I just bought a used DRZ 400s and am in need of tires. I am looking for a 50 (onroad)/ 50 (off), maybe a 60/40. I live in W.NC in the mountains and plan on using the bike as a toy- but it will have to ride to the trail most times (1 hour or less). Everything that I am seeing looks either like a mx tire or a straight up street tire.
I have a set of Kenda 270's on my XRL. I like them for what I do which is mostly gravel riding with the occasional dirt when it's available. If you want a more aggresive DOT tire the Dulop 606 may be more your thing. But with this being another "tire thread" you are going to get many opinions.
I think the subject has been covered 205 times, search is your friend, theres hundereds of pages. Just get a cheap set of Cheng Shins dot legal and actually not bad in pavement and dirt, mud leaves a lot to be desired. I run IRC VE33 and VE35 on my ATK's that see almost no pavement,
The Pirelli MT21 and Dunlop 606 are probably the two most popular DOT knooby-style tires sold, both front and rear. I've been running a few sets of 606 rear and Dunlop 908 front, and this has worked well for my needs. The Kenda 760 is a more aggressive rear with the Continental TKC80 being a milder rear tire, compared to the MT21 and 606. The TKC80 front tire is also milder, but will deliver around 10,000 miles. Some people like the Kenda 270, even more mild, but I think its road manners suck hairy maggot balls. It's common for riders to run one model of front and a different model rear. Try em all...
I have a friend that runs a trials tire on the rear of his plated DRz400 he raves about it, he said he had to learn to ride all over again, if the dirt it would have so much traction that he stalled the engine several times before getting use to a tire that didn't spin. I don't remember what tire he had on the front. I think people over look them cause of the tiny knobs, but if you've ever watched a trials video, then guys are amazing the stuff those tires stick to.
Thanks for all of the replys. I am thinking that the Continental may be about what I am looking for. Keep the replys and experience coming.
http://www.dirtrider.com/features/141_0705_trials_tire_comparison/index.html just found this article, might be worth reading.
Dunlop 606's are quite good for 50/50 use imho They look a lot like an MX tire but work surprisingly well on the street and still not too far off a mx tire in the dirt. You won't be dragging pegs on the street with them, but you can still have a bit of fun:)
I ran into a couple of guys from Georgia riding little KTMs up in BFE Colorado and they had trials tires on the rear, said they did well, espcially over the rocks, but weren't long lasting.
I recently started running a D606 up front and a Maxxis M6006 out back. This combo has great bite/hookup on and offroad under a variety of conditions. It's also pretty cheap. With only 200 miles on both tires, I can't report wear, but if I get at least 3K-4K out of the set, I will say that they were certainly worth it!
I started running TKC 80's and have no complaints. I ride a lot of gravel / dirt roads and of course pavement. I've got about 2k miles on them now with minimal wear. Guessing I will probally get about 5k to 7k out of the rear. They do way better on pavement than I was expecting.
Well it came down to the Conti- TKC80 or the Pirelli MT-21. I decided to go with more of a knobby and I'm pretty cheap so I ordered the MT-21's.
A fellow WNC rider...what up man? Anyways, being that you live here in the mountains and want to connect to all the trials/FS roads, I would start with the 606 front and rear. If that's too expensive for your blood, give the el-cheapo Cheng Shins a try. I run those on my 60/40 bike, an XR600R.
That sounds great. I'm just getting started in the woods. I just picked up the bike 3/16/08. I'm really looking forward to learning some of the trails and forgotten logging roads. Do you ride with the Acme group?
