I hate how Tenere handles.

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3 hours ago, Wintersdark said:

Yep.  I badmouth the Pirelli's all the time ... but they're extremely good on dry tarmac ...and quite competent on regular dirt roads.

 

I don't think I've had mine over 100kph on dirt either; I think around 90 on gravel is the fastest I've pushed it there - here in Alberta, we've got some gravel roads that are *long* and straight, and visibility extends for kilometers.  Not fun to ride in the least, but a necessity to get to some of the fun places.  .

 

"Quite competent on regular dirt roads", what are they   Everything around here is hardpacked dirt with a layer of stoney gravel over it.  Sometimes quite deep too where it builds up between the tire tracks and on the edge.  I just got back from testing the stegpegz and I took a side road I hadn't been up before.  It was typical for out here but then it got pretty steep, and very gravelly.  I came back down in 2nd and at one point found my self in a bed of sharp gravel a couple of inched deep.  It's ok at 30km/h, I let the momentum and a little gas carry me through but the wheels were skittering all over the place.

 

I know where there are hard sandy trails but they are miles away.  No, I have to bin these tires, I'll do it at the 10k service if they last that long and I'll practice a lot more on the 250.  It has great knobbies on it.  Howl like a stuck pig onroad but offroad, very tractable.   There are some nice long tarmac rides around my way so I'll use the T7 there predominantly.  Bit of a bitch really, this Dual purpose thing, you'll never get a tire your completely happy with everywhere.

[Tenerider]

3 hours ago, Wintersdark said:

Yep.  I badmouth the Pirelli's all the time (abysmal in cold, not great in mud or really lose terrain) but they're extremely good on dry tarmac (frankly quite competitive with midrange sport touring tires) and quite competent on regular dirt roads. As far as stock tires go I think they were a brilliant choice for the T7.  Good enough to do anything normal offroad, and definitely showcase the bike on tarmac.

 

(...)

Spot on!!! I've just finished breaking in my Anakee Wilds and already miss the STRs a bit. I guess I'll never go back to them, but they tracked extremely well in the local mountain roads (which vary from long smooth twisties to very sharp/steep/narrow turns). The Michelins don't offer the same smoothness, but require more effort and definitely are worse in stopping power (especially the rear I think).

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4 hours ago, Tenerider said:

Spot on!!! I've just finished breaking in my Anakee Wilds and already miss the STRs a bit.

 

I'm going to go something a little more aggressive I think.  I have to get the edge on this gravel

 

[Wintersdark]

22 hours ago, winddown said:

 

I'm going to go something a little more aggressive I think.  I have to get the edge on this gravel

 

Hands down always my recommendation.  I like my GPS's a lot, but I'll definitely do much the same.  I've run Adventures myself, and ridden bikes with the Dual Venture front/Rallz rear combination, and they're objectively superior offroad.  The GPS is much nicer onroad and a massive improvement over the stock tires offroad, but the centerband does show it's flaws in either snow or mud.   Meanwhile the Rallz and Adventure rears just grab anything... but are loud as hell on pavement

 

Definitely get the Dual Venture front vs. an Adventure front or Rallz.  The Adventure front is a flatly inferior tire ("Dual Venture" is just the evolution of the Adventure front), and the Rallz front, while good, wears very fast without a significant traction improvement vs. the reversible Dual Venture.

[Tenerider]

1 hour ago, Wintersdark said:

Hands down always my recommendation.  I like my GPS's a lot, but I'll definitely do much the same.  I've run Adventures myself, and ridden bikes with the Dual Venture front/Rallz rear combination, and they're objectively superior offroad.  The GPS is much nicer onroad and a massive improvement over the stock tires offroad, but the centerband does show it's flaws in either snow or mud.   Meanwhile the Rallz and Adventure rears just grab anything... but are loud as hell on pavement

 

Definitely get the Dual Venture front vs. an Adventure front or Rallz.  The Adventure front is a flatly inferior tire ("Dual Venture" is just the evolution of the Adventure front), and the Rallz front, while good, wears very fast without a significant traction improvement vs. the reversible Dual Venture.

Good to have some experience-based comparison between those tires!

I always had an affection for MotoZ, but wasn't sure if the GPS would be an improvement over stock. Once I've worn out my Anakees, I might give them a try (or even the Adventure/Dual Venture combo). I didn't pull the trigger on them yet because they were said to have a very hard compound which is horrible in wet conditions. But they seem to have changed to a silica compound recently?

