Impressive indeed :eek3:. I can see how the general contact area of the tire increases with the center wearing down, thus lasting longer (possibly exponentially...).

Quite frankly, I'm too chicken to ride down to a "flat" center. Plus, the increased risk of getting punctures.

The most I've gotten comfortably out of a TKC is 4,500 miles (1200GS) at a ratio tarmac/dirt = 80/20. I made it a point not going over 75 mph. Fast acceleration/hard stopping is a non-issue with my riding style. I personally do not go below 1mm tread in the center.

Ditto T-Rex
Best I ever got on my 1200 was a smidge under 6000 riding loaded. IMHO, I just dont think they are a worthwhile investment unless you can afford to keep changing them especially at today's prices- I do not 'ride them down to canvass' as some do in the interest of my own safety.

I now stick (pardon the pun!) to Heidenau's K60 which, IMHO, are a fabulous all rounder travel tyre which suit my needs of 70% tar/bad roads and 30% trail and am looking forward to the new model the K60 Scout next year after the South Africans have tested them! I am told they always get first batch as have the best testing ground.
On the list, it shows that the 90x90x21 will be available - let's hope they also make the 130x80x17 so that I can shoe my old F650GS Dakar!

Heidenau Scout
 

Bertrand, just been looking at mynetmoto.com and they seem to have 19"&21" fronts and 140/80x17 rear but they're all M&S. I've found mynet good to deal with and offer good prices.
The review on the news section says they offer "god handling characteristics".....I'm tempted.

...a point to note
 

hi guys
just a short note..
a lot of the time we just dont have the choice to do anything but run our tyres for this amount of mileage...as we are in parts of the world where it's downright impossible to get any tyres of our size.
however, we did make a deliberate choice of using the TKC80's when we left the UK originally as we had tried and tested many 50/50's in the years prior.
dont ask me what they were now - its too long ago! maybe Simon would remember....

so - as we have to be careful with our tyres as we are not usually spoilt for choice- our hard and fast rule is 'never open up too fast or aggressively when pulling away from a standstill'. as this is what 'eats them'. ...and when you deflate for off-road make sure that you re-inflate immediately when you hit tarmac! dont do those last few tarmac miles on a low psi...!

I'm not sure what exactly makes the difference re our high mileage...but it does seem that we are able to get a lot more miles than our friends riding the TKC's..I m not sure if that is because we are doing a number of things differently or just one..?
its interesting though!

Our 18000km is the same as Lisa's 12000mi...so there's two examples of good mileage on the TKC 80's!

If not serious offroad I would absolutely recommend Avon Gripsters

My two bob's worth
 

I haven't ridden in South America but I have ridden a lot in dirt, gravel, mud in Australia, SEAsia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and now in Europe (yes there are dirt roads even in Switzerland!).

I learnt very quickly that Sand was not an option 2up with luggage so I try to steer clear of soft sand but we did get stuck in bulldust and sand on several occasions and perhaps knobbies like TKC80's would have helped...

On the whole we are very happy with the quality, longevity and reliability of the Metzler Tourances (not EXP!!) standard.

We have for our trips used them and the best milage (or kilometrage) was just over 17,000kms for both front and rear. On Average we get 12,000 kms from the rear and 15 - 17,000kms on front.

Without going into details about our riding style or the terrain, I can say that we were riding approx 70% tarmac and 30% other (mud, gravel, dirt) and the tyres were always reliable with the exception of thick mud. But if you learn to ride and adapt to riding in mud with these tyres or any other tyre for that matter then it's manageable.

I personally can't comment on other tyres but for my riding style I'm very happy and quite confident on the Tourances. So for now, unless I ride in softer surfaces (ie. mud, sand) I will stick with the Tourances.

Although I do really like the look of a GS with TKC80's :thumbup1:

I don't therefore you can't possibly....
 

Tyre threads are a bit like oil threads. No one is actually wrong because everyone is measuring things differently (and interspersing their comments with words like risk of punctures, crashing, danger, feel, grip etc. that they struggle to qualify in a meaningful way).

If a tyre manufacturer puts a wear indicator on their tyres then that is, for highway-legal tyres at least, the point at which a tyre could generally be considered 'finished' in an objective way (we know grip/water displacement can go-off long before then). Lisa has stated 12,000miles, which I imagine to be to the wear markers, and I believe that. A friend and I both had in excess of 10,000miles on our TKC rears (Africa Twins) and although it was not right to the wear indicator, I can't tell you how many more miles it would have done until it reached it. So I won't try.

Most people aren't too keen on the feel of flat-centred tyres but I don't think that is the important bit for overlanders. I want to know -> from a given sample of other overlanders, how far did that make of tyre get them on a bike that I can reasonably extrapolate to my bike/conditions.

I'm not saying that all tyres have these markers or that mileages on tyres should be a competition but I feel we owe to our fellow travellers to try to give information that we can qualify or make it clear otherwise.