Do you know what "chicken strips" are? When you purchase a new tire it is covered in a slick layer of a greasy substance that the manufacturer uses to free the tires from their molds.
This surface is why every time you buy a new bike or purchase and mount new tires, you have to ride carefully through the first hundred or so miles to burn that slick layer off of your tires and get to the gripping rubber underneath.
The chicken strips are those remaining areas of that substance that you have not scrubbed off because you aren’t leaning over far enough in the corners. Some say that the measure of your chicken strips is the measure of your bravery. Metzeler has now provided us with a way to measure your man/woman-hood – the Sportec M5 Interact.
Metzeler calls it the Chicken Strip Assessment Technology system, and it is etched into the very carcass of each Sportec M5 Interact tire. The engineers have placed the numbers one through five (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) on the tires with a small "man and motorcycle" emblazoned next to numbers one, three and five. The numbers start at the center of the tread and increase on each side nearly to the sidewall – an elephant and three small lines, working as a warning strip for when you are at the very last bit of rubber, are between the last number, five, and the very edge of the tire.
The "man and motorcycle" icon demonstrates just how far you are leaned over when you wear the tread over to the number on the tire next to it. Thus, the number one shows an upright icon, the number three shows a half-way lean, and the icon next to the number five shows a motorcyclist in full lean (see the accompanying picture). That is how you are able measure just how far you have leaned your motorcycle when out bombing canyons or running laps around the track.
Of course, the idea is to try for the elephant; get as far over as is safe on the tire and feel the warning strip. With this system, you can back up your bench racing stories with some positive proof. You can even fain indifference and just stand next to your motorcycle with your Sportec M5 Interact tires in full view for everyone to see – the tires displaying your proficiency. However, if you honestly never reach those areas of your tire, your chicken strips will be on display to the public and they can be measured rather easily thanks to this Metzeler tire. Caveat emptor indeed.
Your main use of these tires, for the true riders among us, is to measure your performance for yourself. You do this to get better at what you love and to know now much you are improving while doing the very thing you want to do well. So, the real question here is how well do they work in all riding conditions and what can we expect when we ride with these tires spooned onto our wheels?
There is a serious amount of new technology in these tires. They have implemented multi-zone tensioning extending the life of the tire and its usefulness. They are also known for their ‘pi’ tread pattern as it looks very much like that numerical sign. The compounds used are supposed to heat up quickly and stay at a stable temperature to keep the tires nice and sticky. But, does any of this make the Metzeler Sportec M5 Interact a great tire? We must await a report; they will first be available in February 2010.
