Bruce Wilson has been over to the Isle of Man to see how Metzeler’s new Roadtec 02 hold up in the wet and dry around the famous TT course…
I’ve never come across a hoop branded as a Super-Sport-Touring, but that’s exactly where Metzeler brackets its new Roadtec 02. The thinking is simple: it can do everything you’d expect from a traditional sports-touring tyre, but with the added benefit of genuine, sporting performance, which I learned was no exaggeration first-hand around the Isle of Man TT course. But before I get into what it was like to blast around on, I’ll rattle through the tech, innovation, and general talking points of this one-stop rubber.
It’s been about eight years since the Roadtec 01 came to life, and while it’s proven a solid success for the German tyre manufacturer, like anything, it could be bettered… and it has been. How so? Well, as with any tyre of this type, the main focus is on grip, longevity, and outright performance, and Metzeler reckons its upped the game in all those areas. Perhaps the most eye-catching of the innovations on the 02 is the tread pattern, which looks more familiar than ever with the brand’s sportier M9 RR, but what sets it apart is a saucy thing called Dynatread. Intended to give the tyre the best of both worlds, the tread adapts according to the stress it’s put under. At a slower pace, with less load applied, the tread stays nice and wide so maximum amounts of water can pass through its channels. But when you get cracking on, those sipes begin to narrow, adding more stability to the mix and a greater sporting edge. Clever stuff, and it’s backed up by some new compounds, too, which have seen a 10 per cent gain in performance in the dry and a five per cent claim in the wet. The front tyre is now full Silica, and that makes it super-suited to cold conditions and wet-weather performance. At the rear, the hoop benefits from a dual compound, with the same Silica on the shoulders of the tyre but a harder centre to ensure you can pop to your mistress and back a trillion times before you start wearing your tyres out.
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A less obvious enhancement to the tyre is the profile and rigidity of the carcass. As always, Metzeler has equipped the 02s with its coveted 0° steel belt, on to which a stiffer construction sidewall and a broader tyre profile mean that the support under the skin of the tyres’ compounds is not only greater, but there’s also now more of it touching the Tarmac at all times, which is never a bad thing. It’s also worth mentioning that the changes to the tread design mean there’s a greater land/sea ratio to the rubber, while another thing the brand was keen to shout about was the product’s use of 43 per cent bio-based/recycled materials – meaning you can enjoy some guilt-free back wheel action.
At least, I certainly was as we undertook our tour of the most iconic racing island in the world. Of all the places to put your tyres to the test, few playgrounds top the TT course, and it was also a message of confidence from the tyre manufacturer that its rubber was up to the challenge of the world’s fastest road race circuit. Armed with a plethora of bikes, blurring the lines between heavyweight tourers and sporty six-hundreds, my lack of enthusiasm to throw a beach towel over my bike of choice before breakfast meant that I got whatever was left when our time came to cop a feel of the rubber – a Honda Hornet 750. I figured the Honda and I would have our work cut out, but the truth is, riding on a myriad of unrestricted roads, I had that thing absolutely pinned, hot on the heels of our guide and TT chief travelling marshal, Tony Duncan.
Riding the kind of ride you dream about, not needing to look over your shoulder for the Police, or wondering what was showing on your speedo, I was able to fully engage in the experience, trying hard to keep in the wheel tracks of Tony’s Blade that was flinging sporadic spurts of water my way as we hit damp and dry patches in quick succession. For me, that transition from one condition to another is the worst of all worlds, as you never know how hard you can push in the wet or dry, let alone that bit in between where your tyres are still a little wet in the dry, or vice versa. But with a handful of miles in the bag under these mixed conditions, I became comfortable and at ease, realising that whatever the state of the Tarmac, the Metzelers could handle it. The dry grip was great, and in the wet they didn’t so much as flinch. Of course, by this point it was still early days, and with more distance came even more enthusiastic riding, to the point where we had to hold back a few times to let our followers catch up. I was in my element, and I was also massively impressed by the Roadtec 02s.
We spent that morning riding around the southern end of the Island, going here, there, and everywhere, taking in a mixed bag of fast, smooth, and braille-like surfaces. Some routes were wide, while others were tight and nadgery, where the rubber had a chance to show me it wasn’t scared of turning around tight apexes with awkward cambers. The point is that wherever we went, whatever the condition, they didn’t disappoint – which for me, in all honesty, made my job much harder. It doesn’t seem all that long back that you’d hop on a bike to test a set of tyres and you’d be able to criticise it in the first 10 minutes, but this just wasn’t the case.
Having pigged out on cake at the Sound of Man, we headed back to Douglas for a bike change and a chance to give these tyres a bit of stick on the actual TT course. At this point, Milky Quayle stepped in to lead the way, and another change was my steed, switching to a GSX-8R for the trek over to Ramsey. You can probably imagine my face when we learned that they’d actually closed the Mountain course so we could pull the pin and bag a shoot. Better still, by this point in the day the road looked to be pretty damn dry. The morning had highlighted just how good the 02s were in inclement, typical road-riding conditions, but surely this next stint was going to tell me so much more about this new breed of rubber. Easing into proceedings, the pace soon started to crack on, and by the time I was at the Gooseneck I had the pegs on the floor and my knee buried into the Tarmac. There was no hesitation from the tyres to turn in at speed, and the stability of the bike felt great entering, passing through and gassing out of the bend. I say this realising that the bike in question had a hell of a lot to do with the performance I was experiencing, but the tyres certainly weren’t holding me back. To prove this point, Metzeler encouraged us to switch bikes again during a photoshoot to hammer home how well the tyres worked regardless of the machine we were riding.
A Triumph Street Triple was perhaps one of the best picks in the mix, and I was in my element on that thing, blasting along to the Victory Café, up at the Bungalow, where the weather did a number on us. Fog descended, and the conditions were once more wet and windy, but that probably proved a bonus to the Metzeler team, who were super-keen to show how well this tyre could cope with all conditions. Naturally, the pace got reined in once more, and sticking on Milky’s tail, I had blind faith in his rear lights that darted from bend to bend in the thick fog in front. It was a good job he knew where he was going because I felt totally lost until we descended towards the Creg. With the weather picking up, the last few miles back to the grandstand gave a good opportunity to think over the rubber that’d delivered on its promise to hack whatever you threw its way. I can’t talk about how it’d perform on a track, really putting the hammer down, but it’d proven a great sparring partner throughout the day, tackling fast road-riding without so much as a slide to get my heart racing. I’d had an absolute blast on them and, more to the point, I’d learned to fully trust them… and I reckon you would, too. If you’re after a fast road tyre with all-weather capabilities, you could do much worse.
