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Tires for part time off-pavement riding ‘86 Connie?
- Thread starter redwards
- Start date
jimp
Sport Tourer
Hehehehe.....OK, I'll play. ;D
It's insecure because it hasn't been loved? :rotflmao:
Butt seriously... you expect a big, top heavy, 630lb sport touring bike to handle gravel roads like a dirt bike?
Even it you could find them, I doubt knobbies would help. Trials tires might help, but would be real squirrely on road.
The best ya can do is ride it like a dirt bike. Get up on the pegs, move your weight around and stay on the throttle.
Sure wish I had pictures of my ride down, and up, the high tension power line access road down to Bagby Hotspings. Now that's a dirt road - NOT!
It's insecure because it hasn't been loved? :rotflmao:
Butt seriously... you expect a big, top heavy, 630lb sport touring bike to handle gravel roads like a dirt bike?
Even it you could find them, I doubt knobbies would help. Trials tires might help, but would be real squirrely on road.
The best ya can do is ride it like a dirt bike. Get up on the pegs, move your weight around and stay on the throttle.
Sure wish I had pictures of my ride down, and up, the high tension power line access road down to Bagby Hotspings. Now that's a dirt road - NOT!
I don't think the guys who've gone to Prudhoe have had special tires. If it was me- I might look into the tires that come on a BMW GS, and see if they have a size to fit Connie- maybe have them waiting (I think there's a BMW shop in Alaska) and mount the semi-knobs for the Alaska portion- then mount new street skins for the trip South once you've made it to the circle and back. No matter where you are in CONUS, Alaska is a long way away and you'll eat at least one set of tires.
jimp
Sport Tourer
redwards said:
I rode from San Jose, CA to Alaska two years ago. I mounted a set of truck tires for the trip as I wanted something that would last - the Metzler 880, commonly referred to as "Goldwing tires." They are larger than stock size. In hind site, I should have just mounted up a new set of OEM Dunflops.
Now I didn't go to Prudhoe, didn't see the point. But I saw at least a hundred miles of dirt/gravel roads in BC and Yukon Territory in various state of construction. The wider 880's were a handful on the gravel sections, a narrower tire would have helped.
Lots of folks have ridden Connies up north. None do anything special with tires other than mount up a set they like. The key is being comfortable with your bike in non-paved conditions.
Contact Alcan Rider on the ADV forum. He's a C10 rider and has numerous trips to Deadhorse--he lives in Glenallen I think.
I looked at the Metzler dual sport tires for larger displacement DS bikes. The tread pattern they use is similar to the ME880 that JPavlis mentioned. The ME880 could be modified with a tire groover to be a pretty close imitation of the Tourance DS tire if one wanted to go to the trouble. The wider the tire, as JPavlis mentioned, the more likely to enjoy some interesting handling in deeper loose stuff.
There was a thread about this on one of the sites last year, I think it was the one that crashed. I copied the info but I've lost the poster's name. I'll try to past it here. He tried a set of tubed DS tires on his C10.
Funny you mentioned it. Call me the crazy one! I was considering a ride to deadhorse and even considered swapping tires for the crappy part of the ride on the Haul Road. My thought was that I was NOT going to run a ragged off road trail, but wanted good knobby grip on crappy mud-gravel roads. Maybe 35mph for the 800 miles or so of really crappy roads. I heard that street tires can be challenging on that road. So I ran a test on some knobby tires. Found some that would fit and, on paper anyway, appeared to hit the weight range. Ran them for about 600 miles on a mix of paved and dirt/gravel roads. Handle pretty bad on the paved road – straight is OK, curves – less than perfect. Definitely not a knee dragging set of tires. Sing like crazy above 60, but they sure did stick on dirt and gravel roads. Not confidence building on paved roads. Over confidence building on dirt/gravel roads. Hit the brake and you stop! I mounted:
Rear: Duro HF-904 Median 130/90-16 (load rated 675 pounds)
Front: (I think) Duro HF 120/80-18
Yes I know that the front tire is actually a rear and yes, they are tubed tires. If I remember right, they are considered 60/40 road/off road tires. I put the tubes in and the tires ran fine. Tubes are a pain by the way – it has been awhile since I had a bike with tubes.
http://www.durotire.com/products/motorcycle/tires/hf-904.php
I considered the test a success. If I were to take my Connie up the Alaska Haul Road, I would consider the 3 hours it would take to swap out the tires in Fairbanks. Well the test was done, I put my Mich’s back on.
