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Equipping the Bike - what's the best gear? Anything to do with the bikes equipment, saddlebags, etc. Questions on repairs and maintenance of the bike itself belong in the Brand Specific Tech Forums.
Photo by George Guille, It's going to be a long 300km... Bolivian Amazon

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by George Guille
It's going to be a long 300km...
Bolivian Amazon



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  #1  
Old 2 Nov 2008
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Longest life tyres
Hi I have looked through many tyre reports, mostly people say that the tourance are the 'best' but which last the longest? Im not talking about TKC's or other knobbies, just road tyres. I will be on Tar almost the whole time, and I don't see that pure road tyres are any worse on the type of dirt roads that you atempt with non-knobbies than tourance's.

Thanks George
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  #2  
Old 2 Nov 2008
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Possibly mich marathons ?

The tourances are a tought tyre .. as in allmost ride flat tye .. I think you'd not get many flats with them .. they have a very stiff and strong carcase and they also last a long time ..
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  #3  
Old 3 Nov 2008
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I've seen ME88's go 20,000 miles.
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Last edited by mollydog; 26 Mar 2009 at 19:58.
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  #4  
Old 3 Nov 2008
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don't go for bridgestone bt45 rear has done 3000-3500 miles at about 36psi on my kle and only has about 1mm of tread left before the legal limit of 1mm whether this last 1mm will wear slower because of the slight flat on it i don't know

edit: they give alot of grip but not enough to make up for the wear rate, also it may have been part of a bad batch which had softer compounds as my mate has had 2 set of these on his last 2 bikes and they have barely worn
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  #5  
Old 4 Nov 2008
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Mitas Explorers
I got a pretty huge mileage out of my Mitas Explorer tyres. Rode from Kualar Lumpur but changed the tyre in Iran somwhere. Had a couple of punctures which turned out to be just my own inner tube patches failing again and not nails etc. Still had a fair bit of tread left so think they would have got me most of the way home.
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  #6  
Old 4 Nov 2008
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I liked BT45's on my TDM and usually got 8k from a rear and about 12k from the front. Great grip in the wet.

The old pattern tourance was a good distance tyre is the new pattern just as good?
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  #7  
Old 4 Nov 2008
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Hi Guys thanks thats just what I was after. I ride a Africa twin, 90 90 21". 130 80 17" or basically anything 21 and 17 that lasts along time, the ME88's sound just the job. I will look in to them. I am riding UK down to Oz would like to do it on one set, maybe carry a rear with me half way.

Thanks again George
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  #8  
Old 4 Nov 2008
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We went Europe-Sydney 2up on Vstrom650, changed first set of Michelin Anakees in Greece (and got another set to carry) then changed again in Bangkok, some 14000kms later, and there was still life left in them, so carried used ones from there. The next set was finished in Australia, after about 16000kms, and only 2000 before Sydney, so while we were out of money, actually put the used ones back on, and even though they were destroyed after that, they got us there. 2 sets of Anakees-> ~32.000kms. Also seemed to wear at about the same pace front and rear, which was a bit surprising, but nice. I used 0,2-0,5 bar higher pressures than recommended.

Pretty good grip also dry/wet, not far behind the ME Z6 I had before. Didnt do much offroading with Anakees, I dont think they´d excel. And zero punctures during the whole trip, so they are tough. I rate them about just as high as ME Tourances.
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  #9  
Old 5 Nov 2008
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The Metzler Tourance is the only tire i ever had, where the rear lasts longer than the front. I would only go for the rear again.
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  #10  
Old 6 Nov 2008
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Tourances
We get about 25,000 km out of a set of Tourances, with both front and rear wearing at the same rate. That's on an F650GS and an R100GS.

My Dad runs ME88's on his R100RT but only gets 10 to 15,000 km out of them. It may be that there are different versions of the ME88s in different sizes because I too have heard that the ME88s last a long time (on the order of 30,000 km). YMMV!
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Old 6 Nov 2008
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There are two touring tires made by Metzeler.
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Last edited by mollydog; 26 Mar 2009 at 19:58.
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  #12  
Old 7 Nov 2008
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Normally I get about 30000km out of Mitas E07 on my DR650SE, front and rear.
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  #13  
Old 7 Nov 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by noebelino View Post
The Metzler Tourance is the only tire i ever had, where the rear lasts longer than the front. I would only go for the rear again.
same experience here on a XT600.
Rear: ~20.000km
Front: ~17.000km
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  #14  
Old 7 Nov 2008
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Pirelli MT??
Last one I had on the F650 I calculated would have lasted 25000 miles. The reason seems to be they are cast from iron like railway wheels and have similar grip properties on wet roads

Andy
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