FEATURE I 30 YEARS OF THE 0° STEEL BELT RADIAL TIRE
P106
radii in the middle. The steel
belted construction flipped that
thinking on its head, with the
first production MEZ1 a much
rounder shape with a slightly
higher radius in the center than
in the shoulder. The compounds
also came in for a redesign.
"We went much harder than
before," says Masani. "The com
-
pounds to make a zero-degree
work had to be harder—not less
grippy—because grip is a differ
-
ent story. You have stiffness,
and you have hardness.
"The hardness is the capabil
-
ity of the tire to envelop the road
surface. The stiffness is the
characteristic of the construc-
tion. We had to develop tires
that are stiffer but not so hard to
compromise the grip, of course.
This was the challenge."
Testing was carried out on
German autobahns and the
Nürburgring Nordschleife using
an army of Metzeler hired guns,
including then WorldSBK rider
and now Ducati MotoGP Gen
-
eral Manager Davide Tardozzi,
WorldSBK, MotoGP and EWC
racer Adrien Morillas, four-time
World 250 and 350 Champion
Walter Villa, and legendary Ger-
man racer Helmut Dahne.
Villa's comments on the
new tire were not so welcome,
the German telling Salvo and
his crew, "After five laps, I was
running on steel. There's lots of
sparks. Great for the spectators,
not so much for grip."
After redesigning the 0° steel
belted radial tire yet again, Met
-
zeler finally got it right. The first
MEZ1 of 1993 saw Dahne break
the Nordschleife lap record with
a Honda RC30, and Yamaha
gave Metzeler the nod to have
the MEZ1 as original equipment
on the rear of their FZR600.
The year 2000 saw the
release of the world's
largest motorcycle tire—
the 240/40R18 rear tire.
