The Bridgestone Dueler HL Alenza is a Crossover Touring All-Season tire, designed for premium vehicles, as it offers superb comfort, both in terms of noise generation and impact absorption. But what about other performance areas? Well let’s find out.
Being a tire engineer, my testing shows that the Bridgestone Dueler HL Alenza offers a decent dry grip and exceptional ride quality, particularly in noise reduction and road comfort. While its wet performance presents adequate braking and traction, it lacks in steering precision. Winter traction is satisfactory, while its treadwear is average, but the tire’s larger tread depth poses challenges to fuel efficiency.
Table of Contents
Sizes Offering
The Bridgestone Dueler H/L Alenza comes in 16 to 22 inches wheels and they have the following specs.
- Speed ratings: H, T, V and W.
- Load ratings: SL and XL.
- Tread depth: 11 to 13/32″.
- Weight range: 25 to 46 lbs.
- Treadwear warranty: Up to 80k
- UTQG rating: 800 A B.
For a deeper dive into all-season tires and to clear any confusion, head to my complete all-season tire category.
Overall Design
The Dueler HL Alenza comes with a 5 rib design, having an symmetrical tread pattern.
The central most rib of the tire is the widest, where it features a ton of biters, placed at slanted positions, at both sides (of this rib).
The surrounding ribs (on each side), although are narrower, they have clear cut interlocking grooves, dividing them up. But since that’s not all they (as they sit on secondary rubber layer), these grooves, act as groove notches.
The shoulder lugs are the bulkiest, they features siping in both lateral and longitudinal directions, and have thick notches facing the outer edges of the tire.
Internally the tire features dual steel belts, which are sandwiched between the tire’s single ply polyester casing, and a spirally wound nylon cap ply.
And yes, there are polyester cord stabilizing the sidewalls durability further.
Side Note: This tire has been replaced by the Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra, you can review the updated tire here: https://tiredriver.com/bridgestone-alenza-as-ultra-review/
Dry Straight Grip
For achieving optimum directional grip, the Bridgestone Dueler HL Alenza is given with streamlined central lugs, providing superior braking capacity.
(Braking is the direct measure of this grip, and central lugs are considered here, as they bear the most weight concentration while the tire rolls straight).
Now with the presence of three continuous running central ribs, having reinforced foundations, the Alenza provides a good enough grip. I mean compare to its direct competitors, its above average.
And yes worth reminding, I should add that its slanted biters in the form notches (seen on all ribs), also add to its overall longitudinal traction.
Dry Handling and Steering Response
When cornering, as the weight on the tire gets distributed towards its shoulders, they are the ones with the enhanced connection with the road.
And how well they connect with the road’s surface is judged by two factors, tire’s overall sideways grip, measured by lateral g force. And its overall handling characteristics.
Now in terms of lateral grip, there’s no issues with Alenza tire. Its compacted shoulder lugs provide ample rubber-to-road contact, and its in-groove notches enhance that further. Though the tire could use some extra control, especially when its maneuvering/entering through tight corners.
So I can find the correct words to describe here, the tire is prone to understeer upon corner entry. Therefore, during lap tests, one must decelerate entering a turn, negatively impacting overall handling times.
But the good thing is that, with some skills one can induce a slight usable over-steer in to the tire’s corners, and fix that issue.
Overall Wet Performance
The key components determining wet traction are grip combined with the tire’s steering and resistance to hydroplaning.
Let’s observe them all one by one.
Hydroplaning
Hydroplaning resistance is a critical attribute and is often overlooked. This is because it has to do with water expulsion through tire’s grooves. And the more tire does that, the less burden is there on the biters/rubber of the tread.
Now, in terms of Bridgestone Dueler HL Alenza, although the tire, with its four longitudinal channels and considerable tread depth has no issues escaping water out longitudinally, it faces a hard time doing that laterally.
This is because its tread is pretty packed up and all ribs are continuous running, and don’t have lateral grooves in them.
So although (on tests), you get above average straight float speeds, the tire’s curved hydroplaning speeds bring down the overall score in to below average category.
Wet Traction and Steering
The wet performance of the Bridgestone Dueler HL Alenza is although not so bad, it has some issues.where the tire offers decent overall lateral and longitudinal traction, but lacks in providing good enough steering characteristics.
Let me explain.
So the tire actually showcases competitive wet braking, attributed to its blend of lateral and longitudinal rectilinear sipes.
And similarly, its wet lateral traction is also pretty decent, with its bulky shoulders featuring interlocking full-depth sipes and in-groove notches ensuring ample sideways grip.
But, the overall average wet lap times still lag behind, compared to other tires in its category, I mean.
