For their May issue, the team at Bike Magazine gathered some of the UK’s top bike tyre experts from both retail and trade, to help consumers pick out some of the very best rubber for the new riding season.
Among those selected was our very own Bryn Phillips, and here’s what he recommended to their readers in the feature.
- Adventure Trail – Continental TKC 70
“Significant on-road bias compared with its brother the TKC 80, but still capable on the occasional forestry track.
Chunky appearance for off-road grip, with a smoother profile and smaller tread than the big-block 80.”
Continental designed the TKC 70 to sit in between their 90/10 ContiTrailAttack 2 and world beating TKC 80, which helps leading adventure riders like Nick Sanders to tackle the very toughest of terrain across the globe.
It offers great on road handling and mileage, combined with a level of genuine off-road ability for those who want to start exploring off the beaten track.
View TKC 70 sizes here.
- Hypersport – Bridgestone Battlax S21
“Hypersport tyres are more useful on the road than Racing Street tyres such as the Pirelli Supercorsa SP.
Bridgestone’s S21 and Metzeler’s 2017 Sportec M7 RR are of equal quality, but I like the firmer handling of the S21.”
The S21 was the first road tyre in Bridgestone’s range to benefit from their U-Eye Technology, which was developed during their time in MotoGP.
U-Eye allows Bridgestone to run computer simulations of various road and track conditions, to analyse and fine tune tyre performance during the development phase.
The result is a very versatile and capable hypersport tyre, which also works well in the wet.
View Battlax S21 sizes here.
- Sport Touring – Metzeler Roadtec 01
“Fantastic handling and durability for a two-year old tyre.
It was a leap forward when it was introduced and the rest have been playing catch-up.
Newer tyres such as Conti’s RoadAttack 3 are it’s equal, except when it comes to wet grip.”
Looking a bit like a race wet, the Roadtec 01 set new benchmarks for the sport touring market in terms of wet weather performance.
With other manufacturers now catching up, the only thing that holds it back is the price versus major competitors like the new Bridgestone T31.
View Roadtec 01 sizes here.
- Classic – ContiClassicAttack
“Off the back of their classic endurance racing successes, Conti build a range of radial tyres for classic road bikes. Radials that fit RD250s, RD350s, XJ900 Twin Shocks, Z1s, CB750s… 90% of classic bikes, including British bikes with 19in front and rear wheels, are now covered by Conti’s radial range.
The ClassicAttack is the tyre used in the Pro Am Classic racing series, which gives you some idea of their performance.”
Continental’s ClassicAttack features a number of their core technologies including MultiGrip and the unique Traction Skin surface which reduces the scrubbing in period dramatically.
View ContiClassicAttack sizes here.
- Cruiser – Bridgestone Battlecruise H50
“The H50 is our favourite tyre for American cruisers.
In a market that doesn’t move quickly Bridgestone’s two entries are still considered new.
The Exedra Max arrived four years ago, while the year-old H50 is aimed at American V-Twins. It our performs Michelin’s Scorcher and in the wet it kicks competing tyres into the weeds.
It’s durable too. Owners who’ve used it say it feels like their bike’s lost 50 pounds.
New sizes coming this year.”
The Battlecruise H50 has also benefited from Bridgestone’s unique U-Eye Technology, which was also used on the S21 as mentioned earlier.
View Battlecruise H50 sizes here.
