New ADV Rubber

 

With the rear Pirelli Scorpion getting down a bit in tread depth and me eyeing off a proper ADV ride soon I thought it was time to put some decent off road tyres on the Desert X. I have umm'd and ahhh'd for weeks about which tyres to choose. I liked the Motoz Tractionator Adventure on the rear of the Africa Twin but it did get pretty "buzzy" on the blacktop as it wore and while I would like to try their Rallz on the rear, it is even noisier as it wears. Then I stumbled on a tyre I had forgotten about, the Heidenau K60 Ranger. The Ranger was meant to be an 80% dirt tyre that was a bit more user friendly on the blacktop (especially when wet) than the K60 Scout. They were still quoting impressive life for the Ranger and I just like the look of it with it’s meaty, chunky tread blocks. 

So that was the rear decided on. For the front I did like the Bridgestone AX41 on my Africa Twin but I thought I might go for a more aggressive front tyre. I was torn between a Pirelli Scorpion Rally and the Motoz Adventure Rallz, both tyres I hadn’t tried before. My main concern wasn’t for their dirt prowess as I was confident they would be fine in that respect, more how they would affect my bike’s sweet road handling.

So, I decided to live dangerously and pulled the trigger on the Motoz Rallz. Better to pull back a notch or two on the blacktop than to go wanting for grip with a loaded 220+kg ADV on snotty dirt roads I reckon.

 

Tyres For Bikes has a huge selection of tyres under one roof so I grabbed the tyres there. Unfortunately I keep having bad experiences with them actually fitting said tyres so I elected to go to my local bike shop to have them fitted. If I supply the wheel sans bike they will do a change for $25 AUD per end. Worth the coin to get a professional, quality and balanced tyre fitting in my view.

So, all fitted up. Now to go get them dirty.

Cheers.