We will cover all versions of Michelin X Ice Vs Bridgestone Blizzak here. These tires are all very aggressive and have been optimized to provide reliable performance during the winter months.
The tires have good grip on paved paths, as well as stable steering on wet, dry, and icy surfaces.
There are two Bridgestone Blizzaks, the Blizzak ws90 and the Blizzak ws80. Both are excellent.
Due to its high void ratio, Michelin X Ice Snow tires are also extremely efficient. These tires also provide an impressively quiet ride. This is due to the grooves’ specialized sound-canceling design.
The Michelin Ice XI3 also performed well on snow-packed paths due to its better snow evacuation capabilities.
Table of Contents
What You Need to Know About Bridgestone Blizzak WS90
With a continuous criss cross rib in the center, two broad grooves along the sides, multidirectional zigzag sipes, and disjointed grooves created by traction slits along the shoulder lugs, the Blizzak WS90 has a symmetrical tread pattern.
Compared to paved tracks/asphalt, its contact patch is higher due to relatively fewer grooves.
The deeper channels and full-depth sipes remove water and provide good aquaplaning resistance over wet and icy roads.
As fewer grooves account for less snow evacuation capacity, a smaller void ratio reduces its snow traction in comparison.
What Should You Know About Michelin X Ice Snow?
The Michelin X Ice Snow tire features a directional tread design with five grooves, two types of sipes, an angled arrangement of square-shaped blocks, and relatively narrow shoulders.
In comparison, there is a greater void ratio, resulting in a smaller contact patch, reducing the tread’s grip on the road.
Grooves along with a unique siping pattern that includes rectilinear wide sipes and multidirectional zigzag sipes, provide reliable ability to wipe away water and resist hydroplaning over wet and icy tracks, but the lesser depth of voids makes it less efficient than its competitor.
With a larger void ratio, soft snow is effectively evacuated through the tread, resulting in better snow traction.
Comparison between Michelin X Ice Vs Bridgestone Blizzak
As more of its surface area is directly touching the road, the Bridgestone Blizzak WS90 is better able to grip dry roads.
On a dry track, it covers only 88 feet of braking distance when it stops from 50 mph speed.
The deep grooves and multidirectional, full depth, twisted sipes provide superior traction on wet and icy surfaces.
When stopping from 50 to 0 mph, the deceleration distance is as short as 128 feet. When coming to rest from 12 mph, it covers 31 feet on ice.
Compared to wide grooves, narrow grooves have a reduced evacuation capacity and less snow traction on snow-covered pathways.
Over a snowy lane, it covers 51 feet when going from 25 to 0 mph.
Michelin X Ice Snow tires have wider grooves, which reduces the contact patch, reducing tread grip on dry surfaces.
On the road, it has a relatively long braking distance. When it stops from 50 to zero mph, its dry stopping distance is 92 feet.
Although it has sipes and grooves to minimize hydroplaning, its channels offer comparatively less space for water removal, resulting in decreased grip on wet, icy roads.
If brakes are applied from 50 to 0 mph on a damp path, it covers 136 feet, while if brakes are applied from 12 to 0 mph on ice, it covers 31.7 feet.
As more voids are available for evacuating snow from the tread, it has better traction on snowy paths.
When stopped at 25 mph to zero mph on snow-covered paths, it shows a relatively minor braking distance of 46.4 feet.
Comparison of handling
As the Blizzak WS90 has relatively larger shoulder blocks and traction marks over them form a disjointed groove, it provides more traction while turning over dry roads.
In wet and icy conditions, the discontinuous longitudinal grooves, deep lateral channels, and deep sipes enable the removal of water, providing stable traction.
Since Michelin’s square-shaped shoulder lugs are comparatively smaller, it offers limited traction over turns when it comes to dry handling on the road.
While cornering over wet or icy paths, full-depth sipes and lateral grooves scrub water off. As a result of lower groove depths, its performance is less than the contestant’s.
Comparison of hydroplaning resistance
As a result of their distinct voids and sipes, both of these tires are capable of resisting hydroplaning.
- However, the Blizzak WS90 takes the lead due to its deeper grooves, 1.5/32” deeper than its competitors for tested sizes.
- Wide grooves and multidirectional zigzag sipes quickly wipe off water, preventing aquaplaning.
- Its ability to wipe away water is further enhanced by the crisscross structure of the internal rib.
- With its grooves, wide linear sipes, and multidirectional zigzag sipes, Michelin X ICE offers reliable slip resistance.
- Despite this, due to its lesser depth in comparison, its relatively narrow grooves have less space available to hold water.
Comparison of rolling resistance
Because of its narrow grooves, Blizzak comes across more friction when rolling than its opponent.
Having a large surface area in direct contact with the pavement, its tread uses more energy to roll over, resulting in more fuel consumption.
Due to the higher void ratio, ICE SNOW has a compact contact patch, resulting in lower rolling resistance.
Having a smaller surface area of tread touching the road, there is less hysteresis (energy loss) when rolling. It is also more fuel efficient than its rival.
Noise and drive comfort comparison
The enhanced depth and straight-line structure of the central grooves on WS90 contribute to more road noise.
Its void ratio is relatively low, but its grooves are deeper and linear, providing ample room for collision, resonance, and reflection of wind particles, resulting in loud noises.
While driving on road, an enhanced contact patch and enhanced biting ability of the tread result in better traction and comfort.
While X ICE SNOW has a higher void ratio than its competitor, the lugs are arranged in a V-form design, and the grooves between them are oriented in such a way that noise waves passing through them automatically cancel each other, resulting in less noise.
