Geting Down and Dirty with Metzeler MC360s

Rainy. Muddy. Cold and miserable British january weather. 

Perfect for trying out my new Metzeler MC360 tires. 

So here's my honest first ride opinion of these tires as a complete novice dirt rider. Tim Coleman I am not. I rode muddy trails and the roads that join up my local green-lanes and did a bit of single track through the woods near me as well. 

I went with a 'midhards' for my CRF250L (as you may also know the Honda "L" classification describes the engine is suitable for Lawnmowers). I am running 110/100 - 80/100. Today I dropped the psi to 15 front and rear. I chose the midhards based on the facts that a) I will need to ride the blacktop between lanes and had heard that the midhards last longer than the midsofts, and b) the trails I ride on will dry out in summer and offer up a much harder surface come March time. 

What is an MC360? 

According to the Munich rubber hoop maker the MC360 is a tire "dedicated to Motocross, Supercross, Cross-country, and non-FIM Enduro." So much like their 6 Days Extreme tire it has been designed to do more than one thing but unlike the 6 Days they don't try to do too much. This appears to be a theme for Metzeler as the Roadtec 01's - the brand's premium sport touring tire - while being extraordinary capable in the wet and cold, are equally capable when the sun comes out and the speed and lean angles increase. The reverse is true of the M7RR, Metzeler's intermediate sport rubber, which are superb in the dry - the conditions they are primarily designed for - but also very capable in the wet. 

However, trying to do many things can often lead to a tire not doing anything particularly well. This is largely true of a lot of adventure tires which are not superbly capable off-road or on road. So the only thing they tend to end up doing well is being vague across a wider range of surfaces.

Metzeler seem to have struck a good balance understanding the trade off of either doing one thing very well or many things to a mediocre level. This was clearly considered with the design of the MC360. As it specialises more while not being so specific that you need to change your rubber every time the trail changes. The two classifications of midsoft and midhard speak to these specifics and while each being broad enough to cope with most of what you throw at them across a number of surfaces while at the same time not slipping into the realms of vagueness. 

The midsoft tires are quoted as "the optimal choice for soft terrains" with the midhard being the "perfect tyre for medium and hard terrain". Well not slipping in vagueness except when it comes to describing them at least... What this means in real terms is that with the MS you're going to find good grip from sand right up to medium packed mud and light gravel, soil and grass and the MH tires will go from the top end of that spectrum to hard packed surfaces, larger gravels, stones ad rocks. 

Today I rode on mostly soft mud, grass, some gravel, roads and hard packed soil. So for some of the riding I was in fact outside of what the midhard MC360s were designed to deal with, especially on the very soft clay mud I rode through. 

Down a wet and muddy trail... 

My previous rear as you can see has about the same amount
of grip on mud as Donald Trump does on reality.

I started off by heading down a local greenlane that previously I had struggled with on my old tires. In their defence the front, a Pirelli Scorpion, was warn out from tarmac and the rear, a Pirelli adventure type tire, was more suited to the hardtop rather than hard enduro so by taking them down stodgy back lanes I was pushing them a long way out of their optimal conditions.  Can't really blame the tires for their performance.

The first thing I noticed with the MC360s is I had grip. This was a big deal to me having slid and laboured my way down this lane only a couple of weeks before. Arriving at the other end thoroughly knackered from wrestling my 3 ton 250L through the mud while the rear end decided it was going to piss off somewhere else entirely and the front remained about as stable as a drunk on ice skates. On the Metz I could just stand on the pegs and ride it through, the lane was over so quickly I was almost disappointed.

This first lane definitely erred on the side of the lower end of the grip spectrum for the midhards being mostly soft mud and grass. I was very much in the 'mid' of the midhard classification and probably leaning more to the 'midsoft' side really. But the 360s hooked up pretty well. The rear dug in and I could get some speed up and it handled the terrain well. Of course when it is this soft and wet pretty much any tire will slide around so I was paying more attention to the front boot than the rear. The front tracked well from what I could feel with my limited dirt riding abilities and experience and never felt like it was going to sod off into a bush at any point unless I expressly decided that was where I wanted to go. When the rear got lairy it wasn't sneaky about it, it was predictable and progressive. Predictable enough even for me as a complete novice to juice it up on the throttle and push the rear out for fun standing on the pegs. 

Through the woods...

After this I decided to tackle some slightly more challenging stuff in a woods near me. Of course the term 'challenging' is depended on your skill level so take that word with a pinch of salt. See disclaimer above; not Tim Coleman... 

Previously I had spotted some pretty neat looking single track winding through the woods that I wanted to try but didn't want to get stuck in on my old tires so I was happy to be able to explore with more confidence (in my tires if not my own dirt riding abilities). The one thing riding this bit of single track showed me is how well the front tracked over some pretty slick clay mud and wet roots. I was soon filled with confidence that the front wheel would go exactly where I pointed it with the back digging in and driving it forward in a predictable manner. Most of this riding was very slow, ducking and weaving between trees, over deep ruts and undulating ground navigating roots and protruding stumps. 

As I worked my way forward there were a few decent bits that put the tires to proper work such as a small but slick clay mud bank that dropped off about metre to some stodgy mud below. The bank was steep so the front needed to track well to make sure I could rely on the back to push me through the rut and mud at the bottom. I was not disappointed as the front tracked superbly allowing me to concentrate on driving it out the other side. 

As the track wound through the wood I was forced to make low speed but sharp turns to get around trees, roots and stumps and the 360's made this very easy never feeling vague at the front or the rear. After a while longer there was a slanted incline, not massively steep but at and angle it begs for the tires to slide out along the bank rather than climb it but the Metzelers hooked up and I was able to ride straight up it no trouble at all. 

