As the nights start to draw in and the weather takes a soggy turn, Bridgestone has released a new tyre to get us dreaming about next year’s adventures.
It’s the Bridgestone Battlax Adventure A42, successor to the popular A41 adventure bike tyre that was released back in 2017. We were impressed with the latter when we tested it at the tyre’s press launch in Morocco, with excellent performance on the asphalt and surprisingly good ability on unpaved surfaces for a road-focused tyre.
The new Battlax Adventure A42 continues in the same road-biased vein, albeit with some impressive improvements. In Bridgestone’s words, it’s ‘designed to deliver an excellent balance of safety, peace of mind, economy, and comfort for adventure riders who primarily ride on-road,’ with the chunkier AT41 and chunkier still AX41 reserved for anyone wanting to venture further from solid ground.
If you’re the sort of bike geek like us who recognises a tyre by its tread pattern, you might have noticed that the A42’s grooves have been changed, albeit leaving a recognisable link to the tyre it replaces. The new pattern is said to improve stiffness, wet performance, wear, and noise.
The compound is new, and slightly different at the front and rear. The front has a flexible polymer for improved grip, while the polymer used for the rear improves the life of the tyre and its performance in the wet. Both front and rear feature ‘optimised silica and carbon content’ to further boost tyre life and wet performance.
All of this comes together to give a 14% reduction in rear tyre slip during straight-line acceleration on wet roads” compared to the A41, and most impressively, 18% longer tyre life at the front and 25% at the rear.
That’ll be pleasing to hear if you’re intending to throw a set of these on your bike before a long tour, as will the 15% reduction in noise, not that tyres in this category are especially problematic in this regard.
Bridgestone notes that demand for adventure bike tyres has increased by 45% over the last 10 years, which does, of course, mean plenty of other brands are trying to grab a slice of the same ever-expanding pie.
But we’ve always been hugely impressed by Bridgestone tyres and we can’t wait to put them through their paces when they become available in the UK next year.
The initial range, available from 2027, will cover various widths and profiles of 19/21-inch fronts and 17/18-inch rears.
This will include the 120/70/19 front and 170/60/17 rear combination used by popular adventure bikes including the BMW R 1300 GS and Ducati Multistrada V2, and the 90/90/21 and 150/70/18 found on numerous more trail-ready machines such as the Yamaha Ténéré 700 and KTM’s 890 Adventure.
Further 19/21-inch fronts and 17/18-inch variations will follow in 2028, along with a single 17-inch front size 120/70/17.
We’ll give you the verdict as soon as we get our hands on a set.
