NEW Metzeler Roadtec 02 First Ride: Everything You Need To Know!

This is the new for 2024 Metzeler Roadtec O2, a tyre that they're claiming is grippier, quick to warm up, super stable and made in a more environmentally friendly way. But look, I think the most interesting development has to be their new DynoTread feature, which according to them, effectively gives you the abilities of two tyres in one. So how have they done it? Well, I'm here on the Isle of Man to tell you everything that you need to know. Now look, full disclosure, Metzeler are one of our channel sponsors, for which we're extremely grateful. But they have said we can say what we like about the tyres in this video, so our views remain our own. And what I'll give you is absolutely everything we've been told about these tyres, all of the details I've got, so that if you are thinking about buying a set, you can do so armed with all the facts. And in fact, there's a link down in the description to Metzeler's website, where you can find out even more details, along with a full list of all their dealers. Now naturally, the Roadtec O2 follows on from the Roadtec O1 and Roadtec O1 SE, which have both been solid performers on the sports touring market for some years. But clearly, when you put them side by side, there's a huge change to the tread pattern on this new tyre. So what prompted this major redesign? Well, Metzeler say that riders are now expecting more. They want to be able to do the two-up touring with luggage, where stability and safety are most important from a tyre. But then they also want to be able to take the luggage off, go for a ride solo in the dry, and push their bike much harder without having to swap tyres. Then you've got the fact that bikes are changing as well. I mean, there are some techy features that really do give some bikes a lot of versatility. Take this MV Agusta that I've been riding this morning, for example, where you've got electronically adjustable suspension that means you can go from cushy comfort up to firm sportiness within a couple of presses of a button. Then you've got the riding modes as well, which alter power delivery, ABS, traction control, to suit this wider range of conditions. And also the fact that bikes have become increasingly powerful, so a lot of touring bikes are really quite capable when it comes to the sporty side of things. So look, Metzeler wanted to increase the capability of this tyre when it comes to that quicker riding. And as you'll see from the selection of bikes we're being offered today, they really are trying to cover a broad spectrum now. Obviously, you've got the sports tourers like this and the S1000XR. And then there's the more road-biased adventure bikes, because they do offer this tyre in a couple of 19-inch fronts. Then you've got the sporty nakeds like the Street Triple and Z900 that we've got here today. And even, to some extent now, super sports, because of that extra sporting capability that they say they've been able to develop in this tyre. Now, Metzeler benchmarked the Roadtec O2 versus the Roadtec O1 SE, which is a slightly more sporty variant of the O1. And as you can see from this chart, they've basically managed to maintain all of the stability and safety in the wet, while significantly improving the way the tyre feels and handles, especially when you're pushing harder. The result on the track from their testing is massively improved times, with later braking possible and earlier acceleration. And that means average speeds into, through and out of corners are all up. Now, this tyre still has a fairly large central radius, which keeps that predictable feeling of stability. But they now use a new full silica compound on the front and on the shoulders of the rear as well, which is said to have 5% front and 15% rear better grip in the wet, and roughly 10% more front and rear in the dry. Plus, it gives you that quick warm-up time, which is crucial for this sort of tyre. And on the rear, you've still got that hard-wearing strip in the centre for the high-speed stability and good mileage. Just stopped off at the Victory Cafe, amazing place. I definitely want to come back here at some point. As you can see, had a little bit of everything, weather-wise today, from a bit of wet roads this morning from yesterday's rain. Then it fined up and it was sunny. We had smooth roads, rough roads. It's been calm. It's been windy. It's gone super misty now. But anyway, onto this fantastic new feature from Metzeler called Dyno Tread, which is this idea of having an adaptive tread that sort of morphs to suit the current riding conditions and your sort of pace. So as you can see, plenty of fairly big and deep grooves that help to get water away and also help the tyre to move around to help it warm up quickly. And so that's, of course, ideal in cold, low grip, wet conditions. And of course, that's the sort of stuff you can come across when you're out touring or even commuting. Thing is though, if you've got a nice dry day and you fancy riding a little bit quicker, the specific shape of these treads, you'll notice they get a little bit narrower in the middle. You know, it's designed that way so that when there are lateral forces applied to the rubber, when you're going through a corner quicker, then they sort of lean against each other and that gives the whole tread pattern more support. This, they say, is where it starts to perform a bit more like a super sport tyre with that bigger contact patch because the grooves have sort of narrowed up. And so that should lead to more grip, but also that reduced flex as well. In fact, they say it's a 12.7% void ratio when you're riding at those more gentle paces, but that goes down to 6% when lateral forces are applied and it closes those gaps up. So yeah, super smart stuff and they say it's patented now as well, so you might not see it on other tyres. Now, on top of all that, they've made the tread pattern more consistent between the front and rear and you can see this change quite easily when you put them side by side with the O1s. The idea is to make the feeling between the front and rear more consistent when it comes to this adaptive behaviour and so if the rear firms up because of more sporty riding through a corner, you obviously want the same behaviour from the front as well. Maybe this is just me and maybe it's a bit of a superficial thing to say, but I do think these new tyres look a lot better too. They look more sporty. You can see the tread pattern looks a lot more like their dedicated sports tyres like the M9RR just because you've got far fewer treads. Thing is though, from a practical perspective as well, fewer treads actually means less noise and so you can expect fewer decibels of noise at pretty much all speeds as well as eliminating a specific peak from the O1 SE at about 40 miles an hour or 60 kilometers per hour. As for sizes, well, there are plenty of 17s on offer for the rear from a 150 right up to a 190 which should cover a wide range of bikes. Then at the front, there's a 120 by 70 17 which is a super common size along with two 19 inches for those road-biased adventure bikes I mentioned earlier. Think the R1300GS, Tiger 1200 GT models, the new Africa Twin Adventure Sports and many, many more. Plus, if you like your tyres as environmentally friendly as possible, then all of these sizes are now made from more than 43% of bio-based and recycled materials as verified by an independent third party. So we're just back at the hotel and it's just started to rain so we really have had every type of weather today and I think it speaks volumes about the tyre that it's been such an enjoyable time out on the bike despite this level of changeability. In fact, we've had so many different types of weather but also so many types of road and road surface and look, the tyre is one of those things that really is going to affect your enjoyment in this sort of scenario and these new road techs really have done the job. You know, you've got some of the capability of their more sporty tyres like the M7 or M9 RRs but with that reassurance that you get with the old road techs in the sort of more challenging weather conditions. Honestly, the Isle of Man probably wouldn't be my first choice for a launch at this time of year but I think Metzeler have really proved their point. As always, if you've got any questions about these new tyres then please do leave them in the comments below and I'll try to get back to you and also, if you're looking for the perfect new bike to go with your new road techs then we've got a full list of the best new Tourers and Sports Tourers and Adventure Tourers for 2024 which I'll put on the screen now so you can give it a click and give it a watch if you haven't already. Hit subscribe as well if you want to see more of the latest new motorcycle gear like this. Many thanks for watching today and we'll see you in the next video.