Tires, Recommendations Anyone?

keeponriding

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I ended up with Heidenau K60s.

Still have plenty of life left in the old Tourances, which I liked, oh btw....by the time I leave for SD, I figure I'll be ready for new shoes and will putting on the K....break them in on the first 1,000 of freeway...followed by 500 miles of two lane, before dipping into the mud, gravel of the CD.

Yeah, might be noisy, might be vibey...but I rationalize by thinking can't be any worse than what we were riding on 30 years ago....(when I rode my MC 5 mi to school in the snow, uphill both ways)
 

DuMar

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keeponriding said:
I ended up with Heidenau K60s.

Still have plenty of life left in the old Tourances, which I liked, oh btw....by the time I leave for SD, I figure I'll be ready for new shoes and will putting on the K....break them in on the first 1,000 of freeway...followed by 500 miles of two lane, before dipping into the mud, gravel of the CD.

Yeah, might be noisy, might be vibey...but I rationalize by thinking can't be any worse than what we were riding on 30 years ago....(when I rode my MC 5 mi to school in the snow, uphill both ways)
Good choice, Anthony.

I have to agree with Phil and Jaxon on the K60s: Great all round tire, and you'll have no problem attaining max lean angle in the corners. Surprised the hell out of me more than a couple times. ::26::

Mike
 

dcstrom

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Yeah, good choice - they will do everything you need, and they will last, no messing around with changing tires. Just don't be a boy racer on tarmac, they will be great everywhere else.

Dirt_Dad said:
My first Tenere was delivered with Battlewings. I thought they did a reasonably competent job on dirt roads. Not great, but better than expected. I replaced the rear with an Anakee II. Made me feel slightly better on more slippery dirt roads, but nothing dramatic. Never got to try with the Anakee II front before my wife took the bike away from me. The Raven Tenere was delivered with Tourance EXPs. Have not had a lot of experience with them yet, but I did notice my attempts at a power slide (TCS2) allowed the bike to kick out noticeably farther than my first Tenere ever did. That makes me a little suspicious of the Tourance and I'm not sure they will stay on the bike for long.
 

~TABASCO~

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I know everyone has heard me say that I like these tires.... Bla - Bla - Bla...... (by the way, I have 4000+ miles on my tires and they look new :D) One thing that I find almost better that the performance On & Off road is the wear.... I asked ERICV if I could post these pictures with his miles... I dig this.....

From EricV............

11,585 miles, and the new front..

Rear K60 at 11,585 miles....



 

EricV

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FWIW, I would have left the rear on longer, but was heading out on a 3600 mile trip the next day. I'm generally good on tires, but really liked that I could go flog the S10 hard on the street with the K60s if I wanted to, (especially when they are worn down a bit), and also go off pavement with great confidence.

In doing the Big Money Rally bonus hunting in TX, I really missed the K60s, (I put the EXPs back on for that trip. ::007::) Just had gotten used to being able to exit pavement with zero worries on the K60s, wet or dry, dirt, gravel or no road at all was fine with the K60s. ::008:: ::008::

Lets just say, not so much with the EXPs. I thought I had a flat at one point because the back end was getting so loose in the rain on corners. Nope, just the crappy EXPs losing traction.

And I put that worn front back on and am using it up now with a new K60 on the rear. Still handles great!
 

dcstrom

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Great Eric! looks like that front will go 20,000 miles easy... I'm thinking about tires for South America. 20k on a front means I probably don't need to worry about getting one during the trip. Leave here with fresh K60's and carry a spare rear? I'll be set for tires for 20k miles. Or maybe talk to Roberto about availability in Chile to save the hassle of carrying a tire for a good part of the trip? Either way, I'll definitely be on K60's to start.

I have about 8000 miles on my K60 rear, still at least 3000 left in it, and I'm not especially easy on tires...

EricV said:
FWIW, I would have left the rear on longer, but was heading out on a 3600 mile trip the next day. I'm generally good on tires, but really liked that I could go flog the S10 hard on the street with the K60s if I wanted to, (especially when they are worn down a bit), and also go off pavement with great confidence.

In doing the Big Money Rally bonus hunting in TX, I really missed the K60s, (I put the EXPs back on for that trip. ::007::) Just had gotten used to being able to exit pavement with zero worries on the K60s, wet or dry, dirt, gravel or no road at all was fine with the K60s. ::008:: ::008::

Lets just say, not so much with the EXPs. I thought I had a flat at one point because the back end was getting so loose in the rain on corners. Nope, just the crappy EXPs losing traction.

And I put that worn front back on and am using it up now with a new K60 on the rear. Still handles great!
 

broncodave

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looking for new tires for tenere.. just found this post. I have Metzler touring ext .. i have 1500 miles on the bike, my rear tire is 80% gone.. love the tire but can't afford to replace every 1800 miles. Looking for recommendations.. I apparently ride much more aggressive than others on this forum although I have never done a burnout and almost always use traction control. Has anyone else wore a tire out that fast? I do 80% street riding, 20% dirt roads (no real off-road). Looking for tires with a bit more longevity. I used to get 5000-6000 miles on my FJR and thought I'd get more miles on this bike with less power and traction control. If there is somewhere else I should be looking, please let me know.
 

jajpko

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I put Conti Trail Attack on mine and they are doing really well. Not the best tire for loose gravel roads in my opinion, but they to well on hard pack dirt and so,so on grass. Where they really shine is on hard surface.

I think the will last longer than the stock Tourances.
 

