METZELER SPORTEC ™ M7 RR selected by KTM as original equipment for the new 690 Duke

The new mid-capacity naked from the Austrian brand will be marketed with METZELER SPORTEC™ M7 RR supersport tyres (in 120/70 ZR 17 front and 160/60 ZR 17 rear sizes)

SPORTEC™ M7 RR, the supersport tyre from METZELER created to ensure the highest levels of handling and safety, even in the most difficult road situations, is chosen by KTM as the original equipment tyre for the new 690 Duke.

The new mid-capacity naked from the Austrian brand will be on sale with METZELER SPORTEC™ M7 RR tyres in 120/70 ZR 17 M/C (58W) TL (M) front and 160/60 ZR 17 M/C (69W ) TL rear sizes.

SPORTEC™ M7 RR comes from the road racing experience of the brand of German origins and its main strengths are its sporty handling, excellent behaviour in the wet and high mileage.

SPORTEC™ M7 RR is the latest evolution of the SPORTEC™ range, in line with the development of new motorcycles.

As for the naming of the new product, with SPORTEC™ METZELER identifies the range of products dedicated to sporty use on the road, M7 is the natural numerical progression of the predecessors products SPORTEC™ M1, SPORTEC™ M3 and SPORTEC™ M5 INTERACT™ . The RR, defined as Road Racing, distinguishes the context from which this project was born. SPORTEC™ M7 RR is the most sporty tyre of the METZELER product range. Developed for road use, it originates from ‘road racing’ competition where you can find all of the extreme situations that every biker might encounter daily, and it is for this reason they were chosen by METZELER as a testing and development ground.

The roads that bikers ride are not always perfect and their surface is not smooth and uniform as on a track; often there are hidden pitfalls, mixed surfaces, holes and unevenness in the road surface as well as wet, slippery and in some cases even dirty patches.

A tyre must be able to adapt to these difficult conditions and for this reason METZELER decided to develop SPORTEC™ M7 RR based on the data acquired over the years in road racing which reproduces, on an extreme level, all the situations that a rider may encounter everyday on the road. SPORTEC™ M7 RR was born this way, as a tyre for road use with a sporty soul able to offer an excellent behaviour in situations of wet and slippery tarmac, thanks to the rapid warm-up which even occurs in low temperatures, and to the versatility of use in a wide range of operating temperatures.

A tyre you can rely on in sudden and unexpected situations which can really make a difference in terms of enjoyment and safety while riding.

With the clear objective of maintaining sport performance even on wet and dirty roads, the tread pattern layout of the grooves was designed to ensure grip on dry tarmac and at the same time offer water drainage and excellent cornering stability.

The longitudinal grooves are interrupted by elements of the compound that improve the stability of the tread, the regularity of wear and increase grip during acceleration. These elements also contribute to keeping the grooves open when the tyre is in contact with the road to drain water.

In the lateral grooves, the depth decreases gradually toward the shoulder area to increase the compactness and lateral thrust when cornering at maximum lean angles in the dry; their width, on the contrary, increases toward the shoulder area to ensure an effective drainage of the water even in a tight bend.

ktm-3-mail.jpegA brand-new range of compounds with a high content of silica has been developed for the SPORTEC™ M7 RR which is able to offer sporty performance both at high temperatures as well as on wet roads with lower temperatures. The key to this technological breakthrough resides in the exclusive and patented mixing process that is able to provide compounds of the highest quality, maximizing the dispersion of all components in the polymer matrix in a consistent way.

The front tyre is a mono compound with 100% silica. The rear is dual compound: the shoulder has 100% silica which provides chemical grip on both dry and wet surfaces, supported by a harder compound in the substrate that guarantees the highest levels of stability and cornering precision. This same compound is also present in the middle of the tread and provides high mileage.

The profiles of SPORTEC™ M7 RR are characterized by the composition of different radii, designed to encourage an immediate descent into lean and an increase of the contact patch while cornering.

To support the work of the profiles, to allow the compound to have traction on the surface and to keep the grooves open in the footprint area, an appropriate structure has been developed. The radial carcass is composed of a special version in rayon; this structure is much more rigid and able to maintain its shape under conditions of greater stress and deformation from load.