MD has at all times cherished Bridgestone S22 tires. Designed for sporty using on the road and the occasional monitor day, the S22 stood atop many bike hypersport tire shootouts, even 4 years after its introduction.
Bridgestone had its work minimize out designing a successor to the S22. The result’s the BATTLAX Hypersport S23, which is the topic of this check.
When you’ve got seen our overview of the Suzuki GSX-8R, you realize I like that bike, however described the inventory Dunlop tires as sufficient, however falling wanting the sporting potential of the bike. The very first thing I did after shopping for the GSX-8R was change the tires … to Bridgestone S23s.
The older S22s supplied wonderful grip and suggestions, notably from the entrance tire. The GSX-8R chassis was already speaking numerous info from the inventory Dunlops to the rider, so the model new S23s was a logical option to capitalize on that.
Let’s begin with some info from Bridgestone concerning the S23 tires. Bridgestone begins by emphasizing {that a} new compound on the entrance shoulder and the rear edge considerably improve dry grip compared to the S22s. It additionally states “Optimized sample stiffness helps improved traction and stability.” Moist climate efficiency is improved by means of “Pulse Groove” tire sipes, and the rear tire is claimed to have 8% improved put on traits.
What are the S23s wish to experience on, and the way did they impression the efficiency of the GSX-8R? In brief, I discovered a dramatic improve in cornering grip and suggestions, which resulted in an equally dramatic improve in rider confidence.
The GSX-8R is a really secure bike to start with. The S23s improve this attribute with a really linear transition from upright to nook lean angles. In different phrases, the S23 doesn’t have a profile that lends itself to sudden, fast reactions whereas cornering. It could take barely extra effort than a sporty Pirelli, which is thought for a steep sidewall that aids fast turn-in, however the extra linear response of the S23 tires could, maybe, give riders extra confidence on the road and not using a important trade-off when used on a racetrack.
We didn’t have an S22 to experience on back-to-back, however primarily based on our expertise with that tire, the brand new S23 tires do present elevated confidence and grip at steep lean angles.
For numerous causes, I’m extra assured turning left moderately than proper, however throughout a monitor day at Buttonwillow Raceway, which was working in a clockwise path (extra rights than lefts), I had nice confidence and shortly took the rear tire to the sting on each side, even passing another riders on the surface of some prolonged, high-speed sweeping proper turns. After a prolonged (roughly 15 years) hiatus in monitor using, I’m starting to attend monitor days with my son Evan and I selected to experience within the intermediate group at Buttonwillow. By the top of the day, I felt the S23s might simply run within the superior group, nevertheless. After all, the S23 tires heat up shortly and don’t require tire heaters on the monitor.
In mounting the tires, I used zero weights to stability the entrance, however a number of ounces had been wanted to stability the rear tire. I additionally famous that Bridgestone S23s are fairly powerful to mount on a rim. Like every other tire, bathing them in heat daylight earlier than mounting is helpful, and perhaps even vital with these tires.
I nonetheless have lower than 1,000 miles on these tires. They’ve been used primarily for twisty roads on the road along with the one monitor day. The wear and tear traits look fairly good up to now, i.e., sporting evenly and nonetheless showing to have about as a lot tread depth as new.
I’ll present a follow-up report after placing extra miles on the tires, together with one other monitor day, or two. Check out Bridgestone’s S23 net web page for extra particulars.
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