New Tires

After my trip to  Alaska (RideAlaskaSolo.blogspot.com) and living with two sets of vastly different tires, I set out to find a superior set of tires that would meet my riding style and % of on Road and off road riding adventures, my research lead me to the  Michelin Anakee III (Dual/Enduro)

 I ran a set on the Suzuki V-Strom 650 for about 2K miles and another set on the BMW R1200GS for another 6,000 miles, and I am happy to report it as an amazing tire! Doing an amazing job on the street my tires are worn over the tread bar (to the side wall) on both front and rear, the transition from corner to corner is effortless and both bikes handling characteristics changed to what I call neutral (bike exhibits the same turn in/out at all lean angels) the feeling is that there is no end to how far you can lean the bike over. Many tires are shaped to fall to a point then toward the edge the tire tends to push the bike back toward center. Needless to say I absolutely love this tire!

With 6,000 miles on my last set of Anakee III’s and a 3,000 mile trip ahead I decided its time for a new set, before heading out. As a group a few member of the COBDR team decided we should try four different tires and give a review during the trip, sounds like fun, I’m in.

For my choice, I decided to go with the Continental Twinduro TKC80 TL ,tubules tire.

Note: we needed to set a standard for this trip all tubeless tires RE: fixing a flat is much easier on a tubeless tire, with a plug kit. Just plug it air up and be on your way. With a tube would more likely be in for a timely repair and a spar tube would need to be brought along.

My new set of tires was put on order Monday Afternoon and arrived Next Day with Free shipping (thank you Revzilla) wow they are great! Wednesday the new tires are on the bike, $40 both front and rear! Thank you MotoWRX Livermore. Super great guys at this shop!

Here is a listing of the tires we will put to the test:

 

Randy with the Heidenau K60’s

Roberto with the Metzeler Tourance

Pat with the Metzeler karoo 3

 

First impressions next:

I'm really looking forward to trying a new set of tires!