Just thought i would post up an update on the New Bridgestone Battle Wings i fitted some time ago.
When they arrived the first thing you really notice, is that the tread is not cut in 'blocks' like the Tourance and others. It is more like a road tyre with larger panels of rubber separated by deep channels.
The depth of the tread when new is approx 10mm on the rear and 9mm on the front. The photo is a bit blurry but i think you can see what i mean ?
After about 200 miles to well and truly scrub them in, i took off on my annual bike trip to Europe, covering about 2,700 miles or so in every type of weather (including snow in June !!
) A lot of that riding was long haul on the peage motorways or ragging up and down mountain passes and fast twistys. The tyres were a revelation from start to finish
In all conditions and road surfaces they just seemed spot on. The profile of the tyres do make the bike turn in beautifully and my goodness can you lean the bike over on them !!
But how would they hold up long term ?? I have now covered 5,800 odd miles on them and they still seem to be behaving the same as they did when i fitted them. The wear rate seems to be very good indeed. The picture below is what the rear looks like as of today.
As you can see it hasn't 'squared' off too much, and the profile is still pretty good. I measured the tread depth today and it was approx 7 mm on the rear and 6mm on the front. That is pretty even wear but with other tyres i have tried in the past, i have either changed them by now, or be looking to very soon. With these Bridgestones i look like getting about 8,000 miles at least ??.
I am probably best described as a 'progressive' rider :razz: . I do ride pretty hard at every opportunity, and compared to anything i have fitted to the Tiger before, they are in a different league in my humble opinion. As a measure i can relate to 4 sets of Tourance's, 2 sets of Michelin T66X's and 1 set of Trail Wings.
Is there a down side to these tyres ??..........only one really, i have found them to be quite pressure sensitive. Over inflated they can be skittish and jumpy. Under inflated then the bike doesn't turn in so well and feels a bit of a pudding! But keep them at 36 psi front and 42 psi rear and they really come on song.
Being more road biased cut, they do not perform quite so well off road, but they can handle fire roads and gravel ok, but not as well as some other tyres.
But when i took a moment to actually think about the riding that i do, it was clear that 99.9% of my riding had been road riding. So the Bridgestones had to be tried. After all most people really rate their road tyres on just about every other sort of bike ?
These are just my observations folks ok...
Cheers,
Jim
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