BRIDGESTONE M59 FRONT TIRE: PRODUCT REVIEW

The Bridgestone M59 tire has been in production for quite sometime, but for some weird reason I must have missed it while it was in circulation. I have tested the Battlecross tires, but never even knew about the M59 until Aaron spoke about it. Installing the Bridgestone M59 was the easiest tire I have literally ever put on. It has a soft carcass and the bead went into the rim nicely without any fuss. Once on the track, I knew I had to experiment with air pressure because I could feel the side of the M59 roll when pushing heavy into ruts. I started out with 13 psi, but finally settled on 14 psi as a setting that I would recommend when riding with this tire on a 450. The 450 comes with more weight and that means more roll of this soft sidewall when you’re pushing into corners. If you want to sacrifice some of that carcass cushion on square edge you could go up to 15 psi and get some added control on lean angle. The M59 wasn’t quite as good as the Pirelli on lean, but it did mimic the MX32’s comfort if there was some chop inside of ruts. I could feel more cushion through the front end and that gave my 40 year old hands a welcome sigh of relief.