If you’re looking for a versatile tyre for your sportsbike, then look no further than Bridgestone’s brand new Battlax S22.
Designed for use on the road, yet spanked to within an inch of it’s life on track at the official press launch at Jerez Circuit earlier this year, this high performance hoop covers a lot of bases.
In internal testing the Battlax S22 achieved 15% higher corner speeds in the dry , and 5% faster lap times in the wet when compared with the Battlax S21, both fitted to a BMW S1000RR at Japan’s Autopolis Circuit.
In the July issue of Fast Bikes Magazine, Boothy reported back from the launch at Jerez and was full of praise for the new rubber after getting his knee down on the new rubber within a lap, and an elbow soon after:
“[…] after the first session, I switched to a BMW S1000RR to see how the tyres could cope with a more powerful, more agile bike. And they coped just fine. Again, the tyres dished out plenty of confidence straight from the off to bury your knee into the tarmac, and it wasn’t long before I felt like I could start to take liberties with what is, essentially, a road tyre.
As I started to increase the speed, the first minor limitation with the S22s was the ever so slight lethargy that the bike seemed to suffer from when being pulled from left to right.This is really only when compared to a proper track focused tyre, like Bridgestone’s R11, or V02 slick, and in all honesty is only a limitation on track – in fact, realistically on the road (which is where this tyre was designed for) aggressive, track focused handling would often hinder you more than help you. I’m just being super critical.
“What I cannot be critical about, though, is the front tyre. Not on the ZX-10, the S1000RR nor the Gixer 10000 that I had ridden in the morning did I manage to push the front or cause the front tyre to do anything untoward.It was completely and utterly planted, no matter how hard I seemed to push it.I even did a couple of sessions on a Kawasaki ZX-6R with the sole intention of trying to make the front do something that it shouldn’t. I couldn’t, but what a laugh I had trying.
And as far as the rear goes, I had to give it some proper hammer to get that to spin, too. With a 200bhp sportsbike it is certainly possible, and when giving it berries I did start to have some big slides, but they were nearly always controllable, even for a ham-fisted dope like me.
Any good?
There are loads of good tyres out there these days. Some are great for racing, some are great for touring. It really is horses for courses. Bridgestone told us they haven’t compromised with these tyres, but the way I see it, the S22s are the perfect compromise. They really are a tyre you could use on your road bike all-year round, that will give you great handling on the road for plenty of miles, and that you can still use should you want to enter a track day or three. I may not have been on lap record pace at Jerez on the S22s, but I would have certainly been well into the fast group had it been a trackday, so I’d say they are most certainly capable of doing what most of us need a tyre to do on track.”
Speaking of using them on track, if you pick up the August issue of Fast Bikes which is out now, you’ll see that they’ve selected the Battlax S22 for their annual ‘Superbike of the Year’ feature!
View the full Battlax S22 range here.
