Battlaxes at the ready!

We tend to take tyres for granted, never really looking at them in any detail, or at how they work, just hoping that they keep us shiny side up at all times. Even in the wet

- Dave Manning

We'd used Bridgestone's T32 sports touring tyres a number of times before - they being the tyre of choice for trips such as the Cairngorms; the mixed bag of touring machinery that we took to the Peak District last year; and also in an upcoming feature on a ride we did over in Ireland.

During those trips, we encountered all manner of conditions, from baking-hot sunshine and melting roads in Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons, to torrential rain in the Peaks and everything in between. On motorways, through city traffic, and on sketchy back lanes with more grit and gravel than a builders' merchant. Throughout it all, the T32 rubber was sublime, to the point that we didn't really take much notice of how good it was, as the tyres just took everything in their stride, coping admirably no matter what we threw at them.

However, we were keen to focus in on just how well they operated in the sort of conditions that we, as motorcyclists, probably dislike the most - that of rain so heavy that it leaves standing water. So, we decided that a specific day riding a bike equipped with the T32s would be in order, with the conditions as wet as we could make them, so we spooned at pair of Battlax T32s onto the long-term KTM 890SMT and prayed for rain...

Somewhat ironically, the day that we had lined up for our wet tyre test at East Kirkby airfield in Lincolnshire turned out to be near enough the first day in about three months that saw no rain at all, and we were actually graced with bright sunshine for a while! Fortunately, with East Kirkby being a live airfield (and also home to the restored and rebuilt 'Just Jane' Lancaster bomber) they have their own water bowser/ fire engine, and by asking very politely we were able to create our own instant thunderstorm and deluge, soaking the pan on which we were to do our testing.