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1 hour ago, Wintersdark said:

 I like my GPS's a lot, but I'll definitely do much the same. ..   Meanwhile the Rallz and Adventure rears just grab anything... but are loud as hell on pavement

 

Definitely get the Dual Venture front vs. an Adventure front or Rallz.

 

Loud as hell, well that could be subjective I suppose hey, and I often wear earplugs.  I've ridden my XT up the highway, at 100km/h (just) and I could live with that noise, it has super knobbies.  As I said, I just need to get a grip in the loose gravel over hardpack so if I go too far in that direction, so be it.

[winddown]

20 minutes ago, Tenerider said:

Good to have some experience-based comparison between those tires!

I always had an affection for MotoZ, but wasn't sure if the GPS would be an improvement over stock

 

After reading your post yesterday I went and looked at youtubes on the Anakee Wilds.  Lots of offroad on hardpack but I didn't see anyone riding it in the really rough stuff or on loose gravel.  Whereas the Rallz were all over the gravel.  Later on I could go back to a something more like the GPS, something easier on the hwy.

[Ray Ride4life]

22 minutes ago, winddown said:

 

After reading your post yesterday I went and looked at youtubes on the Anakee Wilds.  Lots of offroad on hardpack but I didn't see anyone riding it in the really rough stuff or on loose gravel.  Whereas the Rallz were all over the gravel.  Later on I could go back to a something more like the GPS, something easier on the hwy.

 

[winddown]

19:09  That was me coming down the hill the other day on the STR's.  All over the place like a mad dog's breakfast

[winddown]

I wonder what these are? 

 

 

[Ray Ride4life]

3 minutes ago, winddown said:

I wonder what these are? 

 

 

Since he's sponsored by Pirelli i guess it's the Scorpion Rally PRO in the rear and the Scorpion Rally in the front.

[winddown]

Yeah, figures.  Not very aggressive there hey, just a nice dirt road.

[winddown]

I'll take some pix tomorrow of the roads I ride to bring some quantitative analysis to the discussion.

[Wintersdark]

7 hours ago, Tenerider said:

Good to have some experience-based comparison between those tires!

I always had an affection for MotoZ, but wasn't sure if the GPS would be an improvement over stock. Once I've worn out my Anakees, I might give them a try (or even the Adventure/Dual Venture combo). I didn't pull the trigger on them yet because they were said to have a very hard compound which is horrible in wet conditions. But they seem to have changed to a silica compound recently?

 

Not even very recently, it's been a few years.  I've run my Motoz Adventures and GPS both in rain, slush and snow - including 100kph in heavy falling snow and slush on a highway - and had suprisingly good traction.  It IS a very hard compound, but unlike the old ones of ~5+ years ago the high silica compound really grips in wet and cold.  This recent winter was all GPS every day, last was Adventures - the original plan was to switch to the studded Adventures, but the GPS even unstudded did so well it wasn't necessary.  

 

The real crazy difference between GPS and stock is in mileage. My stock tires where showing heavy wear after just a couple thousand miles, whereas my GPS rear still has over a full centimeter of tread left some 6000 miles in.  I fully expect to see 15,000 miles out of the GPS. 

 

5 hours ago, Ray Ride4life said:

Since he's sponsored by Pirelli i guess it's the Scorpion Rally PRO in the rear and the Scorpion Rally in the front.

I've heard people praise Pirelli's on Tenere's all the time, talking scorpion rallies, but it's always with those pictured tires not the stock tires on the T7.  The rear looks very similar, the front totally different.  I'm genuinely curious how they work, but I've never seen them in stores and am always kind of irritated because they're named so similarly to the T7 stock tires it's kind of misleading.  Best I can tell they're these: 

 

Rear: 

Just a moment...

Note the lack of "STR" - there's a bigger gap between the tread blocks on these

 

and front:

Just a moment...

 

[Ray Ride4life]

I think the Scorpion PRO is a real enduro tyre and maybe not available in 150.
No experience with Pirelli but i have a 2,5" rim so maybe i will get to the PRO one day, for now i still have a set of K60 Rangers and i'm not sure what i will try after this when i also change the rear rim and continue with 140 rear tyres.

[Wintersdark]

7 hours ago, Ray Ride4life said:

I think the Scorpion PRO is a real enduro tyre and maybe not available in 150.
No experience with Pirelli but i have a 2,5" rim so maybe i will get to the PRO one day, for now i still have a set of K60 Rangers and i'm not sure what i will try after this when i also change the rear rim and continue with 140 rear tyres.

Could be, I was sorting by stock Tenere tire sizes.