Tyre help please XT600E
 

Hi Guys

The tyres I have on my 2002 XT600E are in need of replacement, first time for me on the XT.

The tyres I have on there are marked around the rim as follows

Front
Bridgestone Trail Wing -47
T8901
90/90 - 21
54S

Rear
Bridgestone Trail Wing - 48
T9001
120/90 - 17 M/C
64S

The questions I have are

Are my current tyres tubed or tubeless?
Do I have to replace like for like (tubed or tubeless) for my standard wheels and which is better?
I'm looking at the Continental TKC80, is this a good tyre for the XT?

The bike does on and off road in equal measure, and living in the rainy UK, off road can get wet and muddy.

All comments appreciated,

Thanks

the xt run with tubes, you can use tubeless tires, but will need to use your're tube still.

Tkc80's gets a lot of nice words from every part on the internet. Havent tried'em myself tho'

I'm getting these!

http://im9.cz/iR/importprodukt-orig/...39e6387f3e.jpg
I can get them for 148,20 € shipping included to my island in Portugal!

You can read more of the best tires that were test driven for a bike magazine called MOTORRAD.
Here is the link of the MOTORRAD one of the latest issues: http://www.conti-online.com/generato...twinner_en.pdf

Vando :cool4:

Guess its dependant on what off road you do. Boggy narly lanes to gravelly roads. If you a plugging in mud on trailwings you will know they dont inspire confidence and TKCs are better but still not overly great, although a really good tyre. A TKC rear with a more knobbly front will work wonders like an AC10 or MT21. But if your happy with a Total TKC style then give consideration to Mitas E07 I have one on the rear of my road wheels for my XR and surprised how much grip it gives. Trellesport sell them:thumbup1:
Trellesport - Enduro Competiton MotorcycleTyres, Army Special Tyre

I took the BT45s off mine and fitted TKC80s front and rear. Found them to be great on all surfaces but I'm no expert in the mud. What I wanted to do with them they did well, just slightly noisier on the tarmac.

Bike was stolen last week and I'm still sulking about it. When I get my next one I'm fitting the same again.

Regards - Alastair.

bin the trailwings, they came on my XT and they are the worst tyres ive ever had on a bike. the newer "battlewings" my varadero came with were a little better but not by very much. they are also more expensve than some better tyres so dont bother.

ive got conti trail attacks on the varadero now, excellent, although i dont go offroad so i shouldve saved £20 getting ordinary road attacks, same tyre different tread pattern.
the XT has been supermoto'd with 17" wheels and dunlop sports tyres so its irrelevent whats on there now.

TKC80s are great offroad but I find them scary in the wet on tarmac on anybike.

Metzeler Sahara 3 and Heindenau (spelling?) K60's are a little more road orientated but still work well in the rough stuff.

I fitted Michelin SIRAC's to both my XT6's. Well happy with the result. They are 70% tarmac 30% light trails.

Conti Trail Attacks
 

:oops2:Looks like I may have made the right choice by default. Was gonna order Avon Gripsters but they didn't have the rear tyre for my XT600E, so the Conti's seemed ok and they were relatively cheap. Bought from http://moto-tyres.co.uk/ for £99.30 the pair including Vat and shipping. Thanks for posting that report, it's not often I get it right! :D

================================================== =======

I'm getting these!

http://im9.cz/iR/importprodukt-orig/...39e6387f3e.jpg
I can get them for 148,20 € shipping included to my island in Portugal!

You can read more of the best tires that were test driven for a bike magazine called MOTORRAD.
Here is the link of the MOTORRAD one of the latest issues: http://www.conti-online.com/generato...twinner_en.pdf

Vando :cool4:[/quote]

I have the TKC 80 front and rear on my xt, very happy with them. Havent noticed anything yet on wet tarmac but I usually dont go over 80-90km/h on tarmac.

Bergspre - TKC 80
 

Hi Berg,

Actually they are the tyres on my bike at the moment which I'm swapping over to Trail Attacks. Maybe it's me or maybe there is another problem with my bike? I find them very noisy on tarmac and they wallow a bit on the bends. Very good on the dirt though, but I'm not doing much of that at the moment.

They're going into store until I go down to Morocco next year.

I use mitas e-07 and find them great on trail and road...

Tyre pressure. I found them to be very squirrely at first. Wasnt too happy. Tyre garage pumped them to 40 psi while I protested this was way over the manufacturers recommendations. They were right tho.

Conti Trail Attacks Bruken
 

You're absolutely right Bruken, though mine were more hedgehog than squirrely :) After I posted, I went down and checked my tyre pressures and they were a bit low so I pumped them up to the maximum they recommend for 2 up and they are vastly improved. Still a bit noisy but acceptable. As I've now bought these new tyres, even though the twinduros look new, (not long had the bike) I'm gonna fit them just to see the difference. Anyways, I guess the Twinduros would wear out pretty quick on the tarmac, eh?

[/quote]


Vando, I got the same tyres as you and after they were fitted I noticed the tread patterns seemed to be going in the opposite direction to each other. The arrows are pointing in the direction of forward rotation, so that's ok. Is this normal? Doesn't seem to make logical sense. Perhaps you or someone can enlighten me? Thanks in advance.

nb. In your photograph it shows both patterns pointing the same way.
What do they look like on your bike?