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Tires for trip

2K views 12 replies 10 participants last post by  bigphish 
#1 ·
OK My brain is spaghetti after reading hours worth of tire threads. I am leaving on a 7,000 mile trip in June 800 to 1,000 on dirt. I have a new set of original Tourance in garage but am wondering if I should save them and try a set of PR3 trails or regular PR3. The Anakee 3 looks good as well. Your collective wisdom, thoughts and sarcasm welcomed
 
#3 · (Edited)
The Tourance to me is much better in dirt and packed sand than gravel. It tracks bad on gravel and you don't get the good feeling you do with more offroad oriented tires. For a trip with that manymiles offroad, I wouldn't really be looking into adventure tires unless its ONLY dirt (Tourance is great on dirt), I would be into the Karoo, big block, or like. Most dual sport tires are 50/50 to 40/60 dirt/road, they aren't too much Of a compromise on road if you are touring lightly. Some will say they are no different on road... Choose for yourself on that.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my original Tourance tires. They get me out of moderately bad terrain with some fancy clutch control. But that's just it, they are good ROAD tires that can also get through light offroad, as long a you stick to a well-beaten path. They aren't very confidence inspiring, but I also have a Vee, so no tire offroad will be as confident as a wee. YMMV.

Ps. Tourance CAN get you out of pretty bad mud with good maneuvering skills. They have a decent "auto clean" tread pattern like most all terrain tires.

*edit*
You DO have a Vee, so now that I know that, I would honestly advise to get Karoo's or big blocks, with the weight and power of that bike, you want as much control as possible for that many miles. Then you can swap back when you get home.
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#4 ·
800 to 1,000 (miles) on dirt
Not PR3. Great pavement tire, but not your choice for a lot of dirt. The Anakee would be a better choice. If you like the Tourance, use that.
 
#5 ·
Dirt what dirt, dirt roads used every day?

This curmudgeon believes the pseudo wider grooves on an adventure tire is marketing BS without sufficient gaps to channel mud.,

I have been on all sorts of dirt roads with my Bridgestone bt023 sport touring tire and they were fine

IMHO The ONLY dirtish long life tire is the Heidenaurs 60
 
#10 ·
This curmudgeon believes the pseudo wider grooves on an adventure tire is marketing BS without sufficient gaps to channel mud.
I'm confused, are you saying yay or nay to adventure tires being okay offroad? It look like you are saying that I think they are not good enough, and in that case,I specifically said that the Tourance has GOOD "auto cleaning" characteristics. Therefore it evacuates mud semi-efficiently, meaning that it is decent for mild offroad. Somehow that relates to what they are described as from the manufacturer... Hmm go figure.

If you reread my post more carefully than how you typed your last one, you will see that I LIKE adventure tires for mild offroad. They are just not confidence inspiring like true dirt tires. I'm sure you have no issues with your bridgestones offroad every day. After riding the same places with the same tires, you get used to how it feels.




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#6 ·
tires fo trip

Thanks for the collective input so far. I will clarify. 800 to 1,000 miles on dirt could be a stretch but I will be ready for that many miles. My trip planning looks to be in reality 500 to 600 dirt miles and mostly forest trails and well used Jeep trails. 6,000 street miles. I don't like the mud as my motocross days are at 30 years behind me. I would just as soon camp an extra day than to ride on slippery snot. Even on TKC's
 
#7 ·
Big Trip Tip ?????

I`m running PR3`s on my SVstrom, and along with a Scotts damper they are fine on gravel. If you are riding in any mud for longer than 20 feet then you need a damper and BIG BLOCK tires. Sound like you have a great trip planned and the less time you spend on the ground or pushing 550 lbs the better. My 2 cents and 40 yrs. offroad worth.
 
#8 ·
Heidenau K60

Off-road performance and high mileage are pretty much mutually exclusive, and you'll have a hard time finding a single tire that can get you through the entire trip while also giving good performance on the unpaved stuff.

The Heidenau K60 Scout is the only unpaved road tire I've researched that seems to also provide high mileage (I've not used it personally, that's just what I've read). So I'd do some research on the Heidenau K60 before making a choice.
 
#9 ·
The Heidenau K60 Scout is the only unpaved road tire I've researched that seems to also provide high mileage (I've not used it personally, that's just what I've read). So I'd do some research on the Heidenau K60 before making a choice.
I can also recommend the Heidenau tire. I haven't used it personally, but a friend of mine with a KTM Adventure 990 has used it and he got more than 15,000km out of it and still was legal using the tire. He was also very pleased with the handling, both on- and off road.
 
#12 ·
A tire thread, I have a vision of happy mods!

Yeah, a tire thread. I'm sure the mods will love that.

On topic. I'll throw another vote to the Heidenau K60. I've seen some posts in this thread recommending these tires even though they haven't used them. That's fine, but I wouldn't recommend something unless I've tried it myself. That said I have tried them and will be throwing my third rear on in a few weeks. The first one (original non-scout k60) wore out at 14,500 miles, the scout rear is somewhere over 12k miles (sorry didn't look it up in my log before posting) so they should last long enough. I think they are good tires, and should do well on your trip. If you were doing more off road I'd say use a tkc on the front, but since your trip will be on the road for the most part go with the K60. The front is a much better street tire than the tkc.
 
#13 ·
Thanks for the collective input. I will run the new Tourance's on this trip. I have never used these tires before bit the reviews are good. Thanks for the K60 tip as well. I think I will try these on a more dirt gravel run that have planned for the fall.
Ride safe everyone
 
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