Tyre Choice
 

Our trip starts in December 2010 from Buenos Aires down to Ushuaia and back up the west coast through Central America to the US. We are on R1200ADV.

We have spent much time debating which tyres to start out on, that would be suitable for the terrain in the southern section of the route and have narrowed it down to the following

Tourance - good mileage but more slippery on the loose stuff

TKC - lesser mileage than the above but better grip

Heidenau K60 - no experience of this tyre but seem highly recommended for their longevity with a grip somewhere between the Tourance and TKC.

What would member who have travelled these roads recommend?

Also look at the Michelin Dual Sport options. Can't recall the model code, though.

If I recall, Michelin are produced in Brazil and so are popular in the Mercosur trading nations of South America. As such, they are widely available and cheaper than getting specially imported tyres such as the Continentals (not officially imported so $$$ to buy in South America).

That way tyres are cheaper to replace and you won't find you need to run mismatched rubber.

However, I also remember that bigger bike sizes are not so readily available so when you start running low on tread, locate and phone suppliers in the major towns ahead and make sure they have the sizes you need, or can order them for your arrival.

If you are set on the Heidenau or TKC, I'd say take the K60s: miles per $ seems to be very good.

We start the same trip in October and based on much research, I will be throwing on some Heidenau K60s (also known as MEFO explorers in the US).

I predict having to change tyres somewhere in south/central Chile.

Have fun out there and maybe we'll see you if you catch us up!

BTW, Have a look at this page (which is located right down the bottom of the HUBB home page)

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...south-america/

Mostly these are details of garages and repair shops, but also loads of entries for tyre and parts shops. It gives me some reassurance to know where the next garage or source of parts is likely to be.

I have written down the details of these garages into a small notebook I'm taking with me (and by notebook I mean actual old school paper book. If you are technologically savvy you could input them into a GPS!)

Hey Martin,

I'd go with a K60 based on the fact that it is always hard to estimate how much gravel riding a person will actually do before the trip happens. You will be two up and on a big bike so I would guess that like most overlanders you would seek out as much pavement as possible but it would be good to have the flexibility to go on gravel roads and enjoy the additional traction that a knobbie tire would afford.

I took the lazy way out and rode down with a Tourance on and carried a TKC and then swapped in TDF to ride up on the 40. There is less gravel every year so you could probably ride it with the Tourance but in a few spots it is nice to have a knobbie. I used the K60 recently in Africa, not tons of miles but it seemed to me to be an excellent compromise between the two choices. Safe ride.

Really the front tire is most important off road. The Big GS ridden two up will benefit with a TKC up front going off road. You could run a Tourance rear but why? Could limit your exploring to paved roads only. And Mud? :(

Mount up TKC's front and rear to start ... and bring along a spare TKC rear from home, strap it on the back. The front TKC is likely to last 8K to 10K miles. The rear will probably get you 5000 miles if you take it easy? Maybe further? :mchappy: Some have made it 10,000 on a rear TKC ... but tire did not look safe at all at that point.

I've ridden Mefo's. (on KLR's, DR650 and F650 Dakar) Do they even come in GS sizes? They are OK on hard pack dirt and good on highway, but not much control in looser stuff or mud. It's really the front tire your life depends on. Mefo's seem to last really well. For light off road and mostly pavement, they'd be good ... if made in GS size.

The TKC, IMHO, with it's bigger knobs, provides more stability, tracks straighter, turns, and brakes better in loose stuff than 50/50 tires. TKC is a really good big bike tire off road, IMO. Pretty good in deep gravel, sand and mud. (mud is always Hard)
How's that Tourance gonna work in mud? :confused1:
(Oh, no worries, it only rains about 50 inches a year in TDF! :smartass: )

But to me, the most amazing thing about the TKC's is just how well they work on pavement. When new you'll think you've screwed the pooch. They are weird at first. But after a few hundred miles things fall into place and they just seem to get better and better. I'm a big fan of these tires. (do take it easy with them on wet pavement! Not as good as Tourance there) To make them last, keep highway speeds under 65 mph. Helps a lot.

I recently rode a Vstrom with TKC's in the dirt and on pavement. Transformed the Strom off road and really not too bad on the road either.
I've ridden several GS's with TKC's on. Works like they are made for the bike. My DR650 has them (on my 2nd set of wheels (for off road)) really amazing tires, IMHO.

tyre
 

I rode from Uk to Thailand on Metzler tourance. I rode on all kinds of surface.

asphalt ,gravel,sand,water basically on everything and in my opinion its the best allround tyres to use on shifting surfaces. Not a single puncture on the entire trip, and I rode pretty tought streches with a 1200gs.

I changed them in Chang mai to a set of used TKC 80, as the front was out of thread as it was the only tyres BMW in Chagmai had in the shop(they were used)

The tkc was very good even on asphalt , very little road noise . Metzler karoos are very noisy on asphalt ....

The run south from BA is mostly paved, save for some excursions to say Punto Tombo, and the Chilean part of Tierra Del Fuego. North along the Andes is a different story!

We ran TKC 80's riding single on KLR's from BA south to Ushuaia, and then north as far as El Salvador before switching the rears out for Michelin Anakee's - that was about 18,000km. The fronts made it all the way home to Toronto (in bad shape though!) - 24,000km.

The TKC's were brilliant in the loose gravel, mud and dirt, a bit dodgy above 120kmh on the pavement early on until the tread was worn a bit.

The Anakees were great on the pavement, but we felt we gave up a LOT on the dirt.

Suerte!