Bridgestone Battlecruise H50

[Ohio HD]

Since the Avon plant in Wiltshire England is closing at the end of 2023 I need to find a similar tire for my 2008 Touring rig. I've tried Dunlop, Michelin, Avon tires on this bike, the Avons won hands down in all aspects. The only aspect I'm not all that concerned with is mileage. This bike is a local stormer and not a highway mile eating bike. I have another for that.

Has anyone used these yet? And if so what are your impressions? Based on two articles that quote Bridgestone as saying the tires will have 80% or 100% greater tire life over the closest competitor. That sounds like a huge claim, and also sounds like they're a very hard carcass and not conducive to road grip.

I can accept the Dunlop American Elite as a second choice in regards to the Avon, but the Michelins are way to hard and really easy to light up. And in the rain, they flat scare me on this bike.

I've been looking into the relatively new Bridgestone Battlecruise H50. They come in the right load range for the HD tire sizes. My experience with Bridgestone has been favorable in that the Bridgestone Battlax sport cruiser tires are very good, although V rated and don't come in the load ranges for HD specs. The bikes I've ridden with these tires handled great. Rear tire wear was average 4,000 to 4,500 miles.


https://www.bridgestone.com/products/motorcycle_tires/products/detail/pr140/




 

[Leed]

I've always had too luck with Bridgestones.

[Deye76]

I sent Avon a email about the availability of tires when I heard the plant in England was closing. They're response:

Thanks for your enquiry,

Avon will be stopping production in the current Melksham, England factory in December 2023. Many ranges and sizes (including the sizes you listed below) will be transferring to another factory where they will continue production. Our Avon design engineers will be assisting with this transfer, we expect the quality and performance to match or exceed the current English made products.

I hope this helps,

Kind regards,

Avon Motorcycle Technical

[Ohio HD]

That sounds like good news for sure. I just hope that they do keep the tire materials the same and quality is as good.
 

[JSD]

I heard the same so i purchase a few spares. I tried those Bridgestone's and went back to Metlerzs but cant get the German ones so now on avons. Interestingly my freind paid $50 less for the Bridgestone over Michelin. At the local HD shop in OZ on Monday. 

[Deye76]

My local Harley dealer is pushing Bridgestone's also. 2 people I know, one with a Roadglide and one with a Lowrider S are on Bridgestone's and like them. 

[smoserx1]

I can't comment on the versions you are showing, but many years ago I rode a GL-1100 goldwing and used Bridgestone S11 Spitfires, which I see they still make.  Loved them, best tire in the rain I ever had.  Mileage life was average, ride quality fantastic.

[92flhtcu]

I run a very busy indy Harley shop, in 2020 and 2021 we used a lot of them when Dunlop Am-Elites were hard to get. No complaints from anyone except my installers said they had extremely stiff sidewalls, even stiffer than the Am-Elites, I've gotten quite a few bikes back in here that we used them on and no issues we can see

[Ohio HD]

Nice to hear they're not making bad press. I suspected they may have a heavy hard carcass. Might not be best for my hot rod bike, but ok for the highway bike.

[HighLiner]

What about the Metz cruisetech?

[Ohio HD]

Since I posted this in February of this year I've not heard one bad thing about the Bridgestone Battlecruise tires. I have a new set that will go on the Ultra sometime this fall, probably November. I won't get many miles on them this year before the motorcycle hibernation period.

They are definitely a stiff side wall for sure. The tire feels sticky, rubbery, but they're still new and they'll get dried out a little in use. That front tire tread design looks like it'll shed water right out of the way.

I've run Bridgestone Battlax tires on another bike, and road across this country with them. Excellent tires, but the Battlax in the sizes I used were V rated, and I was lucky to get one trip from them. Right about 4,000 miles and the rear was toast. These Battlecruise tires are supposed to give a lot of miles and hold the road really well. These are H rated tires. These are made in Japan, and in this day and age isn't a bad thing regarding quality. Maybe one day Bridgestone will manufacture motorcycle tires in the US. As of 2014 they had four US tire plants. I don't know if they're all still operational.

Wilson North Carolina
Oklahoma City Oklahoma
Morrison Tennessee
Bloomington Illinois


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[calif phil]

Metzeler Cruisetec are pretty popular with the performance bagger crowd. 

Was going to do a post about Avon tires, might as well add it to this tire thread.   Avon is closing the plant in England like we already knew. But the good news is they are NOT moving production to Brazil, guess their plant is pretty antiquated, they are moving to France with a new facility and should be producing an even better product than what was made in England. 

[Ohio HD]

That sounds like good news on the Avon front.

[Hilly13]

Ohio I've got the battlecruise's on my slim, they are getting close to being worn out, will be under 20,000km when done I'd say, the roads in north Queensland are not all that fantastic, plus the heat, I will be getting another set I think, I'd love to try the Avon cobra chrome but these have been so good handling wise I'm a bit worried I'd be disappointed.

[Hossamania]

Looking forward to your long term review of the Bridgestones.

[Ohio HD]

Ohio I've got the battlecruise's on my slim, they are getting close to being worn out, will be under 20,000km when done I'd say, the roads in north Queensland are not all that fantastic, plus the heat, I will be getting another set I think, I'd love to try the Avon cobra chrome but these have been so good handling wise I'm a bit worried I'd be disappointed.

Glad to hear that you're getting good service from them.

One thing that I saw right away is they have a bar code for identification imbedded into the side of the bead. This indicates to me that they're serious about quality control. I've only seen these on auto and truck tires until now.

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[BigT]

I had been running Avon Cobra Chrome tires for the last several years until I wasn't able to find them anywhere. I just recently switched to Perelli Night Dragons and they perform as good or better than the Avon tires did.

[Deye76]

"They are definitely a stiff side wall for sure."
Something previous Metzler's lacked, don't know about the Cruisetech's.


" But the good news is they are NOT moving production to Brazil, guess their plant is pretty antiquated, they are moving to France with a new facility and should be producing an even better product than what was made in England."

Avon told me Cooper tires acquired them, not sure if any will be made here in the USA. Hoping so.

[Ohio HD]

I have two new Pirelli Night Dragons to go onto my 2008 SG that will get the new 124"motor this winter.
150/80-16 rear and MT90-16 front.

I'm not at all concerned about tire life on that bike, just sticky tread.

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[Hilly13]

Yep they stick, most I could get out of a rear with night dragons on the Dyna was 8000-10000km, no burnouts, ME880 would go 12000, had a front delaminate with 880's, put me off them lol

[Hilly13]

Nothing out of the ordinary happened to it, didn't feel any vibrations, just noticed it when I was cleaning the bike.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1arqmYbtNjjcWKQe7

[speedzter]

I had fitted a rear Night dragon on my Fxdx in a 160/17 .

I removed it after a few hundred miles due to lack of traction in the dry.
Only tire Ive ever thrown away .

Now running a Dunlop Roadsmart sport touring - excellent traction.

[Ohio HD]

You must be pushing some power. A friend runs the Night Dragon 150/80-16 with over 150 HP and torque, he likes how it hooks up.   

[speedzter]

I've seen quite a few report similar.
Maybe a bad batch ?
I'm running a mild custom carb' 120, so I'm not at 150hp.

https://harleytechtalk.com/htt/index.php/topic,118365.0.html

[Deye76]

"Maybe a bad batch ?"

Well they are made in the same plant as metzler.