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Anyone running ADV/DS tires?


shinyribs

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I did a search and didn't find much, but apologies if this is a re-post.

I'm considering some ADV tires in the near future and wonder what others have used and how they liked them. 

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@zombiphone has Shinko 705 DS tires on hers with good results. I know this because I read her book, Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy, which I highly recommend.  She had some great adventures and is a very good writer. 

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Thanks. Yes, I've read her whole blog recently. Seems like she got some decent wear out of 705's. I'd love to hear her thoughts on how they handle wet pavement. 

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I'm on a second set of Avon Trailrider.  The rear tire last 12200 km (7500 miles). The front tire is near the end of its lifetime at about 17 497 km (10900 miles). Just riding a mix of paved and unpaved road. Very few fire road. Would love to try the Avon Trekrider but no size available for the front.  But i'll replace the FZ with an adventure bike. I'm just waiting for the reviews of the Ténéré 700 next summer.

 

I was a fan of the Avon Distanzia when i had a V-Strom 1000 and a WR250X.

 

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past bikes: WR250X, KLR650, V-Strom 1000, DR650, FZ-6, SV650S, Seca II, GS400S, Seca 750, YZ80.

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20 minutes ago, lonerider said:

I'm on a second set of Avon Trailrider.  The rear tire last 12200 km (7500 miles). The front tire is near the end of its lifetime at about 17 497 km (10900 miles). Just riding a mix of paved and unpaved road. Very few fire road. Would love to try the Avon Trekrider but no size available for the front.  But i'll replace the FZ with an adventure bike. I'm just waiting for the reviews of the Ténéré 700 next summer.

 

I was a fan of the Avon Distanzia when i had a V-Strom 1000 and a WR250X.

 

Thanks. It's odd but I've never known anyone to run an Avon around here. I will definitely look in to the Trailrider. Thanks for the heads up. 

 

BTW, how do you like them on wet roads? I'm always a bit skeptical of rain manners when I see such large tread blocks. 

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DewMan and I are loading up the bikes and going into the mountains of Georgia soon and I've thought about checking out a fire road or two while there. Some ADV tires would be very helpful for trails like this, considering I run into a some mud or a slick hill but not totally necessary so I haven't pulled the trigger on new tires just yet. 

 

Beemer

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I feel the same way. I'd like to give them a try, but I see myself getting carried away and ripping off an oil pan. 😂 I've been travelling gravel roads on street tires my whole life with little to no issues. I'm still on the fence. 

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2 hours ago, shinyribs said:

I feel the same way. I'd like to give them a try, but I see myself getting carried away and ripping off an oil pan. 😂 I've been travelling gravel roads on street tires my whole life with little to no issues. I'm still on the fence. 

Yep, I might get squirrely and make trouble for myself. I think I'll pass. I can handle the rear tire sliding around searching for traction. Ain't nuttin' butta thang, Wang! 😎 lol!

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Beemer

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FWIW I have Shinko 705s on a 200cc  chinese dual sport. To me the tread pattern is more road suited than off road. They are very squirrelly in sand and not great in mud. The treads cake up in mud. In the sand they seen to want to dig in and throw you off the bike.  On the street, hard pack and gravel they do fine.

 

I would not ride my FZ off pavement. It would get damaged.  The air filter is not the best of the dusty conditions either.

00V0V_fMvGPKJXaI8_600x450.jpg

00U0U_hISSC8s4ryX_600x450.jpg

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I've run the Shinko 705 for about a year or 5000 miles, mostly pave, some dirt and gravel roads, probably 80 street 20 dirt, mostly all dry. Fine on the road and gravel.

No noticeable wear. I'm thinking they should give great durability, value for the money.

Aggressive tread improves traction over street, off road, but it's not designed as an off road all conditions tire.

Great for Moto touring and ADV riding, good price and durability for street/ light trail.

For the price, gives some off road ability/improvement while retaining decent street ability/durability. That's their value imho.

Where and how you ride is the deciding factor.

If you want to do serious and aggressive off road, these aren't the tires and this isn't the bike for it. Can be done but limited.

Edited by Spitfire
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I have a mate in my riding group who runs the Continental TKC40's on his SV650 and another mate who runs the Mitas E07's on his MT-03. Both handle great on and off the road but with tyres, everything is a compromise.

