[Lamontacycle]

I'm working on a scrambler style - don't call it dual-purpose conversion. I need the option of gravel and dirt roads a good 20% of the time. Can anybody recommend a good tire for this purpose? The 20% is mostly gravel roads, some dirt and snow. Tires plugging with mud or snow is a concern as that pretty much describes our driveway until I hit the highway. Maybe another way to look at it - does anybody have experience with the more blocky dual purpose tires for highway use - ride, handling, duration?

 

[Trickster]

Kenda K270 Enduro are decent and inexpensive. Pirelli Scorpion MT-90 are a less aggresive lug, but twice the price.

 

[50gary]

Check out "Tires Unlimited" they list alot of tire compaies and many Dual Purpose and off Road tires. Too many to list here.

Cheers, 50gary

 

[marshallf3]

Bridgestone makes quite a few different dual-sport tires, Google will turn up a ton of choices. They seem to have a great selection as far as leaning more towards mostly street to mostly dirt and tons inbetween.



I wouldn't buy anything but Bridgestone tires, over the past 20 years they've totally proven themselves to me.



For instance I've got a set of Potenza RE960AS Pole Position tires on my car. They're classified as an Ultra High Performance All-Season tire. I'm an extremely spirited driver when it comes to turning, changing lanes etc. I've got 46,000 miles on this set and they've still got tons of tread left. I've also had several chances to use them in ice and snow conditions - some pretty bad. I was able to do better than the 4 wheel drive SUVs I was driving along with.



On my Pace Car (before it got hit really bad by an uninsured motorist) I ran RE730 Ultra High Performance summer tires. This supercharged, fairly modified car put out a ton of power so tjhey got a lot of beatings. I only got around 40K miles before I had to replace them and when we pulled the old tires off one had two nails and another 6 nails in them yet they weren't losing any air. You couldn't see the nails as they had just worn down to the lower groove level in the tread.

 

[Lamontacycle]

Kenda K270 Enduro are decent and inexpensive. Pirelli Scorpion MT-90 are a less aggresive lug, but twice the price.

I like the looks of the Pirelli for my application. What type of mileage did you get out of that? Z

 

[brihenry]

Check out what Shinko has to offer - I had a 705 on the rear last year and it worked great....inexpensive as well....

 

[Hobbit on a Honda]

Rock On! Great pics. What camera are you using?



I'm amazed by how empty, and smooth the roads are in the west. Maybe I'll make it out there one day.

 

[NateDawg]

briguy....... me really really likes your rims.

 

[Lamontacycle]

Check out what Shinko has to offer - I had a 705 on the rear last year and it worked great....inexpensive as well....

Thanks on the tire. Looks good. I enjoyed the link and the pics, especially having travelled most of the roads (Live outside Madras). Did you stop at the race track in Grass Valley. Your bike is pretty close to what i'm looking to accomplish. I have a shinko tire on one of my bikes right now as it was the only one that I could find to fit it and have been quite pleased with it. Thanks for the link.

 

[brihenry]

Thanks Hobbit....I use a Kodak EasyShare Z710, it does take excellent Photos...



Thanks on the rims as well Natedawg, I haven't spent much time on them - they were in pretty good shape when I found the bike.



Lamonta - yeah, I think you'll like the 705's - that rear was 1 size wider than stock, but it seemed to lend more confidence in gravel/dirt...



This year I'm running Shinko 712's both front and rear....so far so good, done a fair amount of dirt and gravel with no issue: Can't see them real well in these pics, but I think they look good on the bike....these are from a bee-yoo-tee-ful ride last saturday

 

[mnd]

Another vote for Shinko 705s. I'm on my second set.

I've got a set of Kenda K760 Trakmasters mounted on my second wheel set to test out though...

 

[marshallf3]

Pretty mean looking tire, look like they're designed for hard to soft dirt but still streetable.

 

[brihenry]

Nice mnd! I think I may go back to the 705's just to have that wicked looking front tire! Mine was coupled witha D404 front, and while it didn't cause any ride issues (that I could notice) the matched set looks (and probably rides) way better. One thing to mention - I got around 6000 miles out of that 705.....don't know if thats good or bad, as that was my first year riding a street machine...

 

[Shep]

Due to finances I've been running budget tyres over here.So far they have been as good as the Dunlops I used to run and half the price

 

[marshallf3]

I never was fond of Dunlop tires or several other brands. It's odd, you'd think a tire from a major name like Goodyear would be good but of the ones I've had the handling was poor and they wore down at least twice as fast as the Bridgestone equivalent on my cars.

 

[mnd]

Pretty mean looking tire, look like they're designed for hard to soft dirt but still streetable.

They're quite heavy, as tires go, so you'll notice that in handling, and they're somewhat noisy, at least for the first few hundred miles.



As for streetable, I can drag the pegs with no problem and have never encountered a situation where I was missing traction.



Except for mud.



They don't handle mud at all.