Bridgestone has made massive improvements with their motorcycle tyres in the last decade, with the current Battlax Hypersport S22 offering a combination of exceptional grip on the road or track while also offering decent mileage and wet weather grip.
And now their best has just been made better with the announcement that we’re going to see the Battlax Hypersport S23 arrive on NZ shores early in the New Year, and it’s promising to take all the best bits of the current version and make them even better.
Grip Improver
The S22 was designed to offer the levels of cornering grip that sports bike riders demand while riding the latest crop of sports machines, whether that’s on winding backroads or the twists and turns of a racetrack.
The S23 is taking those levels of cornering grip and improving them with the addition of a new compound for the shoulder area of the front and rear tyre that incorporates optimised resin components that enhance grip characteristics. Bridgestone has called this new compound ‘Grip Improver’ and states that it does its job by making it easier for the tyre to follow the road surface, with carbon reinforcing the spring-like polymer. And more contact with the road’s surface equals our favourite thing, more grip!
Better Water Dispersal
But the S23 isn’t just for dry roads, with the tread pattern and compound allowing it to work also in wet conditions. And Bridgestone has further improved the wet riding ability of the tyre by redesigning the tread in the centre of the tyre with a ‘Pulse Groove’.
This uniquely shaped grove actually speeds up and optimises the waterflow as the tyre makes contact with the road’s surface, helping disperse the water better and giving a 7% improvement in the Drainage Resistance Index (the measurement of water dispersal). And the better the tread can disperse the water, the more grip the tyre gets in wet conditions.
There’s also been a change in the tread pattern to improve the ‘Land/Sea’ ratio of the tyre i.e. the amount of tyre versus the amount of gap touching the road. The change of pattern at the front has been done to improve dry handling along with stability in the dry and the wet, while the change at the rear has been done to offer more traction.
Bridgestone claims through their testing that the S23 has an increased corner speed in the dry of 5% and a 1% faster dry lap time, while wet performance has seen a 3% shorter wet braking distance and a 4% faster wet lap time. And what everybody who hates spending money on tyres will love to hear is that Bridgestone also reckons the S23 will have an 8% mileage increase.
With summer riding season approaching and the fact that your tyres are the only thing keeping you and your machine from exiting stage left, the new Bridgestones will be here just in time for a swap out of your current rubber.
Head to your nearest Bridgestone dealer or visit www.bits4bikes.co.nz for more info.
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