Heidenau K60

[soph9]

I am sorry but most tires are slippery on black snakes that are wet...and as far as hype? Perhaps...we are on our third set...the tires have taken us everywhere safely. We ride with care in the rain and never lost confidence in the tires. Perhaps we are just too careful? They last, have grip off road..and again...they are not a knobby tire...they are a DS tire that when you are riding on the pavement...and see that dirt road ahead of you...no need to stop...you just keep going and going...and I mean going...last set had over 23,000 KM and still tread left.

[guzzimike]

Well, on the strength of this thread I fitted a rear K60 to my F800GS for a recent trip across Australia.
This trip was mostly dirt, we never traveled at more than 120km/hr, to conserve fuel.
That tyre was toast at less than 4000km.
Go figure.

[WoodWorks]

Originally Posted by guzzimike

That tyre was toast at less than 4000km.

Got any pictures of that tire? Considering that I've never gotten less than 13,000km on any K60 rear that I've fitted, and usually get ~17,000km, I'm wondering at what point you consider a tire "toast."

[guzzimike]

Originally Posted by WoodWorks

Got any pictures of that tire? Considering that I've never gotten less than 13,000km on any K60 rear that I've fitted, and usually get ~17,000km, I'm wondering at what point you consider a tire "toast."

Sorry, no pics, but there was about 3mm of tread left in the centre, and disappearing before my eyes.

[ride2little]

Originally Posted by FredRydr

This is precisely why I cannot understand how the internet hype about these tires gained such momentum. It reminds me of the children's story of the Emperor's New Clothes.

Fred

Ha. Some fairy tale. Good adult reading.

As for the tires... My experience with these has been quite good. Yes, they're a harder compound tire, no question. But I have railed with these tires and they have not left me wondering. If you ride 2-3k miles a year, maybe they're not for you It would take too long to wear them out. Bit if you're putting on the miles or taking an extended trip, i think they're fantastic.

And if I were king, I might just run around naked anyway. Because I could.

[ebrabaek]

Originally Posted by FredRydr

This is precisely why I cannot understand how the internet hype about these tires gained such momentum. It reminds me of the children's story of the Emperor's New Clothes.

Fred

Perhaps they are all not created equal. I have about 1000 miles on my 18 inch run tubeless k-60. The thread pattern is a little different than the 17 is, but coming from a Karoo T.... The k-60 is every bit as safe laying it down in the corners.....same on the road snakes........and no difference on the wet road....But for sure wears less... The Karoo T's were done at just under 4000 miles. One major plus on the Scouts...... I had an issue with seapage between the tire and rim, and idiot me did not check the tirepressure before riding, and after 40 miles a little on the highway, and some dirt where I thought it hooked up really well, I took it easy..... after riding home... there were 5 psi in the tire, and it kept the bead hooked. ( Excel rim build tubeless by Woody) That was very impressive. I have not rock hopped it yet, But I expect it will perform equally good. Could be the compound has changed......

[KMC1]

I switched back to Anakees today, my K60's have about 1000 miles on them now - I had 3 guys come over to me while I was strapping them onto the bike for the ride home wanting to know what's up.... They look basically new so I think they were like "what the??"

Too noisy, too slippery and in general I don't trust them. I will not be going back to the K60.


YMMV

[aGremlin]

Originally Posted by FredRydr

This is precisely why I cannot understand how the internet hype about these tires gained such momentum. It reminds me of the children's story of the Emperor's New Clothes.

All tyres have downsides, one way or another... What I like about the K60 is that it's an OK compromise between knobblies and road biased tyres. Noise, not an issue, I have earplugs, slippery, yes, in the rain on sealed roads definitely.

Flip side, fantastic life, and you can use on gravel and road, just ride accordingly (as you would on any tyre).

[Snowy]

Yeah, tyres seem to be super subjective.

On 650s and the 800, I've now used :

Deathwings
Tourance
K60
606
605
952
Mitas E09
Mitas E07
MitasC02
ChengShin
Pirelli Scorpion Trails
Pirelli Scorpion MT90AT


On road bikes I've run :
Pirelli Sports Demons
Pirelli Rosso Corsa


In winter below freezing the K60's were certainly slipperier than say a Tourance, certainly more slippery than a Sports Demon.

But, if you can't comprehend that at purchase you have no business riding a dual sport.

[Pabigwoods]

Originally Posted by KMC1

I switched back to Anakees today, my K60's have about 1000 miles on them now - I had 3 guys come over to me while I was strapping them onto the bike for the ride home wanting to know what's up.... They look basically new so I think they were like "what the??"

Too noisy, too slippery and in general I don't trust them. I will not be going back to the K60.


