Eight hours at Phakisa on Batt HP Series II Tyres
With the growing popularity of the BATT Tyres brand, we've decided to republish this post by Donovan Fourie at The Bike Show. In 2018 The Bike Show tested these amazing tyres for a gruelling 8 hours at Phakisa raceway.
Batt is a South African brand of tyre, developed in South Africa and manufactured overseas. They have had big success over the past decade in the off-road and ATV market, but now they are entering the complicated, competitive and counterrevolutionary world of road riding. No pressure, then.
The HP Series 2 is designed strictly for the road market, aiming at the commuter and casual road rider. So why did Harry and Donovan decide to enter the Phakisa MRA 8 Hour Endurance Race, one of the most taxing events on tyres, with them? Partially because they are monumentally stupid, but there is more to it than just that. Read on.
As we have said before, the job of a tyre is to not be noticed. Think about it – the only time you ever think about your tyres is when they are going wrong. When they chatter, wobble, slide or explode, you tend to think to yourself: “well that’s not jolly good” or maybe a less family-friendly version of that. When everything is going well, tyres don’t feature in your conscious mind.
They do, however, sit in the forefront of your thoughts when you are told to test them.
Basically, the only way to test a tyre is to push them until they kill you, and then you know how far they can go. The Batt HP Series II are road tyres, so we began on the road. KTM were good enough to lend us one their razor-edged 790 Dukes for our death-seeking experiment. The advantage of using this bike is that not only is it an excellent road warrior, but when we meet our imminent death, the lack of fairings mean less cost to repair this motorcycle. It’s a win-win.
At Bike Tyre Warehouse in Midrand getting the tyres fitted
As the icy freeze of Johannesburg winter descended on us, we started the 790, armed to the teeth with a shiny new set of Batt HP Series II tyres, a brand unknown to the world of road riding.
On more known tyres, we have had the pleasure of setting off on a new set under similarly arctic conditions, turned onto the road, taken a handful of throttle and were thrown to our untimely deaths. Deaths like this has happened to us a few times already, so we are quite used to it.
With this thought prevalent, we set forth onto the road, open the throttle and . . . went forward. We hit second gear, accelerated again and still simply moved forward. It appears that our death has been delayed, but worry not – we are not finished yet.
The Batt HP Series II has some specs in its favour that contribute towards longevity, both of the rider and the tyres. They have a 0º steel belt to improve stability, a radial dual compound that is harder in the middle to improve mileage and softer on the sides to delay death. The side walls are flexural to increase comfort on bumpier roads.
Let’s also keep in mind that these tyres are just R3,050 for a 190/120 set, where the competition punches at more then R4,000*. Is the attractive price possible because clever marketing or because they are just cheap tyres. It would appear to be the former.
* Please note prices as per published date July 2018
The 190/55-17 rear on the KTM 790 Duke