50/50 dirt/pavement what tire do you run

In your opinion, what tire have you had the best performance out of? TKC 80? Pirelli MT 90? Or?

dunlop 606 front is my favorite

dunlop 908 rear is great but wears too fast and is expensive.

Mefo explorer rear is just as good for traction out west and wears much better and is cheaper.

T63 front

Heidenau rear

Good for 8k miles in most cases

50/50, 80/20, everyone rides different stuff.

IMHO, the Heidenau rear is adequate for graded road dirt. If your dirt is more serious than that, you will want something at least as aggressive as the Mefo. Real dirt bike dirt/sand and you are going to want something like the 908.

It's sure not rocket science. And the tradeoffs are probably pretty obvious, but:

The better they work in the dirt--the more they howl and bounce on the road. The better they work in the dirt, the quicker they wear out.
The better they work in the dirt, the less traction they will have if you push it on road.

These bikes are hard on rear tires. The front is more important than the rear if you are getting serious about your dirt riding. If pinching pennies, go a little more aggressive on the front and get a rear that will wear well--for example the Heidenau rear with TKC front (or equivalents in other brands).

Balanced setups are probably the best. But figure 2 rears for every front--depending on your riding and which tires you choose. Just as examples (other brands/tires could be substituted): Heidenau front and rear--least serious dirt. Mefo rear TKC front--mid grade dirt. Dunlop 908 and 606--most serious dirt.

Just rambling.......too many tire threads!

FWIW

Im on the stock Scorpions right now but plan on changing them to T63 front and a MEFO Super Explorer. Very similar to this recommendation.

Scorpion rally front, mefo or 908 rear.

SA

908 front ( real scary for the first hundred) then good, Motoz rear( cheaper than 908 rear and just as good )

Just put on a TKC 80 (front) and couldn't be more impressed with it......everywhere.

Continental TKC 80 front, and a Heidenau K60 Scout rear, modified (center lugs cut out at intervals, to make it more of a "knobby", like it's smaller brothers). It sound like a pain to obtain, but all you need to do is ask Craig at CJDesigns, and he will whip up a set for you, and ship them out.

I just did a crazy, stupid weekend trip with this new set-up, and I can not praise this combination enough. The tire combo was not my idea, but Craig's, and he did the mod on the rear, for a small fee.
We started out late in the day for a roughly 350 mile road jaunt, from Cumberland, Md. to Bluefield, WV, to ride the Hatfield-McCoy trails (we were meeting a friend coming from the opposide direction). The weather was beautiful, but soon turned to crap--rain, falling temps--and the road got..."interesting". Route 220, running through Virginia, is about the greatest little twisty, turny, up, down, holy crap! road you could hope for on a bike. Even with the rain coming down, the tires held like glue. We were not riding gently, but rather like jackasses, because...well, you know: we could. We finally arrived at the house near the trailhead at 1:30 am, rain still falling, and temp at 36 degrees (my buddy said it would be an adventure). Let's just say that the tires (like the bike) are about 10x better than I had hoped for. I forgot to mention that we had fully loaded Gobi side and top cases, because we were carrying all of our MX gear (including boots) as well as the regular stuff you take on any trip, and tools, tubes, some food, etc. Additionally, we are both slightly above 240lbs, naked (picture that, it you dare!)
The next day, we rode the Pocahontas trail system on our 990s, and had no trouble at all, even after the total 3-day monsoon soaking of the region. OK, some trouble. My two buddies whimped out half-way through the little "trail 181". The hard part was turining a 500lb monster around on a 2 foot wide trail. Keeping in mind that these are not KTM 520s, they are truely great trail bikes. We rode faster than we should have most of the time, and paid the price a few times with some bruises and scrapes (the bikes, not us).
On the ride back home, we took mainly freeways. I can personaly attest that the tires are great for sustained 85 mph, with a few brief forays in the 90's.
You will not be sorry you got this set-up.

T-63 front, Sahara 3 rear.

I'd rate it a 7 out of 10. Great climbing traction, wear and road manners, but the rear is worthless braking down steep hills.

Mefo Super Explorer rear and Pirelli Rally front.

Mitas e-07 rear, Mitas e-09 front. The e-07 surpising impressed me in the dirt.

VxZeroKnots (Drew)

Do you have problems with the Sahara 3 chunking?


I'd rate it a 7 out of 10. Great climbing traction, wear and road manners, but the rear is worthless braking down steep hills.[/QUOTE]

What about the new Karoo 3 ? I have them since 3 weeks but didn't put them on the gravels. The are quite ok on the road but seem to wear very fast.... Not sure if it is an optical effect...

Here's my tire page... with options for exactly what you're looking for:
http://www.mikef5000.com/ktm-990-tire-page.html

I need to update it a bit; I've been running the Heidenau K60 rear, and Michelin T63 front. The rear has 8000 miles on it, and the front has 4000, both are past half way, but not in bad shape at all. Dry pavement manners are excellent. Wet pavement is doable. Cold wet pavement turns worrisome. Off pavement they do well in everything but wet, slick (clay) mud.

Next, I'd like to try the Mitas E-07 rear, with either their E-09 or E-10 front.

They are known to wear horribly fast. Not sure how Metzler can be on revision 3, and still not have figured out people want more than a couple thousand miles out of a big bike tire.

I put a set on and rode the Baja return from Cali. I would say 70/30 pavement to sand and gravel. Rear is 50% gone at 3,000 Km. Good tires though - performed well everywhere - and the front shows little wear at this point.

Nope no chunking problems at all.

Pirelli Scorpion MT90s, otherwise know as the stock tires. They'll get you through damn near anything.

I ended up with a TKC 80 up front and a Mefo Super Explorer on the rear. Seems about perfect 50/50 for me.