The TKC40's have very good on and off road grip in wet and dry as they're quite sticky. The downside is, they don't last.

The E07's have good grip on and off road but suffer in the wet as they're not very sticky. The upside is, they last much longer.

The Shinko's I've run myself before on a GS500, but they're nowhere near as good off road as the two above. I only rode the bike a couple of times as it was a custom build which I sold so I can't comment on their durability. They're probably a good compromise though.

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The TKC40's didn't come up on continentals web site (discontinued???) but the TKC 70's and 80's did. both popular tires and the 70's being the newer and smoother design for the Road. The 80's being a little more aggressive knobby for the dirt but a popular tire it appears. 

WWW.CONTINENTAL-TIRES.COM

Continental TKC 80 was first unveiled 30 years ago

As far as Shinko's go there are a few that would work better off road than the 705's (which look great for road, not so much dirt) and they are the 804/805 Big Block tire, Shinko 700 dual sport and the dual sport 244 which are cheap and my choice if I had to choose. I think the tread design would grip better in the dirt with it's smaller knobbies.

WWW.REVZILLA.COM

Shinko Motorcycle Tires - Free Shipping, No Hassle Returns and the Lowest Prices - Guaranteed

 

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Beemer

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22 hours ago, shinyribs said:

BTW, how do you like them on wet roads? I'm always a bit skeptical of rain manners when I see such large tread blocks. 

For my FZ-07, i rode with the Bridgestone BT-023 ans Pirelli Anget GT. I don't ride agressively under rain, but i have to say that i don't see a diffrence between the BT-023 and the Avon Trailrider. The Angel Gt is a bit softer.

Sure i rode some gravel road with street tire. But with 80 to 90% road tire, it's more fun. I found that the front end handle better than with a 100% road tire.

 

Used to do some track days with a SV650S. If it can help to give an idea of my riding style.  

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past bikes: WR250X, KLR650, V-Strom 1000, DR650, FZ-6, SV650S, Seca II, GS400S, Seca 750, YZ80.

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On ‎4‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 9:50 PM, shinyribs said:

Thanks. It's odd but I've never known anyone to run an Avon around here. I will definitely look in to the Trailrider. Thanks for the heads up. 

 

BTW, how do you like them on wet roads? I'm always a bit skeptical of rain manners when I see such large tread blocks. 

No ADV or endure tire is going to handle as well on the road, especially a wet one so there is a trade off for sure and the ride on the road is going to have more vibration. I personally wouldn't get knobbies (like the TKC 80's) on any street bike unless I knew for sure I would be spending a lot of time in the dirt. To me, these ADV tires like the Shinko 705's that aren't knobby like but more street like are a waste of money because all you're doing is sacrificing 'better tire grip' on road for 'no better grip' off road. In the gravel they behave the same as a street tire, > left to right slop. Just my honest, personal opinion. 

Here's a review on the Knobby type TKC 80's: 

tkc80web.jpg?fit=240%2C333&ssl=1
OVERLANDMAG.COM

Overland tyres are necessarily a compromise. ‘Knobblies’ on the road aren’t ideal by their very nature, as the blocks of rubber that...

 

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Beemer

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Awesome to see some input on this! Yeah, the FZ does not belong truly offroad. I have a XR400 with a tag I use for the gnarly stuff. The FZ would just be for bombing around dirt roads, camping areas,etc. Maybe the occasional trip through an open pasture or something. Our rims are too delicate and the sump is just too low to the ground. Even if you laced up some wire rims and protected the sump I think the chassis design would eventually fail under hard terrain.  I'm afraid if I had a decent ADV tire on my FZ I would end up pushing the bike too hard.

 

Beemer, I've got a buddy that runs TKC80's on his SV650. He admits he rides easier than me and says he gets 3500 miles out of a rear. But he loves them and says they give up nothing on the road, wet or dry. Shinkos 804/805 version of this tire isn't available in our sizes, but the rear is paddle shaped, so would probably lack serious lateral grip. Which could be fun just for bombing back roads.