YMMV

Wow! what a difference from one person to another. I had a set on Anakee's just about wore out when I switched to my K60's. I have 5000miles on them now. I would never go back to the Annies. Yes they are noisy, but it reminds you that you are riding a dual sport. I have had no problems with mine on wet roads, and the roads I commute on have plenty of tar snakes. Naturally, I don't go insane with them, but I am not creeping along either. On dry roads rock solid. And way better than the Annies when the gravel starts. My only downside at this point is what it will be like to break the bead when it's time to change the rear. When it wears out.

[vtbob]

The Heideneau tires last a long time because they use hard rubber an stiff sidewall (less flexing..keep heat build up down). I think they are great for long dual sport adventure trips. They are MUCH better on wet muddy dirt roads, etc than the so called Dual Sport tire that come stock on most GS style bikes. I have saved a set with 11000 miles with another 5000 atleast left for my next long distance dirt road endeavor.

The difference in tires (other than wear) can only be seen on the limits of their adhesion performance. Most of the time, and most riders, (me too). ride carefully, ride to less than 50% of their bikes and tires abilities. ALL tire work just fine at this level of performance...evan the $30 chinese cheapoos.

The stock GS tire (Tourances, Anakies, etc) are essentially street tires with a bit more open tread. The have very good street compounds for pavement. In good clean and dry pavement their will you to allow you to lean over and scrap you pegs/side stand in the twisties. (ie 90% or 9 ths riding). I would strongly recommend you NOT to this with any semi-knobby ie Heidenau like tire. The rubber contact area on the road is 20 to 40% less (ie the knobs) so evan if the rubber was identical the traction limit will be much less. On top of this Heideneau use hard but very long lasting rubber. It does not have the same adhesion performance, at the limits, as a stickier tire. These less adnesion limits are exacerbated on tar snakes and wet roads. Heidenieaus have less grip in these circumstance than most other tires.

Just keep this in mind when you need to break hard on wet pavement or are getting in on in the twisties when the other guys have stickier "norma;"GS tires.

[Snowy]

Oh...goodness.

Common sense in a tyre thread.

Whatever will you think of next.

[Dadayama]

Originally Posted by Pabigwoods

Wow! what a difference from one person to another. I had a set on Anakee's just about wore out when I switched to my K60's. I have 5000miles on them now. I would never go back to the Annies. Yes they are noisy, but it reminds you that you are riding a dual sport. I have had no problems with mine on wet roads, and the roads I commute on have plenty of tar snakes. Naturally, I don't go insane with them, but I am not creeping along either. On dry roads rock solid. And way better than the Annies when the gravel starts. My only downside at this point is what it will be like to break the bead when it's time to change the rear. When it wears out.

Your not kidding about breaking the bead... I changed my rear K60 today, i had to get my wife, and son involved and the three us put our combined weight into it and finally popped it loose. after that, it wasn't that hard to get off.

[KMC1]

Originally Posted by Pabigwoods

Wow! what a difference from one person to another. I had a set on Anakee's just about wore out when I switched to my K60's. I have 5000miles on them now. I would never go back to the Annies. Yes they are noisy, but it reminds you that you are riding a dual sport. I have had no problems with mine on wet roads, and the roads I commute on have plenty of tar snakes. Naturally, I don't go insane with them, but I am not creeping along either. On dry roads rock solid. And way better than the Annies when the gravel starts. My only downside at this point is what it will be like to break the bead when it's time to change the rear. When it wears out.

You're not the first to say basically the same thing - I posted waaaaay back in this thread about 2 bad experiences with them in the wet, 1 being a nice sweeping corner on asphalt at speed where I almost lost the front, then the back, then had a mini tank slapper, and the other being a wicked slide on a wet cattle grate (not really the tires fault on that, but it really was like I hit ice).

Since that post I also had a face plant offroad at speed due to the front not climbing out of a shallow (2") rut that had dust on it. You could see where there were rubber marks in the rut where the tire just couldn't climb out. That fall resulted in some expensive damage to the bike, and a black and blue from my ribcage to my knee..... And this is all within the first 1000 miles

I'm going to stay street oriented for street, and dirt oriented for dirt from now on. Just not worth the compromise to me.
If I'm on a trip expecting mixed surfaces, I'm going to default to TKC's or similar and deal with the poor mileage.

YMMV.

[montanaman]

So I put on the newer K60's ( 18 inch rear wide center tread) after 3k miles on the OEM Anakee 2's because I was going to do more off road/dual sport riding. I've done fairly aggressive off roads, deep sand,rocks and a 1500 mile tarmac ride from AZ to Montana. Rain slicked cold roads in Yellowstone and I just did 60 miles of twisty's this weekend up the Angeles Crest Hwy where I had a toe or two touch the ground. So far they have been all that they have been hyped up to be. Maybe I am too trusting but I have never felt un-easy while riding on them. I have not had a ton of wet riding but so far so good. The only issue is they are squaring off a bit on the rear after my long cross country trip but 5k miles in and they look like they are good for another 5k. I think I will be putting a new set on when these are toast..