SPORTEC RS
ON TRACK
We spent the first half of the day in Spain, under
threatening clouds at the Monteblanco Circuit on
the 01 RS, then a few hours ripping up the canyons
surrounding the track on the street-focused 01.
The 01 RS is still classified as a street tire—the
first in the line of track/road racing tires goes to the
Racetec RR—and we didn't use any tire warmers
despite track temps being on the chilly side.
Immediately, the first thing I noticed from the
01 is how quickly this front tire warmed up. Within
three-quarters of a lap of the undulating 2.7-mile
venue, I had no qualms about jamming the knee
on the deck and pushing the front tire harder than
I expected before leaving the pits.
The RS 01 has a quite soft feel from the front,
which is very much a Metzeler/Pirelli trait I got used
to, having grown up racing the company's soft-as-
butter supermoto tires for a couple of decades.
P126
FEATURE I METZELER SPORTEC 01 AND 01 RS TEST
