Wet and dry performance a focus for Bridgestone Battlax Hypersport S20

Bridgestone intends to greet the New Year by launching a further addition to its premium Battlax range on January 1, the Battlax Hypersport S20. The sport radial will be released in four front wheel and seven rear wheel sizes and first introduced into the European market, followed by a Japan market launch a month later. Plans are also in place to sell the Battlax Hypersport S20 in the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

The Battlax line-up is, of course, Bridgestone’s premium brand of on-road motorcycle tyres, a range that covers a wide spectrum of applications from touring to racing and small to large motorcycles. Sitting at the pinnacle of the Battlax product portfolio are the MotoGP class tyres used in the FIM (Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme) road race series, for which Bridgestone is the official tyre supplier. In developing the S20, the tyre maker says it utilised technological innovations first developed for its MotoGP tyres. These technologies include new patterns and compounds that Bridgestone says offer durability and long wear life while improving grip performance at both high temperatures and low temperatures, such as immediately after start and in wet conditions. Furthermore, Bridgestone reports that by optimising the S20’s tyre structure it was able to increase the running contact pressure and contact surface and focus on high performance in dry conditions and stable handling.

Wide grooves have been used in the tread pattern and their positioning has been optimised; the result is, Bridgestone explains, comfortable handing and improved grip performance in dry and wet conditions. Centre area grooves are positioned to provide a focus on agility with low camber, while the shoulder area grooves are said to focus on a solid contact feeling with high camber and on wet and dry grip.

As for the compound, Bridgestone says that while it has utilised its NanoPro-Tech (a technology that Bridgestone explains as facilitating the realisation of the required features in a tyre by controlling the material microstructure through structural design at the molecular level) and RC Polymer (for motorcycle tyres) in the S20, it points out that all aspects of compound composition were re-evaluated, and as a result it says its developers were was able to maintain long wear life while achieving high grip performance in a wide range of temperature conditions, from high to low. The compound is, by the way, a 3LC or 3 Layer Compound.