Here is the proof. Yes it does fit:
http://public.fotki.com/jdttfotki/concours/durorear.html
In the end, I am not saying that I am an endorser of the tires, just that they will indeed fit and seem to hold up.
I looked at the Metzler dual sport tires for larger displacement DS bikes. The tread pattern they use is similar to the ME880 that JPavlis mentioned. The ME880 could be modified with a tire groover to be a pretty close imitation of the Tourance DS tire if one wanted to go to the trouble. The wider the tire, as JPavlis mentioned, the more likely to enjoy some interesting handling in deeper loose stuff.
There was a thread about this on one of the sites last year, I think it was the one that crashed. I copied the info but I've lost the poster's name. I'll try to past it here. He tried a set of tubed DS tires on his C10.
Funny you mentioned it. Call me the crazy one! I was considering a ride to deadhorse and even considered swapping tires for the crappy part of the ride on the Haul Road. My thought was that I was NOT going to run a ragged off road trail, but wanted good knobby grip on crappy mud-gravel roads. Maybe 35mph for the 800 miles or so of really crappy roads. I heard that street tires can be challenging on that road. So I ran a test on some knobby tires. Found some that would fit and, on paper anyway, appeared to hit the weight range. Ran them for about 600 miles on a mix of paved and dirt/gravel roads. Handle pretty bad on the paved road – straight is OK, curves – less than perfect. Definitely not a knee dragging set of tires. Sing like crazy above 60, but they sure did stick on dirt and gravel roads. Not confidence building on paved roads. Over confidence building on dirt/gravel roads. Hit the brake and you stop! I mounted:
Rear: Duro HF-904 Median 130/90-16 (load rated 675 pounds)
Front: (I think) Duro HF 120/80-18
Yes I know that the front tire is actually a rear and yes, they are tubed tires. If I remember right, they are considered 60/40 road/off road tires. I put the tubes in and the tires ran fine. Tubes are a pain by the way – it has been awhile since I had a bike with tubes.
http://www.durotire.com/products/motorcycle/tires/hf-904.php
I considered the test a success. If I were to take my Connie up the Alaska Haul Road, I would consider the 3 hours it would take to swap out the tires in Fairbanks. Well the test was done, I put my Mich’s back on.
Here is the proof. Yes it does fit:
http://public.fotki.com/jdttfotki/concours/durorear.html
In the end, I am not saying that I am an endorser of the tires, just that they will indeed fit and seem to hold up.
syntor
Bicycle
JPavlis_CA said:
Yes I'd second that, the road into my place is 7km of dirt. I find the worst is sand, Connie does not like sand at all. Fortunately we hardly ever have mud here
The other thing I've found very helpful off-road is SISF's advanced exhaust sprocket because it improved low down torque and throttle response. Makes it easier to quickly turn on the tap when ya need it.
I rode my Ultra to AK, and up the Haul road to the Arctic Circle, with Dunlop 402s. It does ok on gravel.JPavlis_CA said:
My CG1000 came with some odd brand touringmaster or something. Only had it on short gravel roads, and it didn't feel good. Which is why I am here. I don't want a dirt tire. Just something for gravel once in awhile.
I live in a rural area and many of the paved roads transition to gravel and dirt. My bike does fairly well considering what it is. I usually slow down to about 45 for the transition and sometimes can speed back up. I have a battleaxt bt 45 up front but its bald and lumpy. I',m in the process of switching over to an avon storm 2. Yeh im a slow mover, got the tire two weeks ago.