Mick753
Well-known member
Not too sure where to put this but I am sure if it is in the wrong place it can be moved easily enough.
Well as most of you will be aware a couple of us were recently given the chance to take on the offer of a set of Metzeler Roadtec 01 tyres for an evaluation on the S1000RR. Having had them fitted and now that I have managed to put just touching 500 miles on them so far I thought it was about time that I actually put something on here.
What I intend to do is obviously keep racking the miles up and and at various stages update this to hopefully see how they get on over the life of the tyre and to naturally see at what point I also start to notice a performance drop and where possible trying to ride the bike under varying weather conditions to see how they react.
But to start with I think it's important to point out that these tyres are replacing a set of fairly well used Pirelli Super Corsa SC tyres with the front being an SC1 and the rear being a 200/55/17 SC2 so in that sense I have for obvious reasons had to try to make sure I don't be too critical in terms of how they handle and also more importantly grip the road overall.
What I will say though is that the Super Corsas as we all know, particularly the SC's are not best suited for the road and take a bit of warming up and can be absolutely awful in the wet so naturally the Roadtec's have a massive advantage in them conditions and obviously can be pushed quite a bit harder.
The tyres supplied are 120/70/17 75W TL front and a 190/55/17 75W TL rear.
Having requested from the supplier what the suggested tyre pressures to use were I was given 36psi (2.5bar) for the front and 42psi (2.9bar) for the rear.
The tyre pressures I intend to use as a guide whilst using the tyres, specifically because whilst I appreciate that it is a manufacturer recommended pressure I have never quite got on with running pressures that high and have generally always ended up reducing the pressure until I find that the bike offers a compliant and predictable feeling that feels natural to the way I ride. Generally on other manufacturers that have suggested the same sort of pressures I have always ended up somewhere in between 32-35 front and 35-39 rear.
Now whilst these tyres are replacing a set of Super Corsas on my BMW S1000RR I have not had the bike long but am fairly comfortable with it, immediately prior to getting this bike I had been riding a couple of Aprilia RSV1000's both of which were running Metzeler tyres, one had Sportec M5's and the other had new M7RR's and my intention when having got the BMW was to remove the Super Corsas and fit a set of M7RR's.
My reasons for that were simply because the M7RR's having had just over 1000 miles on them had proven to be absolutely fantastic on the road in both wet and dry conditions and every bit as good on the track (although there was an element of movement from the front that I wasn't expecting once the tyres got pushed harder and started to feel the heat), that being said I didn't expect them to handle quite as well as Super Corsas SC's but was pleasantly surprised by them to make me want another set on my BMW.
Having agreed to take the Roadtec 01's for a review I will admit to being a little nervous about how this type of tyre was going to feel, naturally all sport bike riders want to have that full on sport bike feeling but I tend to see myself as a relatively quick rider that matches what I am doing with the conditions well and I don't often push too far past what I am comfortable with so I decided to give them a try, and given that I live in Scotland there is more chance of me riding in the wet than any other weather so knowing that I have a set of tyres on that are designed for excellent grip in wet weather has to be a bonus.
So the first 500 miles and how they have been.
Well I am not going to jump and down and rave about them just yet purely because putting a new set of tyres on always feels like throwing a new pair of slippers on to me and you rightly don't know how they are going to feel until they start wearing in under normal use. What I will say though is that they have been used on all manner of muddy, greasy, damp and salty roads from Edinburgh down to Cumbria and all over the Borders of Scotland and have so far felt particularly good.
They warm up very quickly and even with the 36/42 psi pressures they feel pretty stable (if not a little too hard, but I expected that) under both cornering and heavy braking, the U shaped profile to the tyre which is a design of pretty much all sport touring tyres gives a more neutral feel to when rolling into a corner rather than the more aggresive V profile of sports tyres and it gave a very smooth transition when throwing multiple corners together in quick succession.
Under hard acceleration I felt the higher pressures didn't allow the bike to soak up as much of the road imperfections as I had hoped for and found the bike to be quite flighty in comparison to before the tyres were changed, a pressure change and a quick tweak of the compression and rebound settings is on the cards to see how they cope will hopefully allow me to comment more on that later.
But all in all a very good and very reassuring first 500 miles, I don't doubt they will be every bit as good if not better than the M7RR's I had previously when it comes to riding in the rain (the M7RR's managed fantastically in torrential downpours of biblical proportions last year!) and I am looking forward to seeing how they perform in warmer conditions on cleaner roads where I will naturally be pushing them harder.
No real criticisms so far other than to highlight and remind others that this is a Sports touring tyre and not an out and out Supersport tyre so the handling feels very neutral and based on compliance rather than throw it on it's side and fight it out of the corner which is what I found myself wanting to do at times. But that is my issue and not the tyres!
But as an alternative to a supersport tyre for those that like to munch the miles and in all conditions, I think these are going to show real promise, I certainly wouldn't rule another set out but then it is very early days so I will keep an open mind.
Hopefully with another 500 miles on them I will do another update and see how they are holding up in terms of wear, although I expect with their design they will still probably be looking relatively new.