I like the look of the TKC70 rear tire, the front I'm not sold on. Those are available in our sizes, but they are serious money. A 705 seems to have wider tread spacing than the TKC70 front.

My KLR had 705's when I bought it. Their dry paved grip was great, but they were sketchy as f@#k in the rain. But they were like 6 years old, so it may not have really been the tires fault. I didn't ride them enough to learn much, but yeah, there's no real dirt tread going on. I'm apprehensive of their wet road grip, but can't really say with my limited use. I

I burned up a bunch of tires on my old KLR. My favorite combo ended up being a Shinko 244 rear with a Shinko 700 front. Most dual sport front tires suck so bad. The front and rear tires are always identical tread patterns and that just does not work. The problem with a 244 front is the shrunken tread pattern to fit a narrow front tire. The tread is way too close together to work, but it's still fairly deep tread. So you end up with lots of skinny llittle rubber nubs that flex like mad on road but grip nothing offroad. A 700 front works way better than it's looks suggest. It has wider lug spacing than a 244 so it actually can grip in dirt, but the tread is arranged in a way that is gives good lateral traction and runs quiet on road. With a 700 front/244 rear I was putting 4k miles on a pair with no discernible wear, and I am hard on tires! On a 700/244 setup you can drag KLR pegs on the road and they are great on the road. Super smooth and quiet The only problem I found is the 244 will lock up under braking on a wet road VERY EASY. I don't understand why it wet brakes so poorly because it would corner fine. Obsiously a tread orientation issue and not compound related? I've never used a 700 rear. The tread seems too shallow and closely spaced for a rear tire, and the 244/270 is proven to work well, so why risk success. But I think the 700 would be a great choice for the 07.

Between a Shinko 244 rear and a Kenda 270, the 270 tread is sightly taller and wider gapped. Should be slightly better in the dirt ( actual dirt), but I'm not sure how it will corner with the separated edge blocks vs the 244's joined blocks. A guy I know uses 270's on his Sportster (he ran 705's on his FZ07) and loves them, so they can corner a full size bike just fine. I'm building a XL500S now and have a 700/270 setup on it. I can't wait :)

 

But the 700/244/270 tires aren't available in sizes to fit our bikes. I wouldn't hesitate to toss a pair of 700's on my FZ in a heartbeat. I emailed Shinko about different sizes, begging them to start producing the 700 in modern adv bikes sizes. But if you look at the specs, the 700 weight capacities and speed ratings are really low. Not sure that tire could handle a big bike, but the tread pattern/compound works very well. There are some 17" sizes available, but you'd be really going outside the design parameter putting them on sport bike rims. The aspect ratios are all wrong and they are rear tires anyway. 

 

One thing that knobby tires do on pavement that some people don't expect is they skip over gravel very well. When you round a corner on a paved backroad and hit a little skiff of gravel they will tiptoe right through without issue where a street tire will be lifted off the road and forced to roll along the gravel. Damn, I wish I could get a pair of 700's for my 07! Alright, I'm done rambling....

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On 4/16/2019 at 12:13 PM, shinyribs said:

Thanks. Yes, I've read her whole blog recently. Seems like she got some decent wear out of 705's. I'd love to hear her thoughts on how they handle wet pavement. 

It seems like this has been addressed already, but just for my two cents- I haven't had any issues with grip in anything from tornado weather outside Florida, to coldAF rain in New England, to a snowstorm in Colorado, to the torrential downpours of Central America rain forests in monsoon season, to up to my knee stream crossings- so they get my stamp of approval on wet roads.

The only time I've ever had issues with traction is deep sand (Because FML), slick mud, and impressively bad, "how did that ever make sense to me" user error. I've turned down free sets of tires to buy these instead. They're still my favorite adventure mod I did. But my dirt skills are comical, so I need all the help I can get, haha!

That said- I'm pretty safe and sane when I'm riding on the street, so I can't speak for super aggressive "knee dragging on a rainy day" kind of  riding. 

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Published 'Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy' a book about my travels on the FZ, and a writer for Motorcyclist Magazine

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@shinyribs  I was eye balling those 700's, too and other than looking real good, they looked like they would do a decent job in some real dirt. Good point about the knobs going around rocks rather than over them and messing with your traction. 👍 

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Beemer

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