After a summer tour into Germany, which included a quick stop off at the famous Nurburgring, the FJR Owners Club have a new favourite tyre – the new Battlax T30 EVO GT from Bridgestone!
In the latest club newsletter, they give their feedback from the trip:
“Our resident nutter, Peg, decided to take the FJR on the recent Luxembourg and German tour.
Peg has never been a great lover of Bridgestone’s recent sports touring tyres and was reluctant to take the FJR with the T30’s fitted.
He is a great lover of the Continental Road Attack 2 EVO’s ‘quick’ turning and the T30’s were not quite as quick but were very stable. Most FJR owners would probably prefer this trait. When he returned he admitted that he was “humbled” (his words) and that the tyres were “awesome” (also his words).
Rear after 4,000 miles including track action.
During the tour there was a stop-off at the famous Nurburgring where Peg, and some others, did a few quick laps (Peg’s fastest was a 9 minute 11 sec. Not hanging about on a FJR!). The club FJR has a heavy duty Hyperpro spring conversion and a rear suspension higher ring kit fitted. This means that in normal use the club FJR does not have any ground clearance issues. On the road this bike is difficult to get the pegs down. At the ring this is a different matter and ground clearance became a problem way before the tyres were anywhere near their limits of adhesion and the FJR’s foot-pegs were duly chamfered.
Unfortunately, (fortunately?) when the club FJR has been in use, there has been little rain to test the T30’s wet weather performance, but, judging by other road tests I have read, the wet weather performance of these tyres is exemplary.
The FJR1300’s Achilles heal is heavy front tyre wear, basically FJR’s eat front tyres for breakfast. Most road testers test new tyres and these are never tested to the extremes of which ‘real’ owners test their tyres. i.e. They wear them down to and beyond the tyres wear limits.
A lot of greatly reviewed tyres don’t work well after sometimes very few miles of use, Michelin PR3’s and Bridgestone’s old BT21’s spring to mind. When new they work well, but both wear quickly, three penny bit, scallop and cup and turn a good handling bike into a poor steering bike that is hard work to flick from left to right in bends and wont hold a line when you eventually get the bike over.
Peg’s front tyre after 4,000 miles
What the club look for is a tyre (we are talking fronts here) that holds it’s shape and initial handling characteristics well into its life. The Pirelli Angel GT’s and Continental Road Attack 2 EVO’s are our favourite tyres because of this. Both eventually start to misshape their fronts but they hold onto their good handling characteristics’ until the end.
The T30’s have now covered over 4000 miles and the front tyre is perfectly round (dare I say, the best yet?) and still has plenty of tread showing. Mileage should be good. Watch this space for further updates.
The clincher is that the Bridgestone T30 are priced considerably cheaper than the Pirellis, and even the Continentals, and for that reason, they go straight to the top in the Pounds versus performance charts.
The club will be stocking T30’s as one of our favoured fitments.”
You can find out more about the Battlax T30 EVO including the GT fitment for heavy bikes like the FJR1300 here.
