Bridgestone Battlax BT46 - Great Tires!

[Shafer]

Bridgestone Battlax BT46 130/90-16 67H Rear Motorcycle (11635)

Bridgestone Battlax BT46 100/90-16 54H Front Motorcycle (12325)

Purchased from: American Moto Tire

I have about 2000 miles on them so far and really am enjoying them. The BT46s corner really well and allow a nice confident lean. Chicken stripes all the way to the edge

Perfectly stable on the highway, no problems so far with rough paved or dirt roads, tar snakes or grooved pavement.

I have not rode them yet in rain but will report back when I do.

*mounting note:
Front slips right on, rear was a bit more challenging to fully seat, inflating / deflating did the trick. Easy to balance, Bridgestone tire heavy mark is yellow.

Valve Stems: BikeMaster 90 Degree Valve Stems
Item: P275349 (Revzilla)

*Previous Tire: (2 sets) Shinko SR 740 / 741 Touring Tires
---BT46S....very big step up in comfort and handling, Sinkos are not a bad tire in any way but my first few rides on the BT46 made me feel like Rossi.

Riding Style: County roads, twisties, mountains, highway, touring with gear

Bike Suspension: Ex300 rear shock, sonic springs front .86 oil @ 130m. Maxima 15WT

Tire Pressure: BT46 cold max psi: F42 R41
Apex Hunting: F28 R32
Daily: F30 R34
Touring with Gear: F32 R36

[Triple Jim]

Thanks. I've run BT45s on several motorcycles over the years, but this is the first I've heard of experience with BT46s.

Have you ridden on BT45s so you can compare them to the 46 version?

[Shafer]

Originally Posted by Triple Jim

Thanks. I've run BT45s on several motorcycles over the years, but this is the first I've heard of experience with BT46s.

Have you ridden on BT45s so you can compare them to the 46 version?

Sadly I have not got the opportunity to ride the 45s.

I could barley find reviews worth reading on the 46s when I was looking. Beware if you look at early reviews I think there was some very early manufacturing issues with the tires being out of round, but again that was very early days of production.

I'm extremely happy with them, and they make the pregen ride on rails.

They are wearing very evenly so far.

[Shafer]

****Rain Update

Finally got my chance to ride the BT46 tires in the rain, they performed extremely well.

My ride consisted of 5 hours of never ending downpour conditions over every pavement surface there is including grooved pavement during road resurfacing. I can say I never felt that the tires didn't have excellent contact and handling was very predictable.

Even drove through a flooded road of about 5" of water without issue.

Only time I felt any slip was on wet inline with the road direction tar snakes but it, that's to be expected. And it was very minimal. Dry tar snakes are no problem, wet was no problem also, just that I could feel slight greasines, dry snakes are unnoticeable.

Had the bike fully loaded to capacity with gear on the pillion and a 46L trunk on the trip, no issues with the extra weight.

[Guaire]

Good to know. Thanks for the specs!

[Jorgex]

Thanks for the review! Will consider for project ninjette. How well can they handle heavy braking compared to the shinkos?

[Shafer]

Originally Posted by Jorgex

Thanks for the review! Will consider for project ninjette. How well can they handle heavy braking compared to the shinkos?

Great so far no sliding holds their braking line and always stable, I'm running Galfer HH Sintered front brake pads in the front and Galfer Semi-Metallic in the rear with Galfer stainless lines and bike stops really well.

Shinkos stop well also, never had an issue.

What are the details about braking are you looking for?

[DannoXYZ]

One thing to be careful about is comparing old tyres to new tyres. Combined with changing models and you actually have 4-way comparison, not just 2. I did following change and noticed major improvements for all of them, even though one of them was exact same model tyre:

pre-gen: Dunlop K630 -> Shinko SR740/741, Wow! great handling, braking & cornering!!!

new-gen racebike: Pirelli Sport Demon -> Shinko SR740/741, amazing improvements, 1.1s/lap @ Laguna Seca!!!

new-gen commuter: Bridgestone BT45 -> Bridgestone BT45, woohoo!!! much better braking performance!

