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ADV Gravel Riders - What Tires?

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Absolutely.......they wear longer when down to the center rib ..right Phil.....9k+ outta your E07 on the Ten

I read a post or two on the Versys X forum about Kenda Pavers & Mich Anakee 3s for high mileage...some gravel. Some liked the Big Blocks for more gravel

130 80 17 Pavers on ebay for $82 shipped
Anakees much more at $120ish

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Great, I’ll keep them for more miles then. Can’t find any markers of when it’s time to change, though.
 
Ocho said:
Great, I’ll keep them for more miles then. Can’t find any markers of when it’s time to change, though.
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Back from post 72 in this thread.
bwdmax said:
If you can’t see thread there must be tread!:-P
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JMZ posted a pic of one cut to show how thick the carcass is. You can run these down until the center is bald and there is still a lot of rubber. In dry conditions I don't notice much difference in traction and in the soft stuff it will sink in enough for the side lugs to work. (FYI i'm a self professed tight wad and try to get all i can out of a tire.)
 
Here's mine from last year's Stromathon. I don't usually take it that far.
231416
 
I find it a lot easier to track tread life on a DS tire. When it starts looking like a street tire, its time to go.

On the other hand, with a street tire, I've got no clue, clearly.

That said, if they are all going only last me 3500 miles anyway, I'm gonna be ridin' knobby.
 
The road material on the 3 Sisters is like a cheeze grater....mabe crushed granite...
Another reason I prefer the county roads around Fburg instead

Try the Anakee 3 for a 90/10 tire
I got 7k+ outta one on the Ten... before a nail put an end to it prematurely..
Prob woulda been at least 8k+
Id already have another Anakee set on it if the Mitas set had sold....but they didnt so on the Ten they went.

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Well Jarrett , you may not have gotten as many miles as you wanted out of that tire but you can’t say you didn’t use all of that tire.


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I ended up ordering Anakee Adventures for the VFR.

Sticking with Mitas for now on the Africa Twin.

I noticed that it really didn't make much difference which tires everyone had while hooliganing around down there. Dudes on 50/50 tires were leaned over just as hard in the corners as folks on street tires.
 
"THE BEST TIRE for..." -- I can't think of a topic (other than "who has the best wife") that has such widely divergent opinions, especially over on AdvRIder. At the end of some of the AdvRider tire threads, they're almost ready to fight. Goodness!

I decided to try, and just mounted, the Motoz Tractionator GPS.

231420

231421
 
Those Moto Zs do look capable....& similar to the Mitas E07....new & old versions.
I also jus watched a video on the new Anakee Adventures that gave them a thumbs up overall as a go between tire..
Anakee 3/Adventure/Wild

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It's kind of like, "What's the best bike...?"

In reality, most of the leading brands are all good. It's hard to go wrong with one or the other. So when I am shopping, I usually look at price. Right now, the TKC 80s aren't as expensive as they used to be. The Shinko 805 is a bargain. Some of these new tires are EXPENSIVE! Unless they have some super compound that lets me get big miles out of them, I won't be buying them any time soon. That said, unlike some folks, I don't ride them down to the chords. I like having a bit more tread when I go off the pavement, especially where sand is involved.

As far as how well any of the adventure tires handle on pavement, I had no problem dragging my Jesse bags on my 1150 GS when running TKC 80s front and rear. I cannot recall them ever feeling unpredictable or doing anything unexpected. In places like Arkansas and North Carolina, I've been able to use pretty much the WHOLE tire from one side of the tread to the other. This is one of the reasons I quit running Jesse bags and prefer to run with just a top case if I can.

This is at about 75-80mph on TKC 80s. The foot pegs got a bit of grinding going through this corner. It never felt squirmy or mushy.
231422


I cannot say the same for the Shinko 705(?), which is a more 50/50 tire. Even at moderate speeds, they tended to slide in corners on DRY pavement. I ended up removing them LONG before the tread wore out because they were just down right SCARY!

I tend to stick with tires like the Shinko 805 and TKC 80 just because I almost never go out for a ride that does not involve dirt roads. Many of the roads around here have sand, mud, deep gravel, big chunky gravel, etc,... My new GS has the TKC 70s on it. They are great on pavement. I am not real wild about them off the pavement. They just don't feel planted like the TKC 80 front. But, if I were going to do some kind of dual sport road trip, they would be high on my list. If prices ever come down, I might try some of the other more aggressive dirt biased tires.
 
What is better for gravel , a certain tire or rider skill ?

Stickers ??? We don't need no stinking STICKERS !
 
I've read several reports of both Shinko 705 and TKC70's (which appear very similar to me) to be slippery in the wrong places, like damp pavement. Even more so than the more aggressive looking 805/TKC80 models. That said, I'm not a huge fan of the feel of the big knobbies on pavement. I'm starting to think the Mitas E07+ Dakar might be the sweet spot for ADV.

The Anakee Adventure tires I just ordered for the VFR (because I wanted to keep it a little more street focused) seem to resemble the 705/TKC70 design. I'm hoping I don't find them to be slippery as well. If so, I probably just move back to a street tire on that bike.
 
JMZ said:
What is better for gravel , a certain tire or rider skill ?
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After a year/15,000+ miles of riding, I'd definitely say its the rider. MacDaddy can run down a gravel road at 80 mph on anything.

