VOL. 55 ISSUE 20 MAY 22, 2018 P113
Banking the
Super Duke GT in.
The Bridgestone
T31's have
excellent steering
response and
braking stability.
I
f you own a modern sport-touring mo-
torcycle, you're pretty damn spoiled for
choice these days when it comes to the
black things that cover your wheels. Tires
are getting stickier yet are able to disperse
more water, meaning riders with sport-
touring bikes are not that far behind their
sport-bike brothers and sisters in terms of
overall performance.
Bridgestone has been fending off hard
challenges to sport touring dominance
from guys like Pirelli, Dunlop and most re-
cently Michelin with their recently released
Road 5, and it's been three years since the
release of the Bridgestone Battlax Touring
T30 Evo, itself an updated version of the
T30 with better wet-weather performance.
There's now a whopping 22 sizes avail-
able for the T31 with five GT sizes specifi-
cally for high power, high weight bikes.
The T31 now sits atop the sport touring pile
for Bridgestone, with the T30 Evo moved
down the pecking order to second, and
the BT-023 third. The T30/T31 series is
the most touring-focused of the Bridge-
stone range, meaning if you want more
performance with less of an emphasis on
wet-weather ability, you might want to look
at the S21 we tested a few years back in
Abu Dhabi.
BATTING
OUT THE MILES
BRIDGESTONE'S T30 EVO
SPORT TOURING TIRE HAS
BEEN DEMOTED. MEET
THE JAPANESE RUBBER
GIANT'S NEW BABY—THE
BATTLAX T31
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIDGESTONE
