Tyre choice UK Bike
 

Hi,

It's time to change my front tyre on my Year 2000 XT600e owing to excessive wear. With a European road trip coming up I am looking to change both for more road bias. I need suggestions for a suitable pair that are available from UK suppliers.
Front rim is standard 21inch, rear rim is Excel 18 inch.
I ride mainly on minor roads, occasionally motorways and duels and very rarely farm tracks. No mud plugging though.
All suggestions/recommendations welcome.

Thanks

Charlie.

You could of mentioned what bike it is but never mind... For mainly road work , i don't think you can beat Michellin Anakees or Tourances.

Ted

Doh!

You are so right Ted, I should have stated Yr 2000 XT600e.

Rushing, always rushing!

You of course knew this from our previous correspondence, but others would not.

Thanks for the response.

Charlie

If you are just going to riding on tarmac I cannot recommend Avon Road Riders enough.

I put these on my bike and they totally transformed the handling and ride of the bike.

You won't regret chosing these tyres!!!

I would very much recommend Avon Distanzias for road use. Impeccable manners in the wet and grip like glue in the dry. Wear really well too.

hear hear..!
 

Hear hear on the Distenzias..!

I like the look of the Avon Distenzias and they are available for both rim sizes from a local supplier. thanks all. Although if you read my 'using your hand as an auxillary brake' post you will see that there is no longer any uegency for me to pick up a pair.

I have put Michelin SIRAC's on both my XT's and I'm very happy with the outcome. They look quite agricultural which is a good look (in my opinion). Good on tarmac and acceptable on light trails.

If you want a more road biased tyre then the Metzeler Tourance's gets good reviews.

For allrounders, Avon Gripsters are better than distanzias IMHO. They have just started making them again, so ask your local tyre lads....the grip on greasy/wet roads as well the dry is good and progressive grip.....I lost the Distanzias as they were old and cracking on the walls, but they were dangerous on the limit, and wouldn't give me a warning before they would slide.....

If you are ONLY riding on the road, look at the Bridgestone BT45's, they were superb on my old transalp, and have a harder compound in the middle, good mileage and again, grip in the wet/greasy roads from them is superb....I could never get it to spin in an extreme downpour on the back!

If you are doing the odd green laning and local riding , odd long journey (the tyre growl will do your head in after a while) it has to be Continental TKC80's , superb grip from nobbly's and great all year round even in snow....

That is my tips for tyres

On my DRZ, distanzias were TERRIBLE.. Really slipperly in the wet and wore irregularly.

Maybe they're better on heavier bikes but I doubt it.

hi there i fitted distansias on my 1985 43f about 6 months ago and im not too keen on them ,twitchy in the dry and a little slippy with no feed back in the wet . the avon website says 33 PSI front 36 PSI rear , what pressures are you guys running yours at , ive lowered them slighty with a bit of inprovement . i used to have continental tkc 80,s ,these i found much better , and all my ridding is on the road , i thought the distansias would be much better than the tkc 80s . zigzag

I run mine 30 at the front, 32 at the rear on my TTR600 and have never had a problem. 36 cold at the back sounds a bit high to me.

hi thanks paul for your reply, yesterday i tryed 30/32 then read your reply i will try this for a few days as your bike runs ok , again thanks for conferming my thoughts that 33/36 was a little high . sorry charlie for butting in on your thread . zigzag

I have Distanzias on my XT. I find them better on road that TKC-80s. TKC-80s good though and look sexy but don't last very long and I had two rear tyre failures (failures, not puctures) on a trip I did a while back, circa 20,000km. Although, that said, I did have a very heavily laden bike. A replacement (second hand) Michelin something or other lasted longer than either of the TKC-80s.

Distanzias seem to be lasting much better although its early days. I ride them at circa 30psi rear, 28 front. This is based on "that'll do".

Matt

Zig Zag

No problem it's all relevent stuff, thanks for contributing.
If I ever get this plaster cast off my arm I will set about changing my tyres. I'm going stir crazy at the moment not being able to ride, especially with the fantastic weather we have been having. Back to hospital for more xrays tomorrow but then straight back into plaster or fibreglass I expect. I'm due out at the end of the month hopefully. I'm going to the Yamaha XT event 13-15th May in Hay on Wye and I'll be devistated if I can't ride to that, but that's a month away, so should be ok.

Any other XT enthuseasts from this forum going? I know some guys are riding over from Ireland, Germany and Belgium. It's open to all XT bikes, I'll be going on my XT600e.

Yamaha Thumper Forum • View topic - UK’s 3rd International XT/TT/SR/HL Meeting

Charlie