knobbly tyre choice?
 

i'm running 2002 AT. at the moment i'm using michelin annekee back and front which i find great on road. the problem that i have is i want to start going off the highway a bit. any recommendations for a chunky tyre that will LAST on the road and give me grip off road in not too bad conditions mainly green laning sort of stuff. i realise i'll loose some grip on the road but i'm calm with that.:helpsmilie:

KNobbly tyres
 

I just recently fitted a set of Continental TKC80's to my @. So far I have had no problems with them. The only hairy moment was on wet cobble stones, but I ws expecting that. No hard and fast info on wear except that as expected the rear is wearing quicker than the front, I reckon I should get about 7000 miles from the rear but that is just guess work. They do make a big difference off-road.

Your only choice for some endurance will be the TKC80.

TKC80s - Luuurve them!
 

My favourite tyre!
I had them on my Domminator for a trip over to Eastern Europe. Love them!
I had forgotten about the wet cobblestones, which were definitely entertaining (eek!)... and granite roads get interesting in the rain. Otherwise - love em love em!

They wore well on my bike (Dommies are a bit lighter than ATs though) - given it was 99% tarmac riding, I was impressed with just over 6000miles out of the rear (fully loaded), and the front has been donated to a friend for more fun (I had to match front with back when I bought new tyres - so boring that way LOL).
Now before you say - 'why did you fit knobblies for a road trip?' - well, I had expected to be offroad much more, so was happily ready for it. But plans and routes changed, so I didn't end up getting too muddy. Next time.

Those tyres will get you out of most tricky spots.

TKC80s: Boo-Hiss!
 

Personally wouldn't buy another set. Had two rear tyre failures, both on the highway at high speed, long before the tyre had worn out. The 'knobbles' cracked around the edge, eventually one would break through the body of the tyre, ripping open the inner tube. Not being able to judge when a tyre is about to fail gives me the willies.
I'm going to try Pirelli MT-21s next for knobblies. They may not last too long but I'm hoping they won't suffer catastrophic failures like the TKCs. At the end of the day I think you may have to get knobbly OR hard wearing tyres. Not sure if the two things are compatible.

Matt :)

The TKC 80's are speed rated for 150Kmph which is 93 mph. They also have a load weighting which I can't remember and I can't go out to the bike to find out because some scumbags stole it today.

Sorry for moaning but I need to get it off my chest.

Years ago we used dunlop universal tyres. These I think would still be useful as they worked well on and off(macadam)road. The flat centre gives good grip on fast roads whilst vertical and it is difficult to have much lean anywhere on motor ways. the chunky corner tread had good grip offroad. This design can still be had for older bikes although now in perhaps better materials. Mostly from far east sources ( chen shin??) Do not know if you can get them for the AT. ( I have heard reports of rider getting good mileage with these )

sorry
 

sorry to hear that. had my rd-04 stolen in october and never seen it since. only good thing to come out of it is that i have rd-07 now but caught someone trying to steal it (boxing day)4 days after i bought it. let me go he said it's christmas! cheeky c**t! so he found out about boxing day before i called the police. hope you find yours. back to original subject- anyone else had bad luck with these tkc-80's?

Heidenau K60
 

I've chosen Heidenau K60s after reading loads of articles across many web sites. They appear to be rated as a genuine 50/50 tyre by some of the American riders. I talked to someone at the Ripley meeting last week who also had them fitted, he thought they were the DBs. One tip he gave me was to fit the front on round the wrong way, apparently this gives almost as much grip, but much more milage on tarmac.

Much used in eastern europe I'm told, where the roads are not as good as ours, but that could be due to availability. At just under 50quid each they look good value, I'll let you know after my 1000km along the Labrador Highway - a fancy name for a gravel track!!! I plan to swop the rear at the start of my 'dirty' sections, and go back to the Metzler Lazers for the 10,000km of prairie black top.

thanks
 

thanks everybody for your info:thumbup1: . might have a go at them continentals

Kevin

I've used TKC 80's on and off road on a KTM 950 Adventure and am very pleased with them. The sizes i used were speed rated upto 105 mph. They feel very nervous when you first fit them after road tyres but once used to them after a few hundred miles they're surprisingly good on road and last reasonably well on a big heavy bike. No problems with the knobblies breaking, mine was a 150 rear.

