Hi Mac,

I don't know what tyres you have looked at yet. There is a only small selection out there due to the wheel sizes. I'm trying to avoid out and out knobblies. I don't think the bike will like them and neither will I although I read in another forum that one BMW ( not an R80 either!) owner had that problem and cured it by shaving off a little rubber from the knobbles ( or knobbs or knobblies whatever!).
I suppose it can be done but it raises a few issues that I don't want to get into right now if there is an alternative.

What I have been doing lately , is reading up on certain tyres generally. Then , if I think they look promising, I go to the manufacturers site and check out the sizes. More often than not, the good ones are only available for 21" fronts and 17" rears. ( Or some other non compatible size) Dratt!
I've established what the alternative sizes are for the bike so its just a question of trawling through all the suppliers lists and see what I can get that fits.

Since I intend going across Russia, I had thought about buying tyres somewhere along the route. ( I will be mailing a spare set of road tyres to Korea for the highway touring bit of the trip)
A company called MITAS ( an amalgamation of Michelin and Veritas) manufacture a huge selection of off road tyres in Praque or thereabouts. There appeared to be dozens of compatible sizes and offroad styles from mild to totally mad.
I read about some RTW guys who have used them and are quite complementary about the performance and mileage when compared to some of the Top Shelf tyres we are always hearing about from the RTW riders. These guys were doing much more offroading and in more difficult terrain than me and my R80 will attempt. I am in the process of checking them out but I am still hopefull that I will find something more widely available.

On the up side ( for me) is that I just won a pair of original alloy R80 wheels, fitted with Metzelers, on ebay. The wheels have still got the original paint on them and look fantastic compared to mine which have had years of quick sprays or hand painted silver to keep them from looking really cruddy. Best bit is I got 'em for less than £50 delivered. ( Happy Chappie!)

The significance of that is, I now have a spare set of wheels which will make it a lot easier to mess about a bit with tyres whilst keeping the bike on the road.

I'm currently working on a web page where I will post all the fine detail, piccies and techie stuff that I am researching ( Including mapping, gps, kit etc.) hopefully, with some answers and solutions. I will also be posting articles and piccies of and about R80/7's. ( maybe R90/R100 and other Airheads.)
If you would like to contribute a pennies worth , piccies, articles whatever, please let me know! (Tech tips wanted!)
I'll send you the link when it's up ( very soon!) Also, if you would like some links to all the tyre manufacturers sites that I have found, let me know, I can post them here until the web page is up.
If you have any queries or further questions, please feel free to ask.
Thanks for taking the time to reply!
Ian

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