the racetrack. We’ll take it to our proving grounds.”

-Keith Willcome, Bridgestone Manager of Product Strategy & Business Development