Test technique: Bridgestone Battlax BT-002 Racing Street
By developing the new BT-002 Racing Street on-road sports tire, they have responded to a rapidly growing number of motorcyclists who use their free time wisely on the race track while still driving many kilometers on the road with the same tire. Therefore, the engineers faced a difficult task, because they had to find a compromise, which has always been the most difficult.
Anyone who has experienced the sweetness of driving on a race track is well aware of how quickly a road tire (originally fitted) starts to overheat on a race track (especially Grobnik). While a racing tire performs well on the race track, it never gets to a high enough operating temperature on the road to provide the best grip, and it picks up much faster, disproportionately in the middle. We tested the new road racing tire at the excellent Ascari Race Resort in southern Spain (www.ascari.net), which turned out to be an excellent 5km test track with 4 left and 13 right bends.
The most closed turn has a radius of only seven meters, while the longest is as much as 900 meters, with the need to "correct" the direction on two plains at speeds of more than 200 kilometers per hour. On this technically difficult track with medium uneven asphalt, the tire proved to be excellent. After the first laps, when we were still looking for the perfect line on the track, the ride turned into a pleasure with a lot of confidence in a pair of Bridgeston rubbers. The tire reached operating temperature in one lap, and even after a 20-minute drive there was no sign of overheating (the highest temperature measured was 80 degrees Celsius), which was further proof to us that this is a great compromise. for road use, as a normal road tire for supercars at temperatures above 70 degrees Celsius begins to lose traction due to overheating.
Due to the sharpened shape of the tire, the bike quickly plunges into turns, and once it grabs the softer compound of the tire on the sides (the middle lane is harder for less wear and more stability), the speed and slopes are higher than on the road. tires. To loosen the rear tire, it is already necessary to overdo it and accelerate sharply while the bike is still tilted. But even in this case, the tire gradually decreases and, thus, warns the driver in time that the pace must be reduced. Due to the strong structure of the base shell, woven from an endless strip of five steel wires, the rubber is more durable (less deformation at the rubber joints, less overheating, less weight) and more directional stability. This is also evidenced by the calmness on long flat sections, since even when changing direction at maximum speeds, the front wheel remained calm and obediently followed the commands at the wheel. Since BT-002 Racing Street has a high percentage of silica in the mixture, it is expected to perform well even on wet roads, but unfortunately we were not able to test this in sunny Spain.
If they introduce a new tire at Bridgestone with every MotoGP success, we want as many victories as possible, because motorcyclists even have some of them. This tire is just great.
text: Petr Kavchich
photo: Bridgstone
