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?

Think I've heard something like, thats its because the front tyre is beeing pushed, and the rear tyre is pushing.

Dunno if its true or not.

My favorite combo on my 1990 XT600E is the Kenda K270 130/80-17 Rear and a Cheng Shin C858 90/90-21 front, don't make fun of my Chinese tires!

They pretty well on all surfaces, pavement cornering is very respectable, and you can get them off the internet for $70USD a set shipped to your door.

I personally would'nt fit TKC80's for any road use ,you don't have the best brakes so tyres are very important .
I fitted these to my XT when touring South America and a very good off road tyre with occasional road use and they look the part .
But when these were worn out all I could get were Metzler Tourance and what a superb tyre .
Towards the end of the trip I was doing as much on road as off and were very good for both which is why I have them fitted to my XT here in the UK .
So conclusion , go for Tourance .

I have the TKC 80's. they're a fine tire on road, IF you have good throttle control and arent expecting the kind of grip that a race slick offers.

offroad, they're good but in gravel, as I learned today, hard packed gravel to be exact, they feel slippery. may have to do with my having 30lbs in each tire, but I also require stability on road.

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

as long as the direction arrow on the side is going the right way, dont worry about it.
the photo is just a photo from a brochure, its unlikely the photographer even knew there was right and wrong way round

Well I'm quite happy with the TCK80's both on and off road, turn and grip quite nicely, though the centre blocks on the tyre are wearing quite quickly as they've had a fair bit of tarmac use with my other bike being off the road.

after logging some extra miles riding my XT offroad and more yet on paved tarmac, the TKC80 tires have INCREDIBLE grip on tarmac in leaning for me. thus far I've ridden this thing like a sportbike, and it simply wanted to lean more. no slipping, sliding, uneasy feel, or protesting. I honestly like how it handles.

I'm still forming an opinion on how they feel offroad, althoguh I did some light trail riding and they seemed to handle where I went very well. the bike had a bunch of extra vines on it, but the tires pulled on through like it was nothin.

2003 xt600e
 

Hi,
I need new tyres for my XT600 for the first time. I ride 100% tarmac, but the state of London roads does makes some of it pretty off road like!
But I do ride all weathers-rain, hail, snow-(everything except showers of frogs so far) & I do regular motorway runs at 70-90mph. Am looking at Metzler Tourance-any thoughts from the more experienced welcomed-
Many thanks

Current tyres are Dunlop Trailmax F 90/90-21 & R 120/90-17

google heidenau K60 tires. they're something like a 50/50 street and dirt tire.

Had Metzeler Tourance fitted in the end. Many thanks to bacardi23 for posting link to tyre reviews, very useful.

Tried them all, well most of them and ...
 

I've ridden my XT nearly every day for the last three and a half years plus, covering in excess of 68,000 kms, in all weather, on all surfaces and usually loaded.

Having had Bridgestone TrialWings, Metzeler Tourances, Vee Rubber and now Heidenau, I have come to the conclusion that it is all a matter of personal choice, riding styles, climate and how your bike is loaded.

Personally I thought that the Tourances were rubbish, gave little confidence in the wet and due to their tread pattern (or lack of it) were pretty useless off road. The only good thing about them was that they wore consistently and were both shagged at 8,000 km.

Unlike a lot of riders I liked the Trailwings as a true dual sport tyre with a road bias. I made my way through several sets and loved the feed back they gave, particularly in the wet. The rear usually lasted 8,000 km and the front 16,000 at a push. And not too much road noise to boot.

Vee Rubber (that was all I could get hold of at the time), initially was an excellent dual sport tyre with a road bias, but after 5,000 km they were getting a little unpredictable. Changed both the front and rear at 8,000 km.

After pushing my last Trialwing combination to 10,000 and 16,000 km, I have switched to Heidenau with a more aggressive pattern for off road work. I have to say that these tyres have exceptional road manners given their tread pattern and the off road grip is also in the same league. The only downside is the road noise, but I can live with that given their all road performance. So far they have covered a little over 3,000 km and appear to be wearing slowly.

As I have said before, a tyre that suits one rider could instil fear into another. So workout what you want out of a tyre, do your research and make your own decision.

PS, I always buy my tyres from these guys MyNetMoto they ship anywhere (and everywhere when requested) and are pretty cheap to boot.