Bridgestone Battlax Hypersport S22 Front Tires

1. S22's Rock

5

Posted by C. D. Campbell on 6th Jul 2020

This was my second set of S22's so I had some experience already on another one of my bikes. I've been happy with them on my R1M after switching from RS10's for better life, and have been waiting to replace the S21's on my GSXR1000. After 3 seasons, the S21's finally died with good even wear across the carcass. I did notice much more wear on the front than I am used to seeing from hard cornering which didn't allow for the usual "replace two rears for every front", but I got great life from the pair and the improvement in handling going to fresh S22's from shagged S21's was worth it.

With the R1M I didn't notice a huge handling difference going from the RS10's to the S22's, but it was really noticeable on the GSXR. It is stable in a straight line but a hell of a lot more willing to fall onto it's side with light bar pressure-I thought I got my tire pressures wrong when I first rode it. I've got a few hundred miles on them now on good twisty roads and have gotten used to it.

Speaking of pressures, I am running these 5psi lower than recommended. I had tire life problems with the RS10's until I started doing this and it changed the handling for the better and helped with tire life because the carcass can deform more which reduces flat spotting from straight like riding. It also allows the tired to get more heat in it which reduces cold tearing because it isn't hot and sticky when you ask it to accelerate hard.

Bridgestone says these tires are slightly better in all of their metrics that they grade their tires on compared to the S21 with the exception of rain performance where it is quite a bit better than the older S21. I can't attest to any of that, but I got great life and performance out of the S21's and expect more of the same... The R1 has almost a season of hard riding on it and the tires haven't flat spotted or shown any noticeable wear even though I'm pretty hard on tires. I'd recommend these to anyone, or the S21's if money is tight but the cost difference is pretty small.

2. GREAT Tires!

5

Posted by Dave Campbell on 23rd Aug 2019

I go these for my R1M and installed them last week, have had a chance to throw them at a few corners and live with them a bit since. I absolutely love the RS10’s that bike came with, but this would have been the 4Th RS10 on the rear in the 8,500 miles since I bought it-switching to the S22’s wasn’t a matter of cost, it was because of the hassle of going thru them that often.

I put a set of S21’s on my GSXR1000 3 years ago and was immediately impressed with how good grip was when cold and the wear rate has been really, really good. I ride my R1M pretty hard with a fast group of guys out on country rides, so getting away from the RS10’s I trusted so much was a big gamble considering how long they would last before needing replacement. The S22’s feel stickier than the S21’s, and the steering is notably lighter than the RS10’s. I run the pressures in the 36-37PSI range like on the RS10’s and it really helps with wear and flat-spotting. These tires feel stiffer than the track oriented RS10’s and at similar pressures you get less flex to communicate what the front is doing-not a bad thing, but it took a little recalibration to have the same trust I had in the RS10’s.

Like the S21’s, these seem to warm quickly and I generally don’t have to give a lot of thought to getting heat in the tires before getting “on the wick”.

I still have 30-40 percent of life left in my 3 year old S21’s on the Suzuki, these should last about as long and I don’t feel like they are holding back my riding pace at the level I ride at. I would absolutely do a track day on these!

Bottom line is that you can do a lot worse than these tires, they would be a first choice for me when the time comes to replace the S21’s on the Suzuki. You’d have to be pretty fast on track to need better tires than these, and then you’d have to live with the same tire life issues I did with the RS10’s.