TKC 80 / TKC 70 Rocks mix.

[BobFromAccounts]

Hi, I’m new to the forum so I thought I’d try to make friends quickly and post a tyre question . I’m no wizard in the world of forums and my searches on here seem just to return posts about rocks so has anybody tried a TKC 80 on the front together with a TKC 70 Rocks on the back?

I’m surrounded by gravel roads and want something that digs down through the top layer on the front while not sacrificing too much in the way of longevity on the rear and this seems like it could be a good combo. I’ve pretty much so made my mind up on trying this mix but I have no experience of Continentals ( I usually run Heidenau K60 Scouts on my T12 although I did get all patriotic once and fitted Avon Trailriders ) so any personal thoughts about the TKCs would be greatly appreciated, especially about the TKC 80 on tarmac.

[jdub53]

Hi Bob,

 

Not sure if this will be of any help for you as this doesn't directly involve the T7, but based upon my TKC-80 and TKC-70 Rocks experience on a couple of R1200GSs I think you'll have a great combo there for that type riding. As an aside, Contis are my favorite tires for ease of mounting/dismounting. 

 

I've used several pairs of TKC-80s over the years with good results both on- and off-road, getting from 5k to 7k miles out of each set (I always seem to get very good mileage out of my tires). No problem confidently getting the TKC-80s all the way to their edges cornering on dry pavement. I just used a TKC-70 Rocks on the back of my GS paired with a Dunlop Mission front for several thousand miles which included the Mid-Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Route. The Rocks was superb on both dry and wet pavement and I had zero complaints with it off road in all of the conditions I'd encountered. There is still a lot of life left in the Rocks, but I removed it for future use when I recently pulled the front Mission due to its tread splitting. (Sorry about the pic orientation, this forum seems to do that to any picture taken in portrait mode. Pic taken after I'd installed the Rocks and scrubbed it in.) 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by jdub53

[BobFromAccounts]

Thanks for the comments, greatly appreciated, knowing that the TKC 80 behaves itself on tarmac is reassuring and your estimates of mileages are also making me lean towards testing this combo.

The bike is brand new although it’s a 2021 model, I only managed to put 300km on the clock before winter reintroduced itself to this part of Sweden so I reckon I’ll swap out the tyres at the first service. I’ll post my initial impressions of the TKCs when I get the chance.