TKC70 Review

Hello folks,

I now have about 1K miles on the TKC70 tires.

Objective was to have decent tire life and good grip for commuting and have good traction on unpaved surfaces(low to moderate speeds), including sand washes and water crossings in and around the Hill Country. Besides, the tire thread is very similar to the old Tourance from Metzeller which were great tires IMHO. Stock Anakee 3 tires provide great road performance but not confidence inspiring at all off pavement even with pressure down to 25-30psi

Well, unpaved performance of TKC70 is noticeably better off pavement with better traction if dropped the pressure to 30psi. At recommended full pressure, performance was not any better than anakee3 with low pressure to my surprise.

On the pavement however, they are disappointing. Despite the non-aggressive knobbies, dry grip is not noticeably better than TKC80 tires and in wet flat out skiddish. Very noticeably worse than anakee 3. Not confidence inspiring at all at high speeds, especially when braking.

Not noisy but it is really not a concern for me as it is hard to hear tire noise at speed.

Last gripe is longevity. The rear is wearing fine but the front is about 20% gone already in about 1K miles. TKC80 front lasts me about 3K miles and at this rate, TKC70 front will not last more than 4-5K miles which is way below my initial expectations.

I will not run TKC70s again and will give a shot to K60 Scout tires next.

I had good results with the K60s on my 05 1200 GS. I used them for a trip to Southern Utah and SW Colorado. We did everything from twisty pavement to deep sandy washes. The only place I found them lacking was in the deep sand/silt. I got through it, but it would definitely have been easier with the TKC 80s! Still, for the bulk of the trip, they did quite well.

On a trip to the same area last fall, I ran a TKC80 front with a Shinko 805 rear on my 07 1200 GS. That combination worked great. Again, we did a good bit of everything, from super twisty pavement to mountain dirt roads with rocks, clay, mud, DEEP gravel, and sand. The mud was a real challenge, but I have yet to find any tire for the big GSs that make mud less of a challenge! The Shinko 805 is 90% of the tire that the TKC 80 rear is, but at almost 1/2 the price. It also last me about 500-1000 miles longer. I rarely get more than about 2500 miles out of a rear TKC 80. I'd get about 4500-5000 out of something like a Tourance/Anakee, but I never really cared for them.

I do tend to ride my GS on the unpaved stuff a good bit on every ride I do, so I am definitely not biased in the direction of someone commuting on pavement. However, on those trips, we did a good bit of high speed (80+) pavement blasting to get from A to B.

I generally run my tires at 25 psi and just leave them there rather than constantly trying to inflate/deflate for going on/off pavement.