Serious motorcyclists, the ride-or-die types who consider two wheels an inalienable right, are junkies for epic roads. From Carl Stearns Clancy’s earliest global circumnavigation to Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s wanderlust-fueled moto trips up, down and around the planet, there’s a rich history of travel addicts whose thirst for fresh tarmac eclipses the many rational reasons to stay put and drive a box.
When it comes to long-distance riding, Europeans beat Americans by a long shot. Some of the clearest evidence of this lies in motorcycle tire sales: while U.S. riders consume between two and three million rubber hoops per year, no fewer than 10 million motorcycle tires are sold to Europeans annually.
Of all the hallowed European motorcycling routes — the Stelvio Pass, the Transfăgărășan Highway, et al. — the Adriatic Highway along Croatia’s coastline is among the holiest grails for adventure seekers. I’m no Ewan McGregor, but I’ve put enough miles on bikes to know an irresistible call when I get one — in this case, an invite to sample an eclectic slew of bikes along this stretch of the Adriatic Sea, with the hook that they’d be equipped with Bridgestone’s latest tire, the Battlax Sport Touring T33.
The cottage industry around motorcycle tires inspires dedicated followings, falling into cult-like camps that gravitate toward big brands like Bridgestone, Dunlop, Michelin and Pirelli. Considering the eventualities of two-wheeled travel, the fanaticism makes sense: With upwards of 200 horsepower dispatched through a contact patch the size of a business card, bike tires must accommodate extreme lean angles and dramatic shifts in temperature and load while keeping machine and rider secure enough to negotiate corner after corner, hour after hour. Riders grow irrationally attached to these rubber bands because they’re the last line of defense against a mishap that can ruin your trip — or your life.
For this particular adventure I reached out to Italian brand Dainese for head-to-toe riding gear; I’ve been a fan of their equipment for years. When you can’t guarantee variables like the weather, versatility is key. Dainese’s armored Springbok 3L Jacket is waterproof but has enough zippered vents for airflow in warmer weather. It also has copious pockets and a modern fit that avoids the saggy, baggy look that dominates the touring segment. Underneath I sported the brand’s latest Smart Air Airbag Vest, something I never ride without since the time an airbag vest saved my torso from bruises and broken bones.
I’m also an Arai fan, leading me to the XD-5 Helmet, which I selected for its top-notch safety features and shade-making visor. Finally, I installed a Cardo Packtalk Pro comms system into my speaker so I could stream my Spotify playlists inside my helmet. It was a luxury to play tunes through 45mm JBL speakers and ignore calls as they rolled in during my ride.
One Tire, Endless Bikes
While the Adriatic Highway, or the Jadranska Magistrala as it’s called in Croatian, was completed in 1965, Dalmatian culture in the city of Split where our adventure begins goes all the way back to the early 300s AD. In the shadow of the massive limestone and dolomite Velebit mountain range, Split’s fortified palace and narrow walkways make its Roman-era roots unmistakable. Our armada of modern bikes offers a dramatic visual contrast against this ancient backdrop; our sprawling fleet includes BMW touring bikes and cruisers, Ducati adventure and sport bikes, and all manner of KTMs, Suzukis and Hondas in between. But as we set off from nearby Trogir, these scenic surroundings are about to get very blurry.
This is my first time riding in this part of the world, and I’m grateful for a few key elements: the organization that puts an experienced rider ahead to keep the pace, the high-quality roads with smooth surfaces that come from surprisingly solid infrastructure and the balmy weather that means I won’t have to test my gear’s rainworthiness.
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With cross-border relations at a fever pitch, our correspondent drove the Versys 1100 SE down to Baja California in search of zenHopping from bike to eclectic bike reveals dramatic differences in power, handling dynamics and ergonomics. Though their capabilities can be objectively measured, the experience of riding a motorcycle can be remarkably subjective. One man’s dream ride is another’s torture rack; we wrap our bodies around these machines, and the vast differences in our physical makeups means one size does not fit all.
That said, tire technology is one piece of the puzzle that has the power to improve everyone’s ride. Developing a sport-touring tire like Bridgestone’s T33 takes the learnings gained from its predecessor, the T32, applying insights from research and development to optimize the factors that determine a tire’s performance and longevity. Everything from rubber compound to sidewall construction is reworked in the interest of building a better tire.
In this case, Bridgestone engineers rode in locations like Sardinia, Italy, which provide favorable moto conditions year round, to optimize the new tire. There’s also work performed back at the headquarters in Japan that analyzes potential tread patterns by using a rolling drum outfitted with thousands of load sensors that was built for F1 and MotoGP tire development. By spinning a tire at speeds of up to 186 mph, a dynamic image of the footprint is created that helps understand what happens to the rubber’s surface when it’s compressed while rolling down the road.
Bridgestone product strategist Keith Willcome tells me that the T33 aimed for secure handling and longer wear, which involved developing a new polymer that’s more wear resistant and a tread pattern that squishes less under load, the stability of which leads to improved abrasion performance. On the rear tires, a dual-compound setup puts softer rubber at the edges for cornering and a harder compound in the middle for straight lines, where grip is less critical.
“We cannot have tires which [can go] 20,000 kilometers but don’t offer good grip,” one engineer told me. As such, the T33 offers 47% longer life than its predecessor, a considerable gain given the inconvenience and expense involved in replacing motorcycle tires.
Winding Roads, Expansive Sky
We’re only riding a few hundred miles on these ribbons of coastal road, but each bike swap reveals a new world of rider experience. The BMW R 1300 GS Adventure is a big and somewhat unwieldy ride, but the standard GS feels far nimbler and more fun to whip around corners; Ducati’s powerful Multistrada V4 S delivers a magisterial ride with electronically adjustable suspension that can range from crisp to cushy, though the diminutive Monster model is so softly sprung I botch my first hard corner when I’m aboard the iconic naked bike.
As the azure coastline morphs into a mountainous jumble of ascending hillsides, our group picks up the pace. Accompanying traffic here is sparse, predictable and consistently paced, with just a few speed cameras near the city and a delightful absence beyond. These conditions, with good visibility and glassy roads, make for fantastic dynamics.
A quick ferry ride to Novalja reveals a lunar landscape where stark rock formations meet placid water and an expansive sky. By now I’m scraping pegs as I maneuver a few bikes for photo passes, confident in the capabilities of these borrowed motorcycles and the sport-touring rubber they’re riding on.
With speedometers measuring miles per hour that I’d rather keep private and onboard diagnostics reporting lean angles up to 45 degrees, the Bridgestones are doing exactly what they intend to: making the bike disappear and enabling me to focus on the zen of it all, the passing landscape and endless horizon with the security of knowing the contact patches will hang onto pavement as I haul ass, leaned over with elbows out, through a wide sweeper without a care in the world.
Over 60 years ago, Alfred Hitchcock proclaimed that the city of Zadar has the most beautiful sunsets in the world. On one of my last nights in Croatia I got to experience it for myself: a stunning scene as the sun painted an orange swath across the western sky. Was it the best in the world? Maybe not. But maybe that’s the bias of any motorcycle journey seeping in. The point isn’t the destination, it’s the endless quest for the next one.
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