The Great DualSport Tire Shootout!

[Lornce]

First up is Metzler's Sahara: Here's how it looked after 4000 kms or about 2400 miles.



Was on the bike when I bought it, glad I didn't pay for it. Worked well on and off pavement. Inspired real confidence on paved twisties and hooked up well on dry gravel forest service roads. Didn't really get a chance ot try them in mud and sludge, but don't imagine they'd work any better than they look. Only knobbies work well in mud and sludge. Considering the mileage the delivered I wouldn't ever buy them. 606 Dunlops are a serious knobby and they'd outlast them. And they're great off-road.


Next up is the Heidenau (sp?!?) K60 rear in 120/80-18. Picked this puppy up at a foo-foo Honda dealer in Vancouver's chi chi Granville Village. Nearly fell over when the parts kid said it was $97. Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause. It's seen 5.5k kms so far and it's holding up strong at maybe 1/2 worn. Works great on pavement, sticks really well in the bends and provides a nice ride quality. Works well off-road and on gravel roads, too. Gives you confidence to maintain a spirited pace on forest service roads and etc. Given their performance capability I think they're an excellent value. Would definitely buy them again.






The real surprise is this Mitas knobby front tire (not sure what model it is or how much they cost?) which apparently is a "Dakar" compound as denoted by the yellow stripe (thanks BMWRSNUT). This thing's still going strong at 9.5k kms. Pictured here at 4k kms, it works great everywhere, pavement, gravel, mucky trails etc. I dug it. Knobby tires are not supposed to work this well on high speed twisty pavement. I was astounded and very pleased by it's over all performance on every type of riding surface. It's longevity is just a gimme, and very sweet icing on the cake.

My new favourite dual sport front tire?






Ride on, Old School Fools.

[Rapid Dog]

...looks like you did some real damage to the bridge Lornce. Best beat it outta there.

[hardwaregrrl]

So.....I wouldn't recommend taking gravel corners at speed on the Shinko 244 "Golden Boy".



Whoops?!

[One Less Harley]

DO tell.............

[hardwaregrrl]

Ahhh.....not much to tell. Gravel road, going 50 or so , was about to take a right, and even had time to flick the signal on for Mike who was behind me, so I'm guessing I was going 30 at the turn. 90 degree right turn, front washed out, I went down hard on the right as the bike did a 180 on the valve head. That thing was shattered into a bunch of pieces. Some I couldn't find. JB weld and duct tape got me a 100 yards.

Shit...I threw a bungie on it for good measure.





But riding bitch on KLR, got me home to my truck and trailer.

I guess the peanut covers really are thinner than the 80's style covers. I'm going back to those.

Mike looks like a proud papa with the valve cover.

[norton73]

Are you OK?


Scratch Shinko's from the list of tires I'm going to mount for the Old School Rally

[One Less Harley]

yeah they must be thin, mine (the ugly ones like it rough don'tcha know) stood up to 50-55mph grinding on pavement and are still being used. You could send SoloLobo your valve cover or you could give it to Brad as he'd probably still use it.

Good reason to run something like a Dunlop 606 or MT21 up front.

[hardwaregrrl]

Originally Posted by norton73

Are you OK?


Scratch Shinko's from the list of tires I'm going to mount for the Old School Rally

I'm fine....thanks Andy. I'm sure while I'm under my car trying to replace the CV axle tomorrow, I'll be bitchin' about my sore hip. I like the tire, it's a good and cheap comprimise. I just dont think I'll take any gravel corners at a speed above 20...I think I can do that.

[CoyoteCowboy]

Originally Posted by Lornce

The real surprise is this Mitas knobby front tire (not sure what model it is or how much they cost?) which apparently is a "Dakar" compound as denoted by the yellow stripe

My new favourite dual sport front tire?

I did some Googling and apparently Mitas is a division of Continental, but I'll be damned if I can figure out where to get them online. There actually is a distributor close to me, maybe a call to them would help. That looks like quite a tire and they offer several sizes in fronts and rears. I'm interested to know what they would cost.

[Box'a'bits]

The Aussie guys have got a thread up where the distributor is answering questions.

Actually just followed another link & see he is posting in the vendors section now as well.

[JamesOn2Wheels]

This is where you can buy Mitas motorcycle tires in the US. There are no motorcycle dealers that sell Mitas, only the direct e-sales site :

www.mitasmx.com/shop/

I talked to a sales rep from Mitas today. They hoped to sell a lot of motorcycle tires here, but they had a bad response from dealers nationwide...not like in EU and OZ where they are pretty successful. So they decided to go to the e-sales route - still slow as no one seems to know about it.

Neil, the sales rep. said that if there was more interest in the tires they would be glad to try to "re-introduce" them - or if they can find someone who would be willing to be the exclusive dealer...but this would take a pretty big commitment. I gave it a minutes thought.
They are good tires...if you have an interest in Mitas trying to expand a little...drop them a line in comments section, they ask for people to do this. They WOULD like to sell tires here.

Well that's all I know for now.

Zig

[SOLO LOBO]

[QUOTE=One Less Harley;16706481] You could send SoloLobo your valve cover or you could give it to Brad as he'd probably still use it.QUOTE]


Ouch

I actually run the later type covers as the are much tougher, as well as carrying a spare on rides... I've saved a few riders with my spare when their old-school cover was holed!

[bgoodsoil]

I prefer the uglier valve cover. Not because it's tougher, it just matches the rest of my bike.

I wreck my bike intentionally for the fun of it so my valve covers take some regular abuse. The 80s style cover can take a pounding. Do a donut grinding your valve cover and grab the front brake some time. It's a hoot!

Word of advice if it tries to pitch you: don't try to hold on. Your wrist will hate you.

[Mendodave]

Originally Posted by hardwaregrrl

I'm fine....thanks Andy. I'm sure while I'm under my car trying to replace the CV axle tomorrow, I'll be bitchin' about my sore hip. I like the tire, it's a good and cheap comprimise. I just dont think I'll take any gravel corners at a speed above 20...I think I can do that.

I did a very nice 270 a few weeks ago on the Magruder...baking along nicely, like you, about 20-30, I come around a corner and there is a truck coming my way. I must have tapped the front brake, but I spun 270 degrees on the crashbar and peanut valve cover. never touched the ground with my 'Stich, saddlebags, bars, or anything else. I must have been going fast enough to spin on the tires. Yikes. two nice holes in the valve cover. I flipped it to the other cylinder and rode on to Poet Creek campground where Mr. JB Weld came out to play. I am going back to the tougher, uglier valve covers too.

PS: bald Metzler Sahara 3 on front, Metzler ME88 on rear.

Mendo

[norton73]

Originally Posted by hardwaregrrl

I'm fine....thanks Andy. I'm sure while I'm under my car trying to replace the CV axle tomorrow, I'll be bitchin' about my sore hip. I like the tire, it's a good and cheap comprimise. I just dont think I'll take any gravel corners at a speed above 20...I think I can do that.

My first BMW was a R60/6, as my previous bikes had been Ducatis and Nortons, I wasn't used to the cylinders sticking out. One one of my first rides on the R60/6, I attempted to stuff it inside a friend's CB550 on a tight curve. Valve cover hit the ground, rear tire came up, somehow I slid to the outside of the curve, narrowly missing my friend's rear tire, almost high sided, but saved it. Wore the cover down some, but didn't break it.
On both the R60 and my later R90S I would wear through the cover, epoxy them up, and flip them over. Never broke one, even though I had a couple good low sides endurance racing the R90S.