Off road novice TYRES

[Mixy]

Hi all,

finally received  T7 Rally after long wait in late summer. 2,500km (road) on her and love it’s handling on STRs. 

 

Having rode sports and track days (novice) in the past I want to learn off road. Watched couple of vids on YouTube for technique and I am wondering can anyone recommend a good tyre for the winter off road season. 

 

No plans for riding on road bar getting to a limited amounts of local trails. Mainly gravel roads with an emphasis on wet grass with the odd little bit of muck/mud. 
 

I have noticed the STRs are awful on wet grass. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

thanks 

[Ray Ride4life]

I think wet grass is awful with any tyre because you have 2 options on grass.
The ground is firm so the knobs won't grip in the sand below or the ground is mushy and in this case you also have 2 options, it's either muddy or it's like riding on a sponge and all options are slippery.

Michelin Anakee Adventure have a block pattern and do great on the road, in gravel and firm sand (the average forest roads) and in the wet but are less in loose sand and mud. These i run on my Crosstourer and did get me out of a muddy situation even though it is a heavy bike and was fully loaded as it was on a 3 week tour through the Balkans.
At the moment i have the Michelin Anakee Wild on my T7 and the Mitas E09 with a Anakee Wild on the front on the XT660Z.
Next set on the T7 will be a Mitas E09 in the back and the E10 or E12 in the front and for my trip to the North Cape in July i think i will mount a set Anekee Adventure as i expect most tarmac and gravel. That trip will be around 8300km and the Adventures last about 15k km on the heavy Crosstourer and the Mitas or Wild's do just around 8k km.
So it just depends on the situation.

[Hammerhead]

What NOT  to try. Pass on the Mitas (or as I’ve dubbed them, Meltass) E10’s.  At least out back.

 Pic 1 is after their first (albeit aggressive) off road excursion, less than 100km old.

 Pic 2 is 3000km later. Pretty much toast. 

  Needless to say I won’t buy again, no matter how “affordable” they are. 

[Ray Ride4life]

The E10 is good as a front tyre but i think the E12 would be better, the E09 dakar in the rear last longer but is rubbish as a front (not very stable).

[Hammerhead]

9 hours ago, Ray Ride4life said:

The E10 is good as a front tyre but i think the E12 would be better, the E09 dakar in the rear last longer but is rubbish as a front (not very stable).

Liked the E10 front too. (At first) respectable performance on & off road.  Sadly though, this tubeless unit has revealed multiple of these trickling little leaks around the bead. Which wouldn’t matter to anyone still running tubes. 
  Bright side is, the outex kit (that was first suspect) remains 100% . 
  Final nail in the mitas E10 coffin for me, won’t be buying them again.