Bridgestone Releases Battlax Hypersport S22 Motorcycle Tire

What is one of the most important things a sport rider needs from a tire? Reliable grip. That goes for just about any rider, but if you're putting a knee down on surface roads in the mountains it's even more important. Bridgestone promise to provide better grip than ever in dry and wet conditions with its new Battlax Hypersport S22 tire, available January 2019 in the US and Canada.

The S22 takes the top spot in the Hypersport line from the S21, and a new tread pattern and compound refinements aim to give riders much better performance than before.

Starting with the tread, Bridgestone aimed to enhance wet-weather function with a more rigid pattern and increased land-sea ratio on the shoulder (number of grooves compared to the surface). These two changes offer a more reliable tire in the wet, according to Bridgestone.

The company then used it’s Ultimate Eye technology to increase the contact patch of the S22 over the S21. Bridgestone uses the same methods when developing tires for the FIM Endurance World Championship, and for the S22 it’s resulted in remarkably reduced slippage areas for the front and rear tires.

This is complemented by a better compound too, with optimized resin geared to provide better grip at lower temperatures, thereby reducing warm-up time on dry surfaces. For wet-condition performance, there’s finer silica particles in the center of the rear tire to provide better grip in the rain.

Related: Metzeler Unveils New Cruisetec V-Twin Touring Tire

At launch, there will be one front tire size available and five rear tire sizes. The full run is listed below. This will cover a large number of sportbikes, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see a few more options for the front introduced later on.

Front:
120/70ZR-17M/C (58W)

Rear:
160/60ZR-17M/C (69W)
180/55ZR-17M/C (73W)
190/50ZR-17M/C (73W)
190/55ZR-17M/C (75W)
200/55ZR-17M/C (78W)