This year Michelin presented spectacular new tires for MotoE, visually with a very different appearance from the rubber usually used. As soon as they appeared, the MotoGP riders expressed to the French manufacturer their desire to have the same one in the premier category of the MotoGP…
What is it about? Some answers
Last year, Michelin used tires containing a good percentage of more renewable and recycled materials in MotoE: 52% on the front and 34% on the rear. Michelin considers organic or recycled elements, which are neutral to the environment, as renewable and recycled materials. Examples include latex, orange and lemon peels, sunflower oil, pine resin, as well as rubber and recycled metal in the composition of these tires. The research is not limited to the MotoE category: for example Michelin knows how to transform rice husk into silica for the Hypercars participating in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the hydrogen-electric prototype – LMPH2G MissionH24 Green GT uses tires more than 63% renewable and recycled.
Like all the championships it is involved in, Michelin uses MotoE as a test laboratory for its future technologies. The goal is to be able to integrate them partially or entirely into the next generations of racing or mass-produced tyres. Michelin thus intends to develop tires that are increasingly durable and affordable for everyone, without forgetting the spectacular and cutting-edge side of the technologies put on the track.
This ecological approach of the men from Clermont-Ferrand, however, has not had the media coverage it deserves, getting lost between sporting results and news from other categories.
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Bidendum [in Italia l’Omino Michelin, ndr] he therefore decided to take the knife between his teeth, or rather the awl in the mold, to modify the visual appearance of his tires to make his expertise known. Undoubtedly several solutions were considered to draw attention to this approach, including abandoning the emblematic black color of the tires, but in the end the choice fell on a “velvet-looking” design reminiscent of organic cells choices.
And it’s a success: the eye is attracted by these pleasant designs, even the finger…
Let’s be honest, velvet patterns only have the name, and not the softness. In reality the sensation to the touch is different, slightly grainier. But this is not the important thing: the communication operation is a success and has already aroused a lot of envy in MotoGP.
In 2024 MotoE tires contain 53% renewable and recycled materials in the rear and 49% in the front. In 2022, the proportions were 40% rear and 33% front. The goal is to reach 100% in 2050. “We’ll get there,” Piero Taramasso, head of Michelin’s two-wheel competition, told us at Le Mans.
But how long does this Michelin design last?
“Two towers” was the response obtained in the Sarthe.
This is enough to calm the ardor of those who would have wanted to equip their road bike with this rubber. Unless Michelin turns these ephemerally designed slick tires into road tires with the same designed grooves…