EricV

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broncodave said:
looking for new tires for tenere.. just found this post. I have Metzler touring ext .. i have 1500 miles on the bike, my rear tire is 80% gone.. love the tire but can't afford to replace every 1800 miles. Looking for recommendations.. I apparently ride much more aggressive than others on this forum although I have never done a burnout and almost always use traction control. Has anyone else wore a tire out that fast? I do 80% street riding, 20% dirt roads (no real off-road). Looking for tires with a bit more longevity. I used to get 5000-6000 miles on my FJR and thought I'd get more miles on this bike with less power and traction control. If there is somewhere else I should be looking, please let me know.
To some degree, tire wear is in the wrist. So, how is your tire worn? Sides more or center more? Sport mode or Touring mode? I suspect most of us are in Sport mode. You can flog the bike and eat tires with any tire. The TCS just keeps you from getting out of hand, but if you're still flogging the throttle, you will increase tire wear. Doing that on the 145 Hp FJR will send the back tire smoking and passing you up in a corner, but the S10's TCS will back off power, but not before your getting slippage. It's the slippage it senses to activate TCS.

Do you see the orange TCS light flashing a lot when you ride?
 

stevepsd

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broncodave said:
looking for new tires for tenere.. just found this post. I have Metzler touring ext .. i have 1500 miles on the bike, my rear tire is 80% gone.. love the tire but can't afford to replace every 1800 miles. Looking for recommendations.. I apparently ride much more aggressive than others on this forum although I have never done a burnout and almost always use traction control. Has anyone else wore a tire out that fast? I do 80% street riding, 20% dirt roads (no real off-road). Looking for tires with a bit more longevity. I used to get 5000-6000 miles on my FJR and thought I'd get more miles on this bike with less power and traction control. If there is somewhere else I should be looking, please let me know.
Wow....only 1500 miles? I'm way over 5K on mine and they are still going strong.

You do know that the throttle is just not ON or OFF, right? ::025::
 

Bigbore4

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I am at 9k on my OE Battlewings. I have a new set of same ready to go on. Great 80 20 tire, Did a good bit of gravel in CO last year and they are great. On the pavement they rock. FYI, I am a large rider with a heavy hand. This set of 'Wings has many many 80+ MPH miles on them.

Looking at Tobasco's post however, after this set of Battlewings I plan to try the K60's. If they will run that far and not leave you feeling nervous, I'll try it.

~TABASCO~ said:
I know everyone has heard me say that I like these tires.... Bla - Bla - Bla...... (by the way, I have 4000+ miles on my tires and they look new :D) One thing that I find almost better that the performance On & Off road is the wear.... I asked ERICV if I could post these pictures with his miles... I dig this.....

From EricV............

11,585 miles, and the new front..

Rear K60 at 11,585 miles....



 

Dirt_Dad

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Where is the best place to purchase a set of Heidenau K60s?
 

jajpko

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Dirt_Dad said:
Where is the best place to purchase a set of Heidenau K60s?
One of our forum sponsors sells them. Give Tabasco a shout..
 

tkad

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depends on your style of riding, as you framed within your original question. Jaxon (Tobasco) set me up with the Hedenau's which are going on this week, aiming for tomorrow. thsee should suit me for my riding area, more dirt roads than paved (though by all accounts, the Heidenau's do almost as well on pavement as on dirt, and wear is not an issue). I did not find the original article but on my wee-strom, I tried the conti trail attacks, they were great on pavement, slightly better that the brigestones on dirt (though that may have been due to new tires always feeling better than worn out tires), this was my resource for making that decision:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10058128
 

mcbrien

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I'm new at this but I need a front tire that is better suited to loose rocky roads but
still is good for street . Any suggestions ... I bet there's plenty :)
 

Don in Lodi

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mcbrien said:
I'm new at this but I need a front tire that is better suited to loose rocky roads but
still is good for street . Any suggestions ... I bet there's plenty :)
Have you read this entire thread yet?
 

Dirt_Dad

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I removed the Tourance EXPs yesterday with only 2350 miles on them I was really surprised at how little tread was left in them. They weren't done yet, but at that rate I doubt they had another 2K miles left in them. Far worse tread life than the Battlewings that came on my first Tenere. I'm a hammer the throttle kind of guy and I do see the TCS light blinking a fair amount on the pavement, but I can usually get at least 6500 miles out of a rear.

Installed the K60s yesterday. Had a really hard time balancing the front tire. Even spun the rim 180 degrees once, then again another 90 degrees. Ultimately I had to give up and just put 2oz of weight on it. With less than 100 miles on them it's too early to form an intelligent opinion yet. I immediately put them on 6 miles of gravel road to rub off any slippery stuff that is usually on new tires. Of course they were squirmy at first, but I do expect that of any new tire. I was a little surprised to see the TCS light blinking when I was throttling out of a traffic circle. Really didn't feel them slip there, but was surprised to see the light. It was only mildly aggressive and I was in TCS2, I checked the mileage at that point and had 65 on them. They do sing when over 60 MPH, but the ride was smooth up to 75 MPH indicated. It really feels like you are riding on knobbies between 20 and 23 MPH. It makes you start looking for a dirt road.

I'm going to go put a couple of hundred on them today and make sure I get in some twisties. I'm leaving in 4 days for riding down near Tail of the Dragon and I want to make sure I'll have confidence hammering them hard in the twisties. I don't get down there very often and want to make sure I'm not thinking about traction while I'm in some chicane.
 
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