Rennie Scaysbrook | August 25, 2020
German tire company (but Pirelli owned) Metzeler is making a concerted push into the U.S. road-racing market, with its Racetec RR Slick leading the charge.
The Racetec RR Slicks offer a lower price point but still plenty of grip.
Metzeler has long been owned by Pirelli (since 1986, in fact), and the company is solely a motorcycle-tire company, having a massive presence in Europe and is one of the two tire manufacturers that regularly competes at the Isle of Man alongside Dunlop.
Metzeler’s U.S. road racing presence hasn’t been massive over the last decade, but Pirelli is trying to change that by positioning the brand as a steppingstone for track-day riders and club racers to the flagship Pirelli brand.
Compared to the equivalent Pirelli, the Metzeler has a slightly different compound but a stiffer construction, which will give slightly less overall grip but last longer—think of it as a K1 (medium compound) Racetec RR Slick, which is about the same as the hard compound SC2 Pirelli Diablo Superbike.
At this stage, Metzeler is bringing in the K1, K2 and TD (Track Day) tires to the U.S., although you can purchase a K0 (super soft) in Europe.
Part of the way Metzeler has been able to reduce the overall cost of the tire range is there’s no trackside support. You can still pay to get tires changed by any vendors who may be at the track, but Metzeler itself doesn’t provide support.
“We are seeing an emergence of ‘DIY’ riders,” says Pirelli’s North American Road Race Manager Oscar Solis. “The ones that are buying tires, taking them home and mounting themselves. The ones that want to be prepared before they go to the track and not need a lot of support during the day.”
The lack of trackside support might be a turn off for some, but when you consider the price difference for a set of tires at around $100, the dollars begin to stack up.
“These riders will see a set of race compound slick tires from mid-$300s, available from our distributor moto-garage.com, and Track Day slicks for low $300s,” says Solis. “The tradeoff for the target pricing is that these riders are able to either take the set of tires to their closest service shop to have them mounted or buy the tools to do it themselves and not rely on trackside vendors for service and support, which saves about $40 per set of tires changed.”
The RR Slicks have plenty of edge grip, with the front particularly good on full lean.
Metzeler Racetec RR Slick Lowdown
Standout feature: Great grip with long lasting potential
MRSP: Starting at $145 for fronts, $203 for rears
Metzeler Racetec RR Slick Rider Analysis
Testing race tires is very rarely an apples-for-apples experience, and the available choice for good rubber nowadays is massive. Dunlop, Michelin, Continental, Bridgestone, they all make really, really, good racing tires.
The majority of my racing in the last five years has been with Pirelli, and I absolutely love the feedback and insane grip you get from a set of Diablo Superbike slick tires, even if they wear out a little faster than I’d like.
Nineteen laps under intense heat and the front could have done that number again.
Grip on the rear stayed pretty consistent across the day, although it did begin to fade halfway through the last race. Still, it performed great considering the heat.
I have some experience racing on Metzelers a number of years back when I was sponsored by the then Australian distributor for the national championship, and I use the Blue Elephant religiously on my supermoto bike, so the brand isn’t entirely foreign to me.
A few weekends back, I took a set of K1 slicks and slapped them on the 2008 Honda CBR600RR I’ve been running for the club races as part of my Isle of Man TT preparation. The venue was Buttonwillow, and the temperatures were nothing short of stifling (both race days were above 105°F, with track temps way, way above that).
I had one set of tires, two practice sessions and two races per day. Setting pressures at 34 psi front and 26 psi (hot) rear, I managed to get down to a respectable 1:52 pace, which netted me a third in the Superstock B Expert class (I didn’t do race two on Saturday after a mechanical issue).
The Sunday was similarly baking hot, and I improved for a win and third in the Superbike C cash paying race after dropping one pound each out of the front and rear pressures. By that stage, I’d dropped into the low 1:51s, which wasn’t as fast as I’d have liked, as I thought a ’49 should have been on the cards and had it not been for a last corner mistake where I was on the rumble strip, maybe I might have gotten there.
In the battle with Yamaha mounted Keir Leonhardt, who came out on top on Saturday.
I’ll focus more on Sunday as I put more laps on the tires. Over the course of 19 laps, the K1’s held up extremely well although grip did begin to fade away from the rear by about lap 16. Here I could certainly see the longevity aspect of the tire—if it were a Pirelli, I’d for sure have gone quicker, but would have needed a second rear for the last race.
The Metzeler K1 is about the same compound as the SC2, and even with its stiffer construction, offers fast turn in and excellent edge grip that stayed consistent across the day’s racing.
Conversely, the rear had plenty of grip to run a top three pace against some pretty quick guys, all of whom threw at least one more set of tires at their bikes than I did.
When the grip did finally start to go from the rear (the front was fine and probably could have done another race if needed), it slid in that lovely progressive, very Pirelli-like fashion that gives you plenty of warning before letting go. Buttonwillow isn’t the most abrasive track out there, so that factor definitely helped in terms of lasting grip.
Happy with that! A win and a third on a 13-year-old bike with tires we’d never tried before. Good times.
Having ridden plenty of different slicks over the years, I came away quite impressed by what Metzeler has on offer. Let’s be clear: these are not tires that’ll surpass what’s on offer from Pirelli. But, then, they are not meant to. The Metzeler Racetec series is designed to give riders who perhaps are starting out/on a budget, a new entry into the sport, get them up to speed and then get onto the same stuff as the really fast guys. For that alone, they are worth the price of admission. CN
For more information, visit www.moto-garage.com
