Love the feel of a
sporty Metzeler in
the transition! Push
the front-end hard,
and it just kept giving
on the racetrack.
Not one person had
a crash at this test,
which must be some
kind of record.
BMW S 1000 RR, and the mighty
M 1000 RR (in that order). The
harder I hammered the brakes
as I rode ever faster bikes, the
more front-end feel I got and the
more I was prepared to push.
Whether this has anything to
do with the Dynatread doing its
semi-slick impression, I have
no idea. I can't tell, and I doubt
anyone at the launch, aside from
the development riders, could
tell if the Dynatread was doing
its thing. A good indication of
performance was that, with over
40 riders from all over the globe,
ranging from basic intermedi
-
ate to pro-level speed, no one
had a front-end crash at a circuit
that demands heavy braking to
extract a decent lap time.
An important thing to note here
is that the tire performance never
wavered, regardless of which
bike I rode or which electronic
suspension setting I chose. Mod
-
ern sportbikes are chameleons,
changing their chassis' persona
at the touch of a button and thus
putting different strains on the
tire tread and deeper into the
carcass. The RS 01 front handled
everything I could throw at it, but I
still wasn't game to brake as late
as I would with a Racetec slick—
mainly out of self-preservation,
not anything else.
Switching to the rear tire, that
lovely, squishy feel that sporty
Metzelers give shone through
beautifully. Focusing on the M
1000 RR with all its ferocious
P128
FEATURE I METZELER SPORTEC 01 AND 01 RS TEST