Well as most of you will be aware a couple of us were recently given the chance to take on the offer of a set of Metzeler Roadtec 01 tyres for an evaluation on the S1000RR. Having had them fitted and now that I have managed to put just touching 500 miles on them so far I thought it was about time that I actually put something on here.
What I intend to do is obviously keep racking the miles up and and at various stages update this to hopefully see how they get on over the life of the tyre and to naturally see at what point I also start to notice a performance drop and where possible trying to ride the bike under varying weather conditions to see how they react.
But to start with I think it's important to point out that these tyres are replacing a set of fairly well used Pirelli Super Corsa SC tyres with the front being an SC1 and the rear being a 200/55/17 SC2 so in that sense I have for obvious reasons had to try to make sure I don't be too critical in terms of how they handle and also more importantly grip the road overall.
What I will say though is that the Super Corsas as we all know, particularly the SC's are not best suited for the road and take a bit of warming up and can be absolutely awful in the wet so naturally the Roadtec's have a massive advantage in them conditions and obviously can be pushed quite a bit harder.
The tyres supplied are 120/70/17 75W TL front and a 190/55/17 75W TL rear.
Having requested from the supplier what the suggested tyre pressures to use were I was given 36psi (2.5bar) for the front and 42psi (2.9bar) for the rear.
The tyre pressures I intend to use as a guide whilst using the tyres, specifically because whilst I appreciate that it is a manufacturer recommended pressure I have never quite got on with running pressures that high and have generally always ended up reducing the pressure until I find that the bike offers a compliant and predictable feeling that feels natural to the way I ride. Generally on other manufacturers that have suggested the same sort of pressures I have always ended up somewhere in between 32-35 front and 35-39 rear.
Now whilst these tyres are replacing a set of Super Corsas on my BMW S1000RR I have not had the bike long but am fairly comfortable with it, immediately prior to getting this bike I had been riding a couple of Aprilia RSV1000's both of which were running Metzeler tyres, one had Sportec M5's and the other had new M7RR's and my intention when having got the BMW was to remove the Super Corsas and fit a set of M7RR's.
My reasons for that were simply because the M7RR's having had just over 1000 miles on them had proven to be absolutely fantastic on the road in both wet and dry conditions and every bit as good on the track (although there was an element of movement from the front that I wasn't expecting once the tyres got pushed harder and started to feel the heat), that being said I didn't expect them to handle quite as well as Super Corsas SC's but was pleasantly surprised by them to make me want another set on my BMW.
Having agreed to take the Roadtec 01's for a review I will admit to being a little nervous about how this type of tyre was going to feel, naturally all sport bike riders want to have that full on sport bike feeling but I tend to see myself as a relatively quick rider that matches what I am doing with the conditions well and I don't often push too far past what I am comfortable with so I decided to give them a try, and given that I live in Scotland there is more chance of me riding in the wet than any other weather so knowing that I have a set of tyres on that are designed for excellent grip in wet weather has to be a bonus.
So the first 500 miles and how they have been.
Well I am not going to jump and down and rave about them just yet purely because putting a new set of tyres on always feels like throwing a new pair of slippers on to me and you rightly don't know how they are going to feel until they start wearing in under normal use. What I will say though is that they have been used on all manner of muddy, greasy, damp and salty roads from Edinburgh down to Cumbria and all over the Borders of Scotland and have so far felt particularly good.
They warm up very quickly and even with the 36/42 psi pressures they feel pretty stable (if not a little too hard, but I expected that) under both cornering and heavy braking, the U shaped profile to the tyre which is a design of pretty much all sport touring tyres gives a more neutral feel to when rolling into a corner rather than the more aggresive V profile of sports tyres and it gave a very smooth transition when throwing multiple corners together in quick succession.
Under hard acceleration I felt the higher pressures didn't allow the bike to soak up as much of the road imperfections as I had hoped for and found the bike to be quite flighty in comparison to before the tyres were changed, a pressure change and a quick tweak of the compression and rebound settings is on the cards to see how they cope will hopefully allow me to comment more on that later.
But all in all a very good and very reassuring first 500 miles, I don't doubt they will be every bit as good if not better than the M7RR's I had previously when it comes to riding in the rain (the M7RR's managed fantastically in torrential downpours of biblical proportions last year!) and I am looking forward to seeing how they perform in warmer conditions on cleaner roads where I will naturally be pushing them harder.
No real criticisms so far other than to highlight and remind others that this is a Sports touring tyre and not an out and out Supersport tyre so the handling feels very neutral and based on compliance rather than throw it on it's side and fight it out of the corner which is what I found myself wanting to do at times. But that is my issue and not the tyres!
But as an alternative to a supersport tyre for those that like to munch the miles and in all conditions, I think these are going to show real promise, I certainly wouldn't rule another set out but then it is very early days so I will keep an open mind.
Hopefully with another 500 miles on them I will do another update and see how they are holding up in terms of wear, although I expect with their design they will still probably be looking relatively new.