A mate with a KTM 640 uses the 140 on the rear, no problems.

Another mate used the recommended 110 or 120 size on the rear of a Honda XR650R (possibly the same size as Mat who looking at his profile rides an XT) and that ripped off several knobbles in the Alps. He has now changed to a 140 rear and has had no further problems.

I use MT21's on my 650 as well, better off road, but not as good on road as TKC 80's

Interesting, yes mine were 120s. I wonder if there is something wrong with this specific size of tyre?

A mate who had TKC80s on his F650 (till it also got nicked :( ) wore them right down without problems, although he rarely rode as loaded up as me.

Matt

140
 

i run an AT with a 140 rear and hopefully wont have any problems with them. will be putting them on in august to get used to before doing morroco in late september/early oct. will be doing a month two'd up and loaded so fingers crossed.:mchappy:

TKC 80 - great mileage
 

I have driven 18-20K km. on them. Fantastic, as long as it isn's real sand or mud.

Martijn

Reassuringly expensive...
 

Sounds good to me - I've always been a fan of Pirelli MT21's for dry dual-sport riding on my XR400, and reckon on 3000-4000 miles for a rear (if you don't spend too much time shredding them on sharp rocks etc.) - especially as I've found they have good on-road manners too - but then the XR400 is a very light bike in comparison to an AT of course... I'd say they offer plenty of grip on road (in the dry at least), while the rounded shoulders help cornering and the ride is smooth in comparison to full-on knobblies...

However, I'm about to buy an XR650R for more distance work, and was planning on giving the TKC80's a try for the reasons outlined above - seems like they should last a lot longer on tarmac, and still be sound in dry dusty/desert conditions?

xxx

If you're looking for a long life knobbly try a Michelin Desert. I've been getting about twice the mileage from them compared to MT21's on my XR600 and now a CCM600.
They do cost twice as much as the MT21's so the cost per mile is about the same and all you're saving is the extra tyre change but on a long trip that matters.
The down side is they whine much louder than the MT's and don't have the MT's wet grip but much tougher construction means less likelyhood of damage when running low pressures

tried tkc
 

i tried a set of tkc's on the AT during my trip recently and only got about 3000 miles out of my rear! front is still great!do they come in different compound's? maybe i had a soft compound? i was fully luggaged and 2'd up with some off roading involved but was really dissapointed in the mileage! maybe try something else next time. :mchappy:

Pirelli Knobs
 

I'm with Matt and JMo. The Pirelli RallyCross is great in the soft stuff and smooth (and long-lasting) on the pavement. Went over 10,000 km http://www.freewebs,com/shanperu/ on them, much on pavement and the rear was only 1/2 used at the end of the trip.:clap:

Toby

Ah, thisold chesnut!
 

Well, I bought that XR650R, and did 6500 miles in the USA, pretty much equally spread on TKC80's initally, then Pirelli MT21's (both 140 rears)...

The TKC's were great in the dry dusty dirt road conditions of Nevada and California, and up into Oregon -plenty of highish speed (60-75mph) highway use too. The rear was totally bald by 3200 miles however, although that was after plenty of off-tarmac/gravel road use, followed by a blast down highway 101.

I swapped them for a pair of MT21's and ended up with much the same wear (I guess rough roads are always going to shred tyres, and especially on a big single with no cush drive), and in dry conditions no discernable difference in grip, although I actually preferred the front TKC in loose gravel on top of a hardpack surface, the MT21 would occassional feel as if it was about to let go, athough it never did.

However, the TKC's (front particularly) did start to vibrate as they wore down which was irritating at highway speeds. Typically every other knobble on the front of both tyres wore unevenly, although the front MT21 didn't vibrate so much despite looking like a cog after 3000 miles.

In summary, for a big(ger) bike in primarily dry dual-sport conditions, I'd happily recommmend both and buy them again, athough don't expect either to last much more than 3000 miles of combined on and off-road riding.

Hope that helps...

JennyMo xxx

try again
 

trying out a set of karoo's at the moment but i've done only 1300 miles and it aint looking good! this is on my own without luggage! about half left/gone already and they're very noisy. good handling in the dry i find but like the others dodgy in the wet. what to try next:confused1: