CHOOSING AN ADV TIRE

WHICH ADV TIRE SHOULD I BUY?

One of the most common questions I’m confronted with by both experienced and new adventure riders is “what tires should I use?”

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question and it lacks the information I need to provide an honest, educated answer. If you ever receive an immediate answer from an instructor (or another rider) to a seemingly simple question like this one, without them first ascertaining the circumstances, factors relating to, intended use and expectations for the tire in question, then they are either giving you an answer based on personal preferences or emotion.

I would absolutely not make a decision based on someone else’s brand preferences or brand loyalties alone, and nor should you.

To give you an educated answer to what tire is best suited for you and your needs, or to give you a recommendation for a specific tire, I need to get answers to the following questions first:

  1. What is your budget?
  2. Where are you most concerned about having the best performance (touring, street, ADV travel, dirt, etc)?
  3. Which bike are you putting the tire on?
  4. How much do you weigh?
  5. How much extra weight do you typically ride with (skid plate, crash guards, panniers, gear, pasenger, etc.)
  6. In which order do you rank the following:
    1. Price
    2. Performance
    3. Longevity
    4. Brand
  7. What weather do you intend to ride in (temperature, moisture, etc.)
  8. What is the most challenging surface you intend to traverse?
  9. What is the most common surface you intend to ride on?
  10. Which is more important to you: How the tire feels or how the tire performs?
  11. How aggressive are you when you ride?
  12. Have you ever had formal rider training?
  13. Will you ever change the tires yourself?

LEARNING ABOUT ADV TIRES

The four primary factors to consider when purchasing tires are:
longevity, performance, price and brand snobbery.

WHAT DOES THE STREET/DIRT RATING MEAN?

These Pirelli Scorpion Trail II tires are rated as 95/5.

It’s common to see tires rated as 90/10, 70/30, 50/50, or knobbies. What does this actually mean?

When you are searching for a tire, you may come across a 90/10 street tire vs a 90/10 dirt tire. The first number is typically the leaning bias of the tire. However for the sake of this post, I will refer to tires starting with the street bias, then off-pavement or dirt. Therefore a 90/10 in this post is intended for 90% pavement and 10% dirt.

One of the most common errors riders make when selecting an ADV motorcycle tire is choosing a tire based on the percentage of where they plan to ride the most. For example, if a rider intends to ride an unpaved road 10% of the time, they might choose a 90/10 tire. The critical flaw here is that even if the ratio of riding appears to be correct, the missing question is how difficult that 10% of off-road riding is.

Oftentimes, manufacturers will put labels on tires that are unrealistic for its performance. For example, in the image of me taking my BMW F800GS on the track, the Pirelli Scorpion Trail II tires are sold as “trail” tires, despite being very well suited for the racetrack. The only ‘dirt’ they can do is dry, hardpacked dirt or gravel roads but I wouldn’t recommend using these tires in deep sand, loose dirt, or mud.

TIRE COMPOUND

Contact area is not the only factor that determines a tire’s performance off-pavement. Tire compound is independent of tread design and certain tire compounds make the tire more resistant to “chunking” in rocks, more soft and sticky when cornering on the street or climbing slick rocks, or harder and less-resistant to wear, making it better for touring or more resistant to rounding off the sharp edges needed for traction off-pavement.

A good example of this is the Mitas E-07 which visually appears to be more street-focused than the Mitas E-07+. The E-07+ has larger tread blocks and looks more aggressive, but the original E-07 performs much better in nearly all off-pavement environments.

INTERNAL DESIGN

Internal design is another adventure motorcycle tire design consideration that isn’t visible to you as the buyer. The materials, layers, and other engineered factors may give the tire a stiffer sidewall (making it more resistant to rim damage) or a more compliant sidewall (giving you pliability that can enhance performance features at the risk of sacrificing protection).

While I was conducting a research project on tire contact printing, I discovered that the 140/80-17 Shinko 705 on an F800GS BMW had a greater contact area than the 170/70-17 on an R1200GS. This was confirmed after repeated testing while monitoring tire temperature, ambient air temperature, tire loading, and tire pressure. Given the tires were both the same age on the same motorcycle, the different in contact area had to be affected by construction factors such as compound.

METHODS TO DETERMINING TIRE TYPE

USING ROAD DIFFICULTY METHOD

One way to think about the street/dirt rating is to assess how close the dirt you intend to ride is to a paved surface.

For example, if a gravel road is 90% similar to a paved road, or only 10% more difficult than a paved road, then a 90/10 tire should be sufficient.

If you leave that unpaved road and get onto an OHV trail intended for side by sides or 4WD vehicles, then it may quickly become 50% or less equal to the paved road in difficulty. In this case, a 50/50 tire would be more sufficient.

If your trail becomes more difficult, it may be ideal to have a 10/90 tire, which would be a street-legal dirt bike level knobby. Knobbies are normally only built in smaller sizes and could only be fitted onto smaller dualsports such as a 650cc single and down. Of course, some ADV riders modify their larger bikes to accommodate smaller, more aggressive tires, but let’s stick with stock wheel sizes here.

Generally speaking, once the trail becomes challenging enough that it is referred to as a ‘Jeep trail’ or even ‘single track’, then you should be looking for street-legal knobbies. There are very few exceptions where an ADV tire is more aggressive than a 50/50 knobby.

USING THE TREAD GAP METHOD

This method is best to assess what the actual street/dirt rating should be for a tire. To use this method, you simply measure (visually or physically) the open, non-contact area of the tire. This is the open spaces where the knob or tread does not touch when the tire is on a hard surface.

If roughly 50% of the tire is in contact when parked on pavement, then it would be a 50/50 tire. If 90% of the tire is in contact with the pavement, then it would be a 90/10 tire.

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF

WHAT IS YOUR PRIORITY?

The four primary factors to consider when purchasing tires are longevity, performance, price, and brand snobbery. Before I can recommend a tire to anyone, I must know where these factors fall in the order of importance. If you tell me price is important but roll your eyes when I suggest an unknown off-brand tire, this is what I mean.

PERFORMANCE

With rare exception, nothing is ever gained without something being lost. Although we all want to buy the perfect tire that is great at everything, that tire simply does not exist. Some tires are great at one thing and ok at other things, such as the Heidenau K60 Scout, with his exceptional ability to last for a very long time, but it’s also marginal in most other aspects. This would be a great tire for riding through South America because you won’t need to buy new tires along the way. Another popular tire is the Michelin Anakee Wild, which performs above average in both off and on pavement, but has a very short life.

As a rider, you need to be honest with yourself on which surfaces and riding conditions you require the highest performance. This may be based on where you spend most of your time, or it could be based on where you are most concerned about having the greatest traction.

If you are a very skilled rider, you might choose the Dunlop because you spend a lot of time on the highway and have the skills to overcome its shortcomings off-road. On the other hand, you might be coming to attend one of my training classes and even though you will wear out an Anakee Wild on the open road, this is a great tire that performs exceptionally well on loose surfaces.

PRICE

When looking at your motorcycle tire budget, you have to consider the obvious factors of lifecycle vs purchase price. What will the tire cost you over its entire lifecycle? If you buy a tire that is priced 50% less than its competitor, but lasts half as long, you would consider these tires equal in lifecycle. Factoring in other considerations such as installation, shipping cost, and taxes, the more expensive tire that lasts twice as long may actually be cheaper.

If you don’t purchase tires that best meet your needs, you may end up rplacing them prematurely, also reducing the lifecycle value. Researching and considering what you value most will help you establish a realistic budget.

An example close to my heart is the new ADV rider who chooses to attend one of my classes, but doesn’t purchase the tires that will help them get the most from their learning experience. The correct tire will help a new rider build confidence as proper tires will reduce the number of tipovers, slideouts, and gives more latitude for errors while learning. To watch a rider make the significant investment in time and money to take a class, then stop short of showing up with the tires that will serve them best, leaves me frustrated on their behalf.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

WEIGHT OF THE LOADED MOTORCYCLE

Simply put, how much you weigh and the weight you add to your motorcycle matters.

Weight affects how much ground-bearing presure you have to work with as well as lateral forces on the tire.

Along with your own weight, it’s important to factor in how much additional weight you have permanently added to the motorcycle, such as a skid plate, crash guards, panniers, that larger windshield, etc. as well as temporary loads such as a passenger and/or travel gear.

Besides tire load rating and traction considerations, a particular tire may offer more resistance to rim damage in the case of heavier loads, or be more compliant to flex in the case of lighter loads.

WHICH BIKE ARE YOU PUTTING THE TIRE ON?

Different tire models may come in specific sizes, meaning a tire I might recommend may not be available for your motorcycle. Also, the same tire in different sizes may perform very differently. For example, a Continental TKC80 on a 21″ rim performs quite well on pavement, but lacks the off-road performance that the same tire on a 19″ rim has, offering a much larger gap between traction knobs than the 21″ size.

Besides size and weight of the motorcycle, how much power is going out may also alter my recommendation. Very high horsepower motorcycles like the Ducati Multistrada V4 S with its 170hp can quickly wear out a highly dirt-focused tire as well as more limited fit options.

FEEL VS PERFORMANCE

Determine which is more important to you: How the tire feels or how the tire performs? More than once I have helped a rider select the tire they said they wanted (performance prioritized) only to have them unhappy with how the tire feels. A tire with maximum cornering traction isn’t always the one that feels the most planted. Be honest with how you answer this question or you may be very disappointed.

AN AGGRESSIVE TIRE

How aggressive are you when you ride? The question is, how aggressive are YOU, not necessarily how aggressive is the terrain. Being aggressive means how fast and proactive you are, not just a rider who rides fast and hard.

A person who rides fast and hard often hits hard edges and likes to spin the rear tire. This person will need a different tire than a skilled rider who rides fast, but better understands how to read and utilize terrain to avoid hard hits and has a mastery of the clutch and throttle to minimize wheel spin even in low traction environments.

Both riders here are aggressive: one is an aggressive rider; the other rides aggressively. Tire choice may be different with an aggressive rider favoring a harder compound to better protect the rims and resist wear with spinning out. The one who rides aggressively may choose a tire with softer sidewalls, giving up the rim protection in exchange for a smoother ride and higher traction levels, but doesn’t stand up as well to an abusive riding style.

FORMAL RIDER TRAINING

Have you ever had formal rider training? Riders who have voluntarily attended rider training, most notably to a level beyond a ‘Learn to Ride’ course, are often more willing to invest in their improvement as a rider. This question often leads me to ask follow-up questions about goals, personal weaknesses or fears, and an inquiry into any future training which may benefit from a specific type of tire.

TIRE CHANGES

Are you planning on changing the tires out yourself? Not all tires are equal when installing, with some tires being notably more difficult. If you are new to tire changes, choosing a tire that is more pliable, choose a Kenda Big Block K784 over a Heidenau K60 Ranger. For those skilled at changing tires, this is no longer an issue.

FINAL WORDS

Prepare your tire for the greatest challenge. Be honest in predicting the most challenging environment you intend to ride. I have ridden track days on 50/50 tires and have ridden the Backcountry Discovery Routes (BDRs) on 90/10s, but neither is recommended if you have a choice.

Let me now add a caveat to that. You also have a choice to not choose the best tire for any given riding surface. As your skills improve and you better understand your bike, your tires, and your personal limitations, you can decide where to choose common riding needs over situational riding needs.

I often ride in challenging environments with less ideal tires, just to tackle the challenge. Don’t forget that motorcycles are something we do for fun, no longer out of necessity, and as such our final decision doesn’t always need to be the “best” option.

WEATHER MATTERS

Determining the worst weather you may ride in can be more critical than you might think. A dry trail can easily be ridden on a 70/30 tire like the Dunlop Trailmax Mission, but if you add a little rain, the same trail can quickly become challenging, even with one of the most dirt-aggressive ADV tires such as the Motoz Tractionator RallZ.

This is true on pavement as well. Many dirt-focused tires have design features and compounds ideal for a long life off-pavement, such as the aforementioned Motoz Tractionator RallZ, or may have great long-life properties such as the Dunlop Trailmax Mission, but on wet pavement may become quite festive at best, and dangerous at worst.

Wet streets are ridden best on more street-focused tires such as the Michelin Anakee 3 and its equals. This tire is out of its element in the dirt, but one of the best for the pavement.