Battlax S20: Applying race technology to the road
While the world of MotoGP may seem a far cry from the realm of the everyday motorcyclist, Bridgestone believes lessons learned in the heat of competition enable it to deliver customers unrivalled safety and performance. Therefore, when asked why it invests so much time and money in MotoGP, the tyre maker finds the answer comes easy – although its MotoGP participation works as a very effective marketing and product promotion tool, by far the greatest benefit it brings is technology transfer.
Key tyre performance requirements, such as grip, durability and rider feel are equally important to road riders as they are MotoGP competitors, and through its involvement in the series Bridgestone has access to what is arguably the best possible test environment for developing these characteristics to the highest level. Working with these world-class riders, teams and engineers, Bridgestone acquires an enormous amount of tyre data that is immensely beneficial to the development of road tyres. When improvements are made, these are first proven in the heat of competition – in the form of lap records, for example – and any lessons learned on the track find their way into Bridgestone’s road tyre line-up.
The race tyres produced by the championship’s sole tyre supplier share more MotoGP DNA with its road tyres than ever before, says Bridgestone. These race tyres must, like their street-legal counterparts, exhibit high performance and incredible reliability – but with fewer compounds available, each must work across a wider range of temperatures and track conditions while affording very high durability to ensure each rider’s tyre allocation lasts the whole Grand Prix weekend.
The latest Bridgestone development to benefit from this transfer of technology is the Battlax Hyper Sport S20. Incorporating the latest race-derived technology, the S20 is said to deliver unsurpassed warm-up performance, grip levels in both wet and dry conditions and comfort for street, road and track riding. Its casing construction utilises Bridgestone’s proven Mono-Spiral Belt (MSB) and High Tensile Super Penetrated Cord (HTSPC) and is intended to deliver the optimal contact patch at all riding angles to provide greater grip in all conditions.
The S20’s tread pattern is designed with grooves that straighten out in the centre of the tread, improving cornering performance when the angle is low, particularly at turn-in. On the front, the side grooves run up to the shoulder; Bridgestone says this configuration provides better contact feels at high angles and stronger grip on wet and dry. The silica-rich compound used in the S20 contains Bridgestone’s proprietary NanoPro-Tech polymer, and the Japanese manufacturer says the compound provides confident grip right from the start during warm-up without sacrificing durability, while also enhancing grip in the wet and at low temperatures. Finally, a triple-layer compound (3LC) with optimised segmentation of soft and harder compounds has been applied on the front and rear to improve dry grip, offer high stability in cornering, and further enhance durability.
Summing the S20 up, Bridgestone says the MotoGP-derived technology in the Battlax Hyper Sport S20 grants consumers the optimal combination of performance, stability, cornering grip and durability for a road tyre. Riders, the tyre maker opines, can now enjoy superior warm-up performance and confidence inspiring grip in every conceivable weather condition.
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