Tubeless Battlewings for Latin America?
 

I have tubeless Battlewings on my F650GS twin and I'm planning a year-long trip from New Orleans down through all of Latin America. Will these be useless or just less-than-ideal in rough conditions, Bolivia for example?

Thanks for any thoughts!

One simple thing that expands the type of terrain that a bike can handle is to run a 50/50 tire on the front (eg. TKC80). Almost the same performance on highway, but big improvement off highway, even for short sections. You may want to consider putting one on at some point in your trip.

For the rear, it's lots of highway miles so a 90/10 tire such as the Battlewings are good from a wear perspective. Might be a bit limiting if you really want to go off road but if you stick to the main route (and you don't venture onto mud), you can usually get by fine.

If you are really planning on venturing off road, one option is to get a long wearing knobbie rear tire such as a Heindenau K60 which will be fine with long highway miles and pretty good for any off highway riding if you decide to venture out.

Some folks don't like the Battlewings as a model and prefer other 90/10 tires such as a Tourance or Anakee but many find them fine especialy if you are logging straight highway miles to get south. Have a great trip.

Thanks so much for that clear reply MountainMan. I'm guessing that I might well be looking at new tires by the time I meander as far as Colombia, and by then I'll probably have a better idea of the kind of routes I will be on.

Do you suppose I will have much trouble finding Heindenau K60's or TKC80's and the like in South America?

Thanks