A massive void ratio and a small contact patch tend to reduce its road traction, so it is comparatively less comfortable on hard surfaces.
Treadwear and Durability
A twin compound structure is utilized for the tread composition of the Bridgestone Blizzak WS90; 45% contains Bridgestone’s winter standard compound, while 55% contain NanoPro Tech multicell complex that has hydrophilic properties and enhanced traction on snow.
Due to its increased contact patch, its tread wears down quickly because of high rolling friction.
X ICE SNOW uses Michelin’s innovative EverGrip technology, which incorporates rubber inclusions and Flex-Ice 2.0 compound to enhance tread life and traction on snow and ice.
Due to the larger void ratio and sturdy tread composition, it wears down slowly and lasts for a long time.
The manufacturer’s treadwear warranty of 40,000 miles proves this tire’s exceptional durability.
A detailed comparison of Bridgestone Blizzak WS90 and Michelin X Ice XI3
The crisscross central rib of the Blizzak tread is wide and extends circumferentially, which increases the contact patch, thereby improving tread hold on the surface.
A Michelin Ice XI3 tire has five circumferential grooves and numerous lateral grooves along with prominent zigzag sipes and tiny dimples.
- With a relatively high number of grooves, the contact patch is smaller, resulting in less grip on paved surfaces.
- Wide zigzag sipes, small dimples, and grooves provide hydroplaning resistance, which improves traction over wet.
- Due to their smaller lugs and lack of traction notches, shoulders provide minimal handling while turning over corners.
As a result of the increased number of grooves, the void ratio is relatively higher, resulting in better traction on snow-covered paths.
Comparison of road grips
As the Blizzak slowed to a stop from 50 mph on the dry road, it covered only 89 feet.
Water is effectively wiped off through these slits through deeper and wider grooves and full-depth crisscross sipes.
The vehicle stops from 50-0 mph with a braking distance of 124 feet on a wet road, while braking from 12-0 mph on an icy road results in a braking displacement of 30.4 feet.
- Due to narrow grooves, the WS90 loses the race over surfaces covered with light snow.
- Over snow, a vehicle stopping at 25 miles per hour has a braking distance of 51 feet.
- An increased number of grooves on Michelin XI3 reduces the area of tread in contact with the road, resulting in less grip on dry paved roads.
- On dry roads, the tread’s minimal contact patch makes it difficult to grip.
- Its dry braking distance is 94.5 feet from 50 to 0 mph.
While sipes, dimples, and voids provide hydroplaning resistance by removing water from wet roads, the decreased depth of grooves limits its grip on these surfaces.
Stopping from 50 to 0 mph on a wet road requires 131.50 feet, and stopping from 12-0 mph on ice requires 32.20 feet.
By throwing out snow and slush while moving ahead, a large void ratio maximizes snow traction.
From 25 mph, its braking distance in the snow is 49.90 feet, which is better than its competitor’s.
Tire Handling Comparison
With its large shoulder lugs, the Blizzak WS90 performs well in dry conditions as well.
- As the vehicle steers along a corner, traction notches enhance biting capacity.
- In addition to notching patterns, this tire features multi-directional sipes over the shoulder lugs that wipe out water.
- Since the Michelin XI3’s shoulder lugs are smaller, it offers less steering control on dry roads than its competitors.
- Turning along a corner is difficult due to the limited contact patch of the shoulders.
- Over wet roads, shallow grooves reduce wet traction, reducing steering control.
Aquaplaning Resistance
As both tires feature siping patterns for removing slippery liquids, WS90 performs better in terms of hydroplaning resistance due to its deeper grooves.
The zigzag sipes and deeper grooves on the middle rib act as an efficient water wiper, further enhancing slip resistance over wet and icy surfaces.
Michelin Ice XI3 offers good hydroplaning protection due to its voids, zigzag sipes, and dimples over lugs.
Its shallow grooves (there is a difference of 1.5/32” in tread depth for the tested size) result in lower hydroplaning resistance.
Rolling resistance comparison
As a result of its lower void ratio, the Blizzak WS90 has a higher rolling resistance.
- Having a large area of tread contact with the ground causes more hysteresis (energy loss) and requires more fuel to roll smoothly.
- Due to its lower contact patch and lower rolling resistance, Michelin XI3 is able to roll over the road relatively easily.
- Because less energy is used for rolling, its fuel average is also improved.
Comparison of comfort and noise
In paved tracks, the WS90 tire is noisy since sound waves find a lot of space for reflection and resonation in its deeper voids.
- On the road, it provides standard ride comfort due to its superior traction abilities.
- Compared to Ice XI3, Ice XI3 produces less noise because its grooves are relatively shallow.
- As a result, it offers a quieter and more comfortable driving experience.
Tread Wear and Durability
As a result of its tread composition and higher contact patch, Blizzak is less durable than its competitor.
Bridgestone’s winter compound comprises 45% of the tread, while the first 55% is composed of NanoPro Tech Multicell polymer, offering hydrophilic properties and better snow and ice traction.
Especially after the consumption of Multicell compound, it wears down faster, and the manufacturer does not offer a treadlife warranty.
The Michelin MaxTouch Construction makes the XI3 last longer than its competitors. Despite its strong tread compound, it wears gradually over time.
A treadwear warranty of up to 60,000 kilometers makes it stand out among other tires in terms of durability.
Conclusion of Michelin X Ice Vs Bridgestone Blizzak
Video Comparison of Michelin X Ice Vs Bridgestone Blizzak
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