pure agony deciding on motorcycle tires.

1st. they are expensive. more than my tacoma!! i got one quote installed and i went to my bike to count the number of tires i needed..yup. TWO! and there are a lot of choices!! off road vs road is a sliding scale. totally nuts.

i ended up ordering from REVZILLA. after much deliberation, i fell on the Dunlop Trailmax Missions.. a 50/50 tire for my Tiger Explorer 800XC. my current tires are fine, but i have essentially a street tire in the back, and the cheapest off road tire ever made on the front. some Shinko, and not the good one. the guy slapped on the cheapest tire and found me to buy it. hahha..

all was okay until i rode my bike with my panniers loaded with frozen beef and cold beer. that front tire sucked!!

i have a buddy with a tire mounting set up he bought from a shop going out of business. he offered to help, but i know he is busy. i'll probably just take my wheels off and drop them off at Cycle Gear.

 

Bridgestones were always my choice on my Yamahas. Good middle ground and had a lot of life. I think they were the bto16s. Now on my aprilia I run supercorsas. 500 for front a rear but you can find some deals on eBay. Depending on where you are in the Bay Area I have a guy near me who does all my maintenance out of his garage. Valves, tire changes, oil changes. Did a full rebuild on my brothers kawi Vulcan engine and he’s fairly priced. Tire changes were like $40-$60 each I think.

 

i'm in santa rosa. you?

 

Brentwood

 

I put the Trailmax on my Tiger about 4 months ago. Fantastic in everything San Diego area has to offer. Not much rain in that time, so I wont say they are awesome there, but very adequate at least.

Buy some levers and learn to replace tires. Save a bunch of money.

 

take it to moto medic hes down the street from cycle gear. he charges maybe $30-$40 very talkative person

 

I was pretty happy with the Mitas E07's on mine. Good life, stable on gravel, not bad on the highway.

 

I went with the new Dunlop Trailmax Missions. (Who names these things anyways?)

just got them on. Wrestling that rear wheel back on is a challenge. Stuff keeps dropping out.

 

This is the route I took. I ordered some spoons along with the tire and changed it out myself.
While it wasn’t exactly easy, I got it done, saved money and also learned a new skill. Plus I know it was done right and balanced well.

 

I run either commander II or Dunlop ultra elite

 

Let us know what you think about the Trailmax - I've had my eye on those for a while. I've gone through a couple sets of the Shinko 705s on my big Tiger and while the front hold up ok, the rear (three of them did this on me) plies separated which gives me some concerns. I just put a Conti TKC 70 on the rear and will probably do the same up front.

FWIW, I bought one of those Harbor Freight tire changers with the motorcycle wheel adapter like 20 years ago and it's more than paid for itself.

 

so far so good. even the rain was no issue.

I have not been off-road yet. they are a bit buzzy on the pavement. I can feel it in the bars.

 

I just had Pirelli Angel GTs installed on a Ninja 650R. These are very nice tires.

The bike is new to me and the Michelin pilots that were on it for 10 years old. They still had lots of tread, but in my opinion to old to trust for anything but around town.

 

I went the cheaper route, Shinko 804/805. $240 shipped from Amazon. So far they feel like a great tire. Mounted myself for the first time, learning from YouTube. Only pinched one tube. Got a spare and got everything buttoned up.

 

I’ve been looking at the E-p7+ to put on my new KLR 650, people have good things to say about them.
I don’t recall what comes stock on the KLR’s but I got stuck in a soft spot in the yard last night (it has been pretty wet here and this was below the pond dam but still…) and I think it’s time to upgrade.