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Photo by Daniel Rintz, Himba children, Namibia

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Photo by Daniel Rintz,
Himba children, Namibia



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  #1  
Old 20 Jan 2006
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Michelin Desert DANGER

THIS IS A GRAVE WARNING FOR ANYONE FITTING MICHELIN DESERT TIRES.

WHEN ON TAR YOU SHOULD NOT ECCEED SPEEDS OF 130KM/H.
THESE TIRES ARE VERY UNSTABLE AT HIGH SPEEDS ON TAR OR ASPHALT.
I would presume that this could be the same case for other makes of knoblie tires.


[This message has been edited by gsworkshop (edited 20 January 2006).]
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Old 20 Jan 2006
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I have a Bridgestone Gritter..Ohh thats a nice name..on the back of the G/S at the moment. It seems to bring on a nice weave over 110kph..amazingly the bike still goes that fast! MT21 Pirelli was much more stable on tar and reasonably grippy.

They are knobbies though and those little knobbs dont give much tyre road contact compared to road biased tyres. So I expect this movement at speed on the bitumen. Helps with burnouts though!

Knobs are in a different league in the dirt though....I am pretty sure my G/S wont make it to 130kph as at 110kph the speedo indicates 160...wwoooorrrr. Must be that german precision.
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Old 21 Jan 2006
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Well, although I have never used Desert, aren't they wearing off extremely quickly on hard surface anyway? So the wobbly risk should quickly be replaced by the blowup risk!

Stay on the sand at 50km/h!
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Old 21 Jan 2006
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Phillipe its 60kms to the dirt from home and I am to lazy to change the tyre. Knobby tyres are also cheap. But yes they dont last to long on the road. MT21 seems to hold up well though. Its probably made from brazillian nylon.
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Old 21 Jan 2006
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Thats correct!
Desert tires are very nasty on asphalt roads!
I couldn´t ride 130 at all.The aft of my PD was shaking like sh......
But with MT 21 140 km/h is posible,and very stable.Noisy but good tire.
KH

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Old 27 Jan 2006
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The Deserts are excellent at gripping in the dirt and they are very durable in heat, sand, stones etc. They give about 6000km of wear when used mostly on tarmac.
I do not want to suggest not using them, I just want to warn people about the danger of using them on tarmac at higher speeds. The problem seem to be caused by the front tire more than the rear.
I have a client that came of his bike at about 130 to 140km/h on a straigt as an arrow Namibian road and ended up in hospital with broken ribs and collarbone, and a punctured lung.
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