I got into some gravel roads over the weekend on the VFR with street tires and it wasn't the end of the world. 45-50 mph felt fine. I have to say on the AT with 50/50 tires, I feel more confident to push that speed up into the 60-65 mph, occasional 70 mph range.

I'm slowly learning that I enjoy the feel of a heavier bike on gravel as it feels more planted to me. Versus a lighter bike even with more aggressive tires that still dances all over the place. I haven't grown accustomed to the dance yet.
 
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Jarrett said:
I haven't grown accustomed to the dance yet.
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That really was the hardest part of transitioning from being a pavement only rider to a dual sport rider. I had over 100K miles of street riding behind me before I made the jump to dual sports. Unlike MANY of the other dual sport riders, I did not grow up riding/racing dirt bikes. I got my first street bike at 33 and my first dual sport (the portly R1150 GS) at 38. For a long time, I was TERRIFIED of corners. On the other hand, sand really never bothered me because the 1150 GS just plowed on through it without too much dancing. I learned how to ride sand on that big beast on some DEEP sandy roads here in East Texas. In fact, when I got a KLR, I did not like riding it in sand as much as the GS. My KTM though is quite fun in the sand because it is light and powerful, so it just kind of floats through it. Learning to grasp the bike between my knees and staying loose on the bars was a big leap forward for my riding skill, that and trusting the bike to handle whatever it was going over/through. I still have issues with ruts and mud though. I've watch some guys blast through it like they were on smooth asphalt. I fall down...

As with most any endeavor, SKILL matters, but that does not make the tools irrelevant. It is the same argument in the photography world. Some folks say a good photographer can get good pics with any camera so the hardware doesn't matter. While there is truth in that, the hardware most definitely matters because there are simply physical aspects of the hardware that impose limitations on what you can do. Good hardware removes many of those limits, but it doesn't make up for lack of operator skill. So good hardware doesn't guarantee good results.
 
I got my first first ride in on my VFR with the Michelin Anakee Adventure tires on it. The ride was around 168 miles from home to McGregor and back on back roads. Coming from near street tires, I was concerned that the bike might feel much less smooth than before, but was happy to find the feel on pavement was pretty similar to the previous tires. I leaned it over at 90mph in a few corners on 56 north of Valley Mills and it felt nice and smooth. I ran it up 110 mph and it started to feel a little rough at that point. Not as smooth as the stock tires at those speeds, but everything under that felt the same.

I haven't had a chance to run it down any dirt roads just yet, but will sometime this month I'm sure. So far they seem like good 80/20 tires.
 
That's a good looking tire, I can see myself getting a lot of use out of those some day. Thanks for the info.
 
Jarrett said:
I've read several reports of both Shinko 705 and TKC70's (which appear very similar to me) to be slippery in the wrong places, like damp pavement. Even more so than the more aggressive looking 805/TKC80 models. That said, I'm not a huge fan of the feel of the big knobbies on pavement. I'm starting to think the Mitas E07+ Dakar might be the sweet spot for ADV.

The Anakee Adventure tires I just ordered for the VFR (because I wanted to keep it a little more street focused) seem to resemble the 705/TKC70 design. I'm hoping I don't find them to be slippery as well. If so, I probably just move back to a street tire on that bike.
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I think it depends a lot on what bike you have the tires on as well. I have loved the 705’s on my Super Tenere, and I’ve had great traction form them on dry and wet pavement.
 
I've put 1200+ miles on the Anakee Adventure tires now and in general, I like them.

I've had them leaned over in a corner at 110mph, chasing sport bikes around the track in Cresson, in pouring down rain, mud, gravel, dirt, etc. Overall, they work pretty dang good, I think. The rear tire especially. It's no match for mud of course, but everything else I've thrown at it has been fine. I think its going to be my goto for the VFR1200X rear tire.

I thought I felt the front tire get a little weird feeling doing 72 mph during a torrential down pour, but in other wet conditions, it was fine. Also, when the front tire hits bigger rocks and gravel, it tends to deflect and feel a bit washy, but nothing too crazy. I guess that's normal for an 80/20 front tire. Aside from those two spots, the front did well also. I might want something a little more grabby if I was going to be in rocks regularly, but otherwise its a good all around front tire.
 
I just ordered a set of tires for my 2017 GS: TKC 80 front-$120 and Shinko 805 rear - $135. Both ordered from RockyMountainATV.com, free shipping. They also had the rear TKC 80 for only $152. All of those were considerably cheaper than RevZilla.com, which is where I often buy tires when their price is right.
 
Maverick2076 said:
I’ve found better prices and faster shipping on tires from Dennis Kirk than from Revzilla.
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It seems to change constantly. At one time, SWMotoTires.com could not be beat by anyone and the tires showed up at my house within two days. RevZilla was the best for a while, but not recently. RonAyers.com was also good for a while. RockytMountainATV.com is doing pretty good at the moment. I have not tried DennisKirk.com yet, but will definitely add that to my list of sites to check. You do have to watch for shipping charges though. Sometimes the site with the best prices will get you on shipping charges.
 
Is there a front tire that offers more traction that this:
305-2927_A.jpg


But a smoother ride than this:
517KkskbwmL._SY879_.jpg
 
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