Any "street" tire will ride on top of the gravel & dance around. Good luck in your quest.
I've given up & will be going to a more aggressive set. Which means I'll be slowing down on pavement.

 

Metzler Tourance (non-EXP's)
Anakee 2's or 3's

Both are excellent tires for wet pavement, tread life and cornering. Both are also decent on gravel.

(in before thread gets moved! Woohoo!)

 

I currently have Anakee 3's and have found them to be an excellent street tire but squirrely in deep gravel.

The front tire seems to matter more than the rear in gravel. Before I had a TKC-80 front and a Shinko 705 rear, and that seemed to work well on a wide variety of surfaces. It was also convenient that they wore out at about the same time.

 

Am happy with the Anakee 3, definately better than OEM on gravel, smooth highway, in wet and on grooved, rough pavement. Unsure of treadwear as only have 4000km on mine, but if they match the oem will be happy.

 

I bought a set of the non exp tourances a couple of months ago and have travelled approx 3000 km's on them. In my opinionThe grip on bitumen isn't as good as the trailwings


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K60 Scout or partial trellerborg
http://www.mitas.co.uk/category_Trail_1.htm

Not sure they are in USA any longer
but

I gave up the wide groove BS and are on Bridgestone bt-023 sport tourers for cheap er

 

while i'm far from an aggressive rider on the V, my tourances have suited me just fine on wet and dry pavement as well as many miles riding through hard-packed sand, and coral rock gravel. super long life as well.

 

Crash, how deep is the gravel you ride on? The depth of the gravel makes a big difference.

Bridgestone makes at least three tires for our bikes. The Trailwing is OEM. The Battlewing is better than the Trailwing. The Battleax BT-023 is a fine pavement tire.

 

The gravel roads that I typically ride have a firm base but loose 1/2" to 3/4" gravel on top. I am okay with the performance of the stock Bridgestones on those roads but would like an improvement if it didn't sacrifice the grip on pavement. The bike moves around a lot but I generally feel in control.

My last street bike was a 1000 cc sport bike with Michelin Pilot Powers on 17" wheels front and back. Riding the same gravel roads with those tires was not enjoyable.

 

I've been very happy with my Tourance non-EXP's for both paved and unpaved roads.

 

What is the difference between the Trail Attack and Trail Attack 2?
Any input as to whether the Continental will meet the above criteria?
Other tire suggestions?

Thanks.

The Trail Attack 2's are a dual compound with harder rubber in the center which gradually gets softer towards the edges and the TA's are single compound. I had the original TA's and got better tire life, better feel in the corners than the stock TW's, and in a tire comparison at the time they won the wet road competition. As far as gravel, about the same as your TW's. I don't think you'll find a tire that will meet all 4 of your criteria.

 

They aren't dual compound, but effectively the same as one. They say the curing process allows for the same effect with a single compound. Who knows, I don't speak or believe marketing. :green_lol:

I bought the TA2's but haven't ridden the bike yet.

 

k60

another plug for my Heidenau k60. But my stopping distance increased, they are not road tires. They worked good (not great) for both on and off road.

 

I really like my Shinko 705s. They're great at everything.

 

Same here. A bit noisy on the highway, but otherwise a great tire. They also cost less.

 

A friend told me about these...... real cheap. Not exactly my definition of a street tire (he called them 60/40), but I'd like to know which would be best for sport touring and less for dual sporting.
I prefer good grip in the dry and wet and will sacrifice longevity.....

Full Bore Tires - Adventure Touring

I see that Michelin has the Anikee 3's on their site, but the Anakee 2's probably aren't being made any more. The 3's look like they might be a decent street tire. Oh the choices............

 

I'm going to try the Pilot Road 3's.

I know they're an excellent street tire but I really come to dislike the Anakee II's.

 

...but I really come to dislike the Anakee II's.

The things I disliked about Anakee IIs was uneven "block" wear and generally too-fast tread wear (but I'm beginning to believe I'm going to do no better with any other tire). I'm sure you've considered Anakee IIIs, but to me Anakee IIIs are mostly a street tire with some bit of offroadability. I suppose PR3s / PR4s are advertised as pure street tires. Might be the best choice if one is never off the pavement, but I like Anakee IIIs on the rear, anyway, to help provide a bit of traction if I get in light mud.

What do you dislike about Anakee IIs ?

 

Anakee 2 were fine but I maintain a street tire with a little bit fatter grooves is a street tire with fatter grooves.

 

Pirelli Scorpion Trails. A lot better on road than the stockers, not a good gravel tire, but a lot better than stock.

K60's are worse on road than the stock tyres, but at least last well and are a decent gravel tire.

I don't know of anything that meets your exact requirements, you'll have to compromise somewhere.

Pete

 

I still feel that the best all around tire out there for these bikes is the Bridgestone Battlewing, and I will put the Tourance "next" right along with that. And for the money, yes it is really hard to beat the Shinko 705.

 

My experience includes having done time on Tourances, K60 Scouts and Big Blocks with 50% off pavement and 50% on. My off pavement rides can get pretty gnarly and my pavement rides are spirited. So, I have come to this conclusion thus far.

Tourances SUCK off pavement - this was realized after I spent time on a real dual sport/adventure tire - I'll never go back.

