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Photo by George Guille, It's going to be a long 300km... Bolivian Amazon

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by George Guille
It's going to be a long 300km...
Bolivian Amazon



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  #1  
Old 1 Dec 2015
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Tyres.
I am sure this topic has come up many times before but here we go. Tyres for my dr650se. I am going across the Pyrenees on my Dr next year, i will be mostly riding on the black stuff but want to go off road as much as possible.I think the off road stuff will be gravel mostly but nothing that technical, so mud plugers are not required. Can anybody sugest the best tyre options that are available in the UK.
Cheers.
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Old 2 Dec 2015
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Theres a whole heap of tyres that will work well on the DR for doing that trip.

Including:

-Michelin Sirac,
-Dunlop Trailmax
-The new Conti TKC 70
-Metzeler Tourance
-Pirelli MT90 Trail
-Pirelli MT60
-Avon Gripster
-Hiedenau K60

In South America I used an MT60 front with an MT90 rear, which was a good combination for grip and wear, all of the rental bike companies use MT60's down there as they are a bit more aggressive than the MT90, but unless you hit lots of mud the MT90 rear lasts a lot longer and gives a smoother ride.
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Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca
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  #3  
Old 2 Dec 2015
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sheff View Post
I am sure this topic has come up many times before but here we go. Tyres for my dr650se. I am going across the Pyrenees on my Dr next year, i will be mostly riding on the black stuff but want to go off road as much as possible.I think the off road stuff will be gravel mostly but nothing that technical, so mud plugers are not required. Can anybody sugest the best tyre options that are available in the UK.
Cheers.
Can you guys get hold of Shinko or Kenda tires in the UK? We buy them here because they're a lot cheaper than Metzeler, Michelin and Conti ... yet work as well and last well too. Win Win.

Gipper's list is good ... all good tires.
More 50/50 tires I would add (if available in UK) are:
Shinko 244 $ (great 50/50 rear tire, $60 USD here ... rear goes 4-5K miles)
Kenda 270 $ (another good 50/50 rear tire, $60 USD, 5 to 6K miles)
Avon Distanzia $$$$ (mainly road tires like Tourance and MT90, tough, both front & rear good)
Conti TKC 80 $$$$ (a great front tire for gravel and even mud ... and work fantastic on paved roads. 7 to 8K miles ... downside? Expensive)

Pyrenees is great riding. I rode it on two big trips years ago. I was on my Triumph Tiger. I saw lots cool dirt tracks around Andorra ... would have been fun on my DR650 ... but Tiger did well on pavement.

I would ride road tires down from UK to Pryenees, then buy a TKC80 front once in Andorra which has FANTASTIC bike shops. (great on gravel and everything) Need to buy gear? Andorra is 1/2 price of UK with more variety and more Euro brands.

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Old 2 Dec 2015
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I had the Metzler Enduro 3 Sahara fitted on my XT600E which I found were ok, but they they were on the bike when I bought it so I can not comment on wear and life
For my Balkans trip I fitted the Heidenau Scout K60, I have the normal K60 on the front and the K60 Scout on the rear, both are wearing really well, I have done a mix of Black stuff and off road. The tyres have performed well on both and are lasting good, I have done 4000 mile on them now. I don't think there is that much road noise from them. But my last leg will be on the German autobahn from Dresden to Zeebrugge and pushed for time so I will find out more about the road noise then. IMHO they are fit for purpose and were a good choice

Wayne
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Old 7 Dec 2015
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Location: Taos, New Mexico USA
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Tyres
I just ran through a set of Kenda 270's riding from the US to Peru and liked the rear but not the front. The front tire did well off road but took about 1000 miles to break in on asphalt, very squirrely. The front also developed an unusual wear pattern. I had to replace it before the rear. Now I have a Michelan front that is nice on pavement but I haven't had a chance to check it out on dirt yet.
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Old 7 Dec 2015
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I rode my DRZ 400 down to Spain, played on the trails for a week then rode back on a pair of Meffo Explorers purchased from Gabe at Zen Overland. They were superb on the road (wet or dry) and OK on the trails. They probably have enough left on them to do the same trip again.

The next year, I did the same trip on MT21s. They were OK on the road, better on the trails but the front was fcuked by the time I got back and the rear was squared off.
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