I survived the dirt, mud, and ice. But the BattleWings are all I've ever ridden offroad on so I have nothing to compare them to. It was pretty dicey at times though! I like the look of those K60's a lot but dont care for the reviews on pavement, which is where I spend 80% of the time, if not more.
For a really long road trip I love the Anakee 2. If you don't need to get 8000 miles out of a set I like the Battlewings, they aren't too bad on gravel and dirt, great in the twisties, and decent in rain. Soft rubber, I heard its the same mix as is the BT020 which was a fantastic sport touring tire. A little cheaper than the anakees and tourances as well. I only get about 5000 miles out of them tho. And for the record I have tried every air pressure in the book and I still seem to wear the fronts out at the same time on most every tire I tried on the Beemer. Just don't know what to say about that.
I am shopping for tires for a 5000+ mile trip... (WI to CA and back) The trip will be lots of highway until CO and then mountains twists, desert and coast line... but i don't foresee a lot of off-road riding, since there will be some Harley peeps in the crew. I did a similar trip 2 years ago 4000+ miles and the 'stock' Pirelli Scorpions that came with my F800GSA handled really well, but the rear tire developed a serious "flat spot" through the centerline of the tire (probably from the long highway riding days) after the trip. I'm thinking switching to the Metzeler Tourance, I had a pair on my R1200GS and they lasted +10,000 miles, hoping that they will handle the long highway days better and not get that "flat spot" the Pirelli's got.
As i am looking to buy a pair of Metzeler Tourance Next, i notice that the rear tire is offered in two different configurations?!? 150/70R-17 and 150/70R-17 B .... which is more expensive. Does anyone know the difference or which is the right tire for an F800GSA? PS: the front tire is 90/90-21 right?..... just checking.
R stands for radial construction and B means belted bias. A belted bias tyre starts life as a normal bias-ply tyre, then stabilizer belts are placed on top of the existing plies at different angles. This improves performance over non-belted, bias-ply tyres (also called cross-ply). Bottom line buy the tire you want, ran both, didn't notice a difference. by the time yuo can notice a difference you'll be about to change yuor tire again. The front is indeed a 90/90-21 tire.