K60 Scout is a good all around tire, kind of like a v-strom it's good at many things great at nothing.

Big Blocks (or TKC 80) are awesome off pavement and SUCK on pavement

So inventory where you realistically spend most of your time riding and choose a tire from there.

Lastly, even knobby tires will dance in deep, big chunky gravel. Part of riding in gravel is just getting used to standing up and riding the dance. Gravel is shady.

 

I've ran a TKC80 on the front of bikes before and wasn't that impressed. Ran my DR650 with TKC80's front and back, not much better than a 705 set and I got about 2,000 miles less too.

I guess I'm a odd ball, but I see nothing bad about the Tourance EXP's as road tire with dirt ability. I think they track better than my past Anakee II set. I think they wear about the same as the old Anakee, but they also are great on pavement and inspire confidence on most roads.

I plan on replacing them with 705's though, mainly for the deep tread and better dirt road performance. I live on a rough dirt road and the 705's are my favorite over all. For the price and the decent tread life I haven't found anything else better. In light mud the TKC80 will go slick anyway and I though it sucked on pavement, I like the curves too much to use those.

I change my own tires when I need to or feel like it. Getting your own tire changer is life changing! Buy them in the winter when the prices drop, swap in fresh tires for a trip, use the half used ones later, I save around $60 to $100 per tire change doing it myself. :mrgreen:

 

Anytime you take a V-Strom offroad (off a paved surface), it is because you've decided to take a risk of possibly-serious personal injury or equipment damage. If you put trust in your tires to mitigate the risk, you are merely increasing your risk.

I like my Vee on the road -- love its "long legs". But ... as a really experienced off-road, dirt, single-track, trail and desert rider, I have dumped the damn Vee about as often in those conditions as I've kept it upright. And it is too heavy to allow it to fall on you.

End of lecture.

 

I couldn't disagree more.

It's your riding style, not the bike. Ride it like a V-Strom and you'll do just fine off pavement. It's not a XR, KLR, DR and if you ride it like one, then you'll have a "I dumped it as much as rode it" experience.

To this day, I have gone everywhere all my buddies have gone on their highly modified single track bikes. I have just done it slower with a greater respect for line choice. Although not all my line choices have been great and did result in my dumping it or close to it. But that's my error not the bikes. Lastly, I have had an absolute blast with my v-strom off pavement.

 

I interpret it a bit differently... trail tires aren't dirt tires, and when the tread fills up with mud, you might as well have slicks. Easy to go down if you're the slightest off balance. You do have to manage risk when off-road, that just makes sense to me. And yes, I do agree, ride it like a Strom and not a dirt bike...... but we're all kinda talking the same, aren't we?

 

And one thing the DL absolutely smokes the singles at is uphills. They'll climb a glass wall

Coming down is a whole different nightmare but up - fantastic.

Pete

 

It's because they're so damn heavy they get more traction.

It's because they're so damn heavy they loose traction.

I hope switching to a full knob will help the front, 'cause it sure likes to wipe its nose in the dirt. :yikes:

 

I might think that due to light front wear that like a big block on the front and a dual purpose out back

Gravel means marbles where the stones roll and the tire rolls along with them,

IF the front was better planted you probably would care what the ars was doing

 

I'm running a set of Metzeler Tourance Nexts on my 09. Used them for over half of my 8,000 trip recently, and they still have lots of life left. I've taken them on gravel and through the twisties and they've served me very well. No pucker moments at all.

When it comes time to switch up, I'll either go with another set of these or the PR4s.

 

Tire Choice?

Maybe you all can help me decide on what tire to get. Just when I think I have my mind made up, something happens to change it again.

So, I am planning a trip next summer on my DL 650 from Anchorage, Alaska to Durango, Colorado. Then leave it over the winter and come home early in the Spring after a tour of Utah and Northern Arizona.

I, plan to ride as many dirt roads as possible, but I realize I am on my large bike and not my old beater 250 Yamaha, so will be riding according

I originally decided on the Shinko 705, but after reading about too many riders complaining about the low mileage they got on the rears and the tendency of them falling apart they were eliminated. Then I thought I had it all figured out with the HeidenauK60 Scout. Now recently I am reading how they are not that good on the wet tarmac. So finally, has anyone tried the new Anakee3?

Seems to me all the above except the K60 Scout are a 90% pavement and 10% dirt. I would like to have at least a 80/20 tire. If anyone has thoughts it would be greatly appreciated. I like the comment someone said about the K60 Scout: "it is a good all around tire, kind of like a v-strom it's good at many things great at nothing". Is this the best I can hope for?

Merry Christmas to all.

 

I originally decided on the Shinko 705, but after reading about too many riders complaining about the low mileage they got on the rears and the tendency of them falling apart they were eliminated.

1)I got somewhere between 8 and 9 thousand miles out of the last rear 705 I had on my bike. I spooned on another 705 and expect to get the same mileage. Most of the mileage on the last 705 was high speed state highway and interstate loaded for camping during a 6 thousand mile bike trip. According to the scale my bike weighed in at 800 lbs with me on it and all my gear.

2)The reports of 705s coming apart I believe centered on the Bias ply models. None of the 705s I have ran have ever indicated they were going to come apart.


I would personally suggest reconsidering your elimination of them.