Basically they lack the steering precision, where one has to push for it, especially when it comes to straightening the vehicle out of the corners.
And since one has to wait for that to be over, so the vehicle can be accelerated (a lot of time gets wasted, and overall lap times get hurt).
And yes, worth reminding, when one attempts to accelerate and turn at the same time, you see a very rapid increase in the tire’s oversteer (though its still manageable).
Winter Traction
When evaluating snow traction, it is essential to observe several vital parameters, such as the tire’s overall grip on the road, its steering response, and its competence in different snowy or icy conditions.
And considering all, I can tell you that the Bridgestone Dueler HL Alenza exhibits a satisfactory performance.
Not only the abundant siping on the tire provide respectable overall traction values on snow and ice, but you also get pretty decent biting efficacy with those angular biters/notches on all its ribs.
Moreover, its tread is enriched with temperature-activated functional polymers, (mainly silica), and those allow sipes to remain flexible even under freezing temperatures.
Tread Wearing Rate
Tread longevity necessitates contemplation of two key elements: the tire’s internal and external construction and its rolling resistance.
And considering these elements, one can understand why the Bridgestone Dueler HL Alenza is a pretty good option, overall.
The tire features a single ply polyester and just a single cap ply, and so they keep its construction weight on the lighter side.
And while this doesn’t put a lot of weight pressure on the tread in the first place, with a computer optimized contact patch design, its further helped, as it allows that weight to get evenly distributed.
So not only the tire lasts longer, but you also don’t get to see different tread wear patterns on this tire either.
And that’s backed up by the tire’s treadwear rating of 800, and warranty of up to 80k miles.
Though since speed rating is directly proportional to the tire’s wear rate, the W speed rated tires only get 40k miles warranty. I explained it further here: https://tiredriver.com/speed-rating-on-tires/
Fuel Consumption
Fuel consumption is directly impacted by the tire’s rolling resistance, which in turn is predominantly determined by the tire’s weight and its affinity to the road.
And here, the Bridgestone Dueler HL Alenza is although not so bad, it still needs a little improvement.
Although the tire comes with a limited lightweight structure (with just a single polyester casing and a single nylon cap ply), it still is susceptible to lug bending, with its greater tread depth.
I mean where most of its competitors are capped at 10/32″ of tread depth, this tire goes up to 13/32″.
This causes lugs to flex, and deform. So they absorb more energy. While some of this energy is recovered when the tire returns to its original shape, not all of it can be regained, leading to energy loss in the form of heat.
And so overall fuel economy lowers.
Feel of Ride
Ride quality is the strongest point of Bridgestone Dueler HL Alenza, as the tire offers superb noise comfort, and is also very soaking to road bumps.
Let’s check these out one by one.
Tread Noise
Tread noise is linked with multiple contributing factors, including tread pattern/design, construction, and composition of the tread’s rubber.
And the Bridgestone Dueler HL Alenza excels in all of them, allowing for one of the quietest ride experience you’d find in its category.
The tire employs varying pitch patterns in its tread’s construction (different parts of tread create varying tones, so they don’t amplify).
Moreover, its rubber composition uses polymers that absorbs noise waves, minimizing in-groove resonance.
And yes, the tire offers a block pattern, that reduces its cavity noise to a good deal, with that as well.
On-Road Vibrations
The Bridgestone Dueler HL Alenza being a luxury all season tire, offers superb on-road comfort, which is not a surprise here.
The tire features a rubber compound which although provides the needed stability, is also pliant towards road imperfections.
And yes, its greater tread depth although limits its fuel economy, this is where it pays off. As with more rubber, there’s more area for the vibrations to dampen down before they reach in to the cabin.
Furthermore, the tire also gives you a lighter/softer internal construction with a single cap ply of nylon and polyester casing.
Speaking of which it also features O-Bead, which basically adds a continuous strand of cable in the bead construction, providing overall road stability and smoothness.
Take Home Points
Here’s to the point things to keep in mind with this tire.
- Overall Dry Performance: Provides adequate sideways and straight grip but tends to understeer in tight corners.
- Overall Wet Performance: Offers decent braking and traction, but has poor steering precision. Its hydroplaning capabilities are satisfactory though.
- Winter Traction: Presents a commendable performance with good grip even in icy conditions, backed by its functional polymers.
- Tread Wearing Rate: Has above average longevity, benefiting from its lightweight construction and an optimized contact patch.
- Fuel Consumption: Faces challenges due to its larger tread depth.
- Feel of Ride: Stands out for its exceptionally quiet ride and excellent road comfort, supported by its varied pitch patterns, and rubber compound.
