Last Saturday evening during the V-Twin Expo, as pre-announced here by marketing director Chris Wall, Metzeler introduced the ME888 MARATHON ULTRA. Metzeler, whose emphasis is on quality and performance, is fully committed to the V-Twin segment, including customs, vintage and touring, as epitomized in the Metzeler ME880 Marathon tire and its position as an industry leader.
The brand new model, the ME888 Marathon Ultra (called the triple 8) is a very high-mileage tire with increased wet and dry performance, with the company offering a quality ride guarantee for the life of the tire.
As opposed to rushing the market with a tire that called for compromise, we took the time to engineer a high mileage tire while maintaining all of the characteristics that make a Metzeler tire” pointed out Chris Wall, Metzeler Director of Marketing and Key Accounts. “We fine-tuned all the features that made the ME880 such a success and then focused on a significant mileage improvement.”
With an emphasis on mileage improvement through reduced structural fatigue and better wear uniformity, the Triple 8 employs a ply line with a more distributed and wider geometry than conventional tires. This allows for any added stress to be dissipated towards the sidewall without causing additional fatigue on the contact patch. Additionally, an improved tread pattern design with compound bridges aims to increase stiffness underfoot, which in turn prevents stress transmission from the tread to the belts and carcass plies. The tread also features a variable width tread groove which maximizes the channeling of water in extreme weather conditions.
The Triple 8’s contact patch is 15 percent wider than the ME880, making the Triple 8 better suited to distribute force necessary to transfer engine torque on the ground. This results in reduced overheating of the tire’s surface often experienced with slippage under hard acceleration. Product characteristics of the Triple 8 include newly processed compounds, updated structure and an innovative tread pattern design. All of this resulting in increased mileage while maintaining the ME880’s trademark philosophy of stability, handling, traction and safety in wet conditions.
The ME888 will be available beginning during the 1st quarter 2013 to fit today’s popular Harley-Davidson® motorcycles, including the new FL Touring, Softail and Sportster models. For more information on this new tire and the full line, visit Metzeler Moto.
Should be a good tire…. They had over a year to copy AVON’s Cobra tire. I’ll stick to Avon, thanks. They’re the true innovators.
“Very high mileage”
Too bad they fit only HD.
Based on your website there are very few tire sizes to choose from! Was hoping for wide white walls and a front 21 120 for the 3.5 inch rims that everyone runs today
All tires are a compromise. High mileage usually means a harder compound or a deeper less corrugated tread. I’ll take high traction over high mileage any day. On a cost per mile basis, the difference is usually negligible.
Nothing I’ve tried compares to my 3k mile Venoms (so what if that’s all I get out of them)
2500 in the rear and and 5000 on the front and that is with the best of the best with Stock 140 and 120 in the Front..
Will wait to see if they come out with more sizes
and applications for Victory and Metrics
Even if they made a tire big enough to fit my Triumph Thundebird (which they don’t ), I doubt I would buy them because of the silly “V-Twin” logo.
Way to limit your market, Metzeler.