Just from switching out old BT45 for new BT45 made significant improvements in grip and braking on my commuter. BT46s weren't out at time, otherwise I would've gone with those. Got 16K-miles out of BT45 on my commuter!

[superkain]

ran bt45's for years on my little supermoto. good tires!

[DallasDude]

I’m also in the market for tires and have used the city grip 2 on many scooters and also read one review here where someone put on a 120 80 16 rear city grip on their pregen and claim the tire is 5lbs lighter than stock freeing up rotational weight and improving acceleration and handling. The only down side to city grip is they are rated to 93mph. Not such a big deal since I don’t plan on going much above 80. The other thing is city grips don’t turn as fast as other tires like the moto gp tires. That being said what’s the bt46 mph rating and weight? Weight is a big performing factor on smaller bikes and the scooter world and often overlooked when choosing a good tire. 5lbs of tire weight can make a huge difference. Hence when people swap over to carbon fiber wheels that are 5lbs lighter then oem they explain the feeling as a whole new different bike.

[DannoXYZ]

You'll want to verify specs objectively.

First, speed-rating is combined with max-load and time. So City Grip's 93mph rating is for 551-lbs on rear tyre at 93mph for 1-hr with stable temperature (no increasing rise). With lower load speed can increase. No problems with using them on Ninjette.

Then verify weight claims:

130/80-16 Dunlop K630 rear tyre = 11.73 lbs
https://www.motorcycleid.com/dunlop-...057450758.html

120/80-16 City Grip rear tyre = 10.3 lbs
https://www.motorcycleid.com/micheli...313944659.html

Certainly NOT even close to 5-lbs as claimed. And all of that difference comes from downsizing rear tyre from factory 130 to 120 size. Of course narrower tyre with tighter profile radius would have more responsive handling. But you'll loose some max-grip under cornering and have lower lifespan.

BT46 doesn't come in pre-gen size, but has 130/90-16 available with H-speed rating for 130mph. At 16.08 lbs it's more than 4-lbs heavier than factory Dunlop and 5-lbs heavier than the City Grip 120/80 tyre. Wider taller profile would give slower handling than 130/80 size and much slower than City Grip.
https://www.amazon.com/Bridgestone-P.../dp/B084VQGJ2P
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bridgesto...1635/770821517

If you want to preserve quick & nimble handling, I recommend set of Shinko SR740/741 in factory sizes.

[DallasDude]

I went ahead and got the city grip 2s. To my surprise the f 93mph rated city grips have been phased out and replaced by s 112mph city grip 2s at cycle gear. Probably will never hit 112mph so feeling pretty happy having the newest city grip 2 tires that are well capable of going beyond 93mph.

[Tbugnet15]

Originally Posted by DallasDude

I went ahead and got the city grip 2s. To my surprise the f 93mph rated city grips have been phased out and replaced by s 112mph city grip 2s at cycle gear. Probably will never hit 112mph so feeling pretty happy having the newest city grip 2 tires that are well capable of going beyond 93mph.

Exactly what I wanted to hear thanks

[eltel]

Just fitted BT46 to the EX250F (2004) in the same size as the original poster. I wasn't mad about putting scooter tyres on and neither was the dealer so went for the full M/C tyre.

These replaced 10 year old Pirelli MT-75's which gave the bike great handling but they did suffer with white lines etc. You can't blame them at that age though.

I'm a Bridgestone fan but at this early stage they make the bike slightly more ponderous compared to the Pirelli. Nothing terrible and another couple of days on the bike and I am sure I will of got perfectly used to them. They cope well with road imperfections though.

I possible need to play with the tyre pressures. Stock is 29/33 PSI, I should experiment up to the more usual 36/42 PSI.

[DannoXYZ]

Why would use pressure not recommended by maker of bike?

Link to original page on YouTube.

[eltel]

Originally Posted by DannoXYZ

Why would use pressure not recommended by maker of bike?

Because it is not the OEM size tyre that Kawasaki originally intended for the bike.

[DannoXYZ]

Originally Posted by DannoXYZ

Why would use pressure not recommended by maker of bike?

So tyre manufacturer would know more about bike's suspension and loading and handling characteristics than the bike's manufacturer???

You do realise what the max-pressure rating and load-rating embossed on tyre means right?