80/20 or 90/10 tyres for 1990 Suzuki DR800
 

Hi everyone,

Been riding the SR42 a fair bit and as it goes fairly well, been pushing fairly hard at times. A fair bit of that is tarmac, too and from the farm and country roads. Not enough gravel, certainly not as much as I had planned.

So I was not suprised when I checked the rear tyre today, a Mitas E07 and saw cracks on the bottom of the knobs all way around and so I need to replace it. Based on the last year, I can't see myself doing much more gravel and perhaps when I know I will, I will just by a second set of tyres and put them on when I need them.

The question is, what do you think is the best tyre for a 90 road/10 off road situation for the Big. That is to say, maily on the road, but some gravel road from time to time. Just down from the main house to the cattle yards, some back roads, that sort of thing. Happy to just take it slow when that occurs.

Some other details you may need to know:

Stock rear shock, with preload set to about 1/3 up the thread.

Stock front suspension, including fresh fork oil.

I weigh about 95 kilos (finally lost a bit of weight!) and often carry about 5 kilos worth of tools in a bag on the rear rack. Overkill, but these are needed for the work I do on the farm.

DR800 weighs 200 kilograms dry. 29 litres fuel, 3.4 litres oil.

Prefer to end up with a matching front and rear set for on road and a separate front and rear for off road. Quite happy to change tyres and balance them myself, no problem.

Tyre sizes Front: 90/90-21 54S. Rear: 130/80-17 65S

Will cross post on other forums as well as I'm very keen to see a range of thoughts.

Thanks

Shane