There was one section where I did get a bit stuck but it was mostly my fault. It was a slight incline but it was ankle deep in wet clay mud and despite the wide spacing between the blocks on the rear tire the clay filled every gap and I began to loose momentum which is definitely your best friend in muddy conditions. With the drive wheel caked in clay mud and now at a standstill I had no choice but to get off and push it on the clutch and then one foot paddle it the rest of the way out to firmer ground. 

I can't really blame the 360's at all for this however, as I honestly think that any tire would have been hard pushed to find grip in that quagmire, not to mention that I had not come into it with quite enough momentum either. I plan to return to that bog though and make it through in one go next time.. 

On the road... 

Knobblies are designed to offer good grip offroad at the expense of pretty much everything else you might want from a tire; such as mileage and on road grip. Some however handle the hardtop better than others. The Michelin AC10s being notably skittish on the road, particularly in the wet so I hear. So today being rainy and cold and the tires very much at their newest, the conditions were perfect to experience the MC360s at their worst on the roads.

Met these nice lasses on the way, I swear the fair one reminded
me of my ex-wife somehow.. 

Contact patch is king when it comes to riding the blacktop and dirt tires while standing up on their blocks on the solid tarmac have a contact patch about the size of a credit card (your average 120 front/180 rear road bike having about 5 times that area of rubber to the road). This gives them about all the road handling qualities and poise of a giraffe on roller-skates. That being said, while the MC360s did of course feel vague on the road they never felt vague enough that it bothered me. Of course I trailed off speed early for corners and made sure braking was done as early and progressively as possible to avoid pushing the tires past the pretty low limits of available grip, but I was comfortable riding on them even on the wet back roads. 

I wouldn't have wanted to stop in a real hurry or flick the bike into a corner with my heel dragging of course but they felt stable and grippy enough to ferry me to my next muddy rendezvous without me sweating about if the front was on the brink of lowsiding on every corner or if the back was going to properly sod off out from underneath me on the next roundabout. 

Today I rode the 250 to work and back as the thought of man-handling my near 200kg CBR600 in the tight back area at work where I park was just too much to bare on my aching shoulders and legs after a decent session riding dirt the day before. So I got more adventurous on the way home and decided to test the front grip out by performing an emergency stop. Though I could very much feel the point at which the front would let go was far sooner than on a road tire, braking down progressively from around 35 and doubling up on the rear brake as well the bike came to a controlled and fairly quick stop on the MC360s. I would say that I likely had a little more available grip left at that point as well.

A note on sizing and tire profile between the 110 and 120 section tires.

One thing I did notice as I bought both the 110/100 rear and a 120/100 rear is the difference in the angle at which the tread curves to the side walls of the tires which may be of interest to some people and may inform you more when choosing a size. Firstly let me apologies for my terrible MS Paint technical drawings... 

With the 110 section rear the tread curves around at a sharper angle to the side wall while the 120 section remains flatter across most of the tread. What this means is the tread effectively extends further on the 110 and would allow for greater lean angles before the grip runs out. This may be of interest to those looking at using them for motocross or riding faster more sweeping trails where the bike is going to be leaning more through the turns as it is a steeper tire. The flatter 120 section tread allows for a much greater straight line contact patch with more of the tread getting down in the dirt with the bike upright, but it trails off quicker as lean angles increase. So the 120 size might be better suited more to technical terrain where you want that absolute hook up for lifting the front over obstacles and digging in for pivot turns and may even offer greater balance over tight terrain being a slightly flatter profile. Despite only having a 10mm difference (5mm a side) the profile of the tires is notably different looking at them side by side. 

In summation

As I said previously I have limited offroad experience and I was in no way pushing the tires  hard on an MX track or on an extreme enduro loop. But my initial impressions of the MC360's were strong and they certainly supplied me the confidence to try some new things down the trails and were happy enough on the tarmac to satisfy me with their road holding characteristics.  

I even tested them with the cardinal sin of adding throttle as I increased lean angle on the road. The tires reacted as predictably on the hardtop as in the dirt; not dumping traction in one big hit but progressively so you can feel when the rear starts feeling it out a bit. 

In terms of cost for the Metzelers, I sourced mine from Demon Tweeks for £100. The 360s weighed in somewhere in the middle ground for cost alongside hoops like the Dunlop Geomax MX-52s  and Pirelli Scorpions. On the bottom end of the cost scale are the Michelin AC10s being £70 a set and the Metz 6 Days occupying the other end at £120 a set. Of course your local place might be able to get them for less.  

Metzeler photo showing of the block pattern on
the midhard tire. 

My initial impressions are that the Metz MC360s are a very decent tire. It hooks up well even outside of what they're designed to cope with (the midhard is not rated much for very soft mud and though they slid about a bit they did dig in and grip it as well). 

To me they felt stable and predicable which is important for any tire in my opinion, whether you're riding trails or tarmac. No one wants a hoop underneath them that they are unsure of. The front tracked very well over soft mud and roots and the rear hooked up and offered good grip. I can't, at this point of course, speak to the wear of the tires as they are still very new but I may write and update after I've lived with them for a while.

I would recommend them on first impressions based on the cost of a set being what I would consider pretty competitive (I'm used to shoeing my road bike with rubber more than double that cost however, so to me they seem very inexpensive for what they offer). Their characteristics offroad allowed me to enjoy getting down and dirty with them, inspiring much more confidence in me which allowed me to try new things and improve my skills as a novice dirt rider. Riding between lanes was also a pleasure as while they of course feel vague compared to a road tire they had more than enough grip front and rear to feel comfortable on and I look forward to taking them out and getting muddy again. . .