Metzeler Renews Its Offering For The Scooter Segment With The New Roadtec™ Scooter
METZELER ROADTEC™ SCOOTER is available in a wide range of sizes, satisfying the needs of any scooter rider. Its main features include grip and versatility in every season, comfort and safety on low friction surfaces
ROADTEC™ Scooter is the new tyre developed by METZELER and intended for all types of scooters, with wheels ranging from 10 to 16 inches. ROADTEC™ Scooter boasts extreme adaptability and versatility, capable of dealing with the most diverse weather conditions and types of asphalt in urban and suburban areas.
The ROADTEC™ Scooter development project naturally takes inspiration from the award-winning ROADTEC™ 01 sport touring tyre, whose strengths, such as exceptional wet performance and high mileage, have been optimised for use on scooters.
The product range includes forty-eight sizes, which will progressively replace the current METZELER portfolio consisting of FEELFREE™, FEELFREE™ WINTEC and ME 7 TEEN™, offering instead a single product with better performance and significantly simplifying the choice for consumers. In particular, ROADTEC™ Scooter, compared to the products it will replace, guarantees a greater level of grip on both wet and low friction surfaces, the ability to operate in a wider range of temperature and superior handling.
The tread pattern of this new tyre directly derives from that of METZELER ROADTEC™ 01. The evolution of the award-winning product dedicated to the world of scooters has allowed the use of a system partially based on sipes, derived from the experience gained with FEELFREE™ WINTEC. In addition to the grip on low friction surfaces, guaranteed by the recognisable tread pattern of ROADTEC 01™, the sipes contribute to the conformability of the footprint, with the main benefits being in terms of warm-up and comfort.
Compared to its predecessors, ROADTEC™ Scooter is characterised by more rounded profiles and by a lighter and more flexible structure, increasing its footprint area and improving handling. Finally, the compounds of ROADTEC™ Scooter have a high percentage of silica for improved wet performance, and a wider range of operating temperatures.
Features and benefits of ROADTEC™ Scooter
The main benefits are:
- Grip on different types of asphalt. Thanks to the high silica content in the compound that works in conjunction with the innovative tread design made up of grooves and sipes, ensuring high levels of mechanical and chemical grip in all conditions.
- Versatility of use in any season. ROADTEC™ Scooter is the ideal solution for urban and extra-urban mobility, regardless of weather conditions or temperatures. The high silica content of the tread compound allows extreme versatility and flexibility of use in a wider range of temperatures and asphalt conditions.
- Handling and superior comfort, thanks to the innovative rounded profiles, and a lighter and more flexible carcass, ROADTEC™ Scooter guarantees a high conformability of the footprint and comfort even on uneven surfaces for high riding pleasure.
- Safety on wet surfaces and low friction surfaces. The recognisable tread pattern of the award-winning ROADTEC™ 01 is combined with the innovative use of sipes, which contributes to optimising its benefits for the scooter sector. The ROADTEC™ Scooter tread design allows efficient water evacuation in wet conditions and guarantees a high level of grip, even on low friction surfaces such as worn and imperfect urban surfaces and cobblestones.
THE TYRE IN DETAILS
The tread pattern
The tread pattern of ROADTEC™ Scooter naturally takes inspiration from the award-winning ROADTEC™ 01 tyre, bringing METZELER’s profound knowledge within the sport touring segment to the world of scooters.
The front measures ROADTEC™ Scooter have a high number of transversal grooves that mechanically adhere to the asphalt and, compared to the predecessor FEELFREE™, significantly increasing the ability to evacuate water in wet conditions. The addition of sipes to the tread pattern, derived from the experience gained with FEELFREE™ WINTEC, helps the compound to warm up, guaranteeing braking stability and an excellent level of grip from the very first corner. Finally, the repetition of the grooves is optimised to maximise acoustic comfort and interact better with ABS systems.
The ROADTEC™ Scooter rear tyre combines grooves of different sizes and depths: the long and deep directional grooves inherited from ROADTEC™ 01 are crossed here by sipes that run in the opposite direction. The former ensures an excellent level of water dispersion and better control in critical driving conditions such as panic braking or acceleration when cornering. At the same time, the specific orientation of these grooves contributes to ensuring high mileage by allowing consistent wear. The sipes instead follow an opposite orientation and have the function of maximising the evacuation of water and the level of mechanical grip.
The compound
ROADTEC™ Scooter features a compound with a high silica content that, together with the tread design, makes it able to guarantee a high level of chemical and mechanical grip. Special adhesive resins increase the capacity to adhere with the asphalt and the perceived safety level.
In addition, the patented mixing process maximises the consistency of the components dispersed in the polymer matrix, allowing the tyre to consistently offer high levels of performance.
The structure
The structure of ROADTEC™ Scooter has a more flexible carcass than that of FEELFREE™ and has been designed to allow a more conformable footprint. As a result, the level of mechanical grip increases significantly and the absorption of road irregularities such as bumps, potholes or rough asphalts drastically improves, boosting rider comfort.
The profile
The profiles of ROADTEC™ Scooter are more rounded than those of FEELFREE ™ with the consequent advantage of having a shorter and wider contact patch than that of the predecessor. The footprint of ROADTEC™ Scooter has been specifically designed to contain the compound overheating within the operating range, thus reducing the wear process, as well as to include a greater number of grooves for greater safety in the wet.
The size range
The initial ROADTEC™ Scooter range includes forty-eight sizes which will gradually replace the current METZELER FEELFREE™, FEELFREE™ WINTEC and ME 7 TEEN™ products on the market. This choice entails a significant simplification both of the range management by the retailer and of the understanding and choice of the product by the end consumer.
