The aesthetics of a tread pattern often plays a crucial part in the buying process – if the tyre simply doesn’t look ‘right’ then some riders simply won’t consider fitting it.
Take ADV bikes for example. Many never leave the road, but riders demand a tyre which suits the look of their bike, while maintaining sport touring like performance.
But tread patterns play far more than just an aesthetic role, as Metzeler’s Jim Worland explained to MCN readers in this weeks issue.
Your tyre’s tread pattern performs two main functions; clearing water in the wet and maintaining mechanical grip on the road.
A road tyre must have tread grooves on a minimum 4% of it’s surface, as can be seen on a road legal race tyre like Metzeler’s Racetec RR. When it comes to a sport touring tyre however, which has a much broader remit, the new Roadtec 01 gives over 20% of it’s surface area to the tread pattern.
Advances in compound technology have really helped to boost wet grip, and to get the most out of this Metzeler have built controlled deflection into some areas of the tread to increase mechanical grip. As such, the Roadtec 01‘s tread pattern actually claws at the road surface, especially during hard braking.
Designers have changed the sculpture of the tread pattern across the profile of the tyre, optimising the amount of rubber in contact with the road at all angles of lean. Grooves are more concentrated towards the centre of the tyre and at mild angles of lean to offer you a feeling of security in the wet. As you learn further over in the dry, the area towards to edge of the tyre is less heavily grooved.
Adventure bikes present a real challenge for designers, because they are becoming more and more capable in a wider range of environments. The needs for on-road performance are often in contrast with those required for higher levels of off-road performance. Even the most road-focused of adventure tyres, like Metzeler’s Tourance Next, need to offer some level of performance on very light off-road sections, and tread patterns play a major part in this.
Electronic rider aids have also shifted focus from feedback towards the limits to the tyre’s outright performance. Before electronics, the average rider couldn’t ride at the very limits of their tyre’s grip, but now with the likes of ABS, peak performance is within reach of the many and not just the few. Also, as we’re now spending more time with the bike leaned over, the tread pattern needs to minimise variations in grip to stop electronics cutting in and out excessively.
You can find out more about the Roadtec 01 here.
