The Tire Thread

Mr.Metal wrote:

Hrm... that's not the best of news. Would you say hot pavement, or pavement in general that wears them down? They're supposed to be meant for hard surfaces, but that could be hard dirt surfaces. Given the amount of highway I do to get to dirt, I'm still a bit on the fence here. The 606 seems too heavy, though, and there is also the price point.

Hot pavement. As in summer riding hot. Spring they were fine. The 606's wore a lot better.

Tires seem to change with my age more than anything else... I've noticed this same trend with other riders too.

young riders... up to 35 or so---Metzlers

about 35 to 50... Bridgestoners, Kendas, Dunlops and Michelins

after 50... Melfis, Dunlops and IRCs

after 70... Perillis, Dunlops and IRCs

after 80... I don't know, yet.

One tire I have never run were Metzlers. Even back when I was riding sportbikes and cruisers, never tried them.

SheWolf, when you ran the IRC's, did you ever use the VE40 or the VE40 Baja? It looks like Dennis Kirk is going to warranty the Pirelli and I"m not interested in another MT43. The front VE39 works so well I'm tempted to try the rear too, leaning towards the baja version as its built stronger per IRC's literature.

The one I ran was just the normal 40. The BJ Comp would be a better choice, if I do it again, I think.

Cool, I'm asking to exchange for the BJ Comp version then.

It's here...

IRC VE-40 BJ Comp in 110/100-18. This version is supposed to be reinforced for extra durability, hopefully it holds up. I'm liking the front so far, its about halfway worn but still working great.

Looks angry just sitting there...







Tread is somewhere around 20/32nds deep, hard to measure because of how the knobs meet the tire carcass. Sidewalls are very stiff, hoping the sun comes back out tomorrow to help me persuade the beast onto the rim. Michaux Dual Sport is this weekend, and I'm planning on a decent amount of other dirt adventures in the next month or three that this baby will hopefully ride me through. If its as good as its companion front tire (VE-39, which I've had for just about 3000 miles now and is just starting to really show some wear), I'll be very happy...

skierd wrote:

It's here...

IRC VE-40 BJ Comp in 110/100-18. This version is supposed to be reinforced for extra durability, hopefully it holds up. I'm liking the front so far, its about halfway worn but still working great.

Looks angry just sitting there...







Tread is somewhere around 20/32nds deep, hard to measure because of how the knobs meet the tire carcass. Sidewalls are very stiff, hoping the sun comes back out tomorrow to help me persuade the beast onto the rim. Michaux Dual Sport is this weekend, and I'm planning on a decent amount of other dirt adventures in the next month or three that this baby will hopefully ride me through. If its as good as its companion front tire (VE-39, which I've had for just about 3000 miles now and is just starting to really show some wear), I'll be very happy...

Great looking tire!

I guess it is OFF road and not DOT?

Yes, it is not DOT. I'm running its counterpart up front (VE-39) which is not DOT as well (though speed rated to 81mph) and its done just fine.

Compared to the Trakmaster II its replacing, which has just over 1/4" of tread left at the center knobs at right around 2500-2750 miles.


On the bike


And the aforementioned VE-39 front tire with just under 3000 miles on it. I'd say its about 1/2-2/3 worn, but its still got grip and traction on and off road.

Hey Dave, how did that monster mount up with the thick carcass and all?

Actually it wasn't that bad even with how beefy and stiff the carcass is. I had a little issue getting the second bead around the rim lock, but other than that it went right on. Small bites with the irons, windex to lube the bead, making sure the tire was warm and softish by sitting it out in the sun, and a little bit of patience. I'm starting out at 15psi and seeing how it goes from there.

Well, earlier this week my Mitas came in, so I went ahead and installed them today. This was my first ever tire swap and I think I did pretty good! Only scratched the rim a little bit in one place, didn't pinch any tubes and didn't destroy my fingers too badly. Here are some pictures of my stock tires next to the Stoneaters:



I won't be able to try them out in real dirt until next weekend, but I'm already pretty excited.

In addition, I just put on a Supersprox 47 tooth sprocket. I'm going to put on a new chain also, but first I think I'm going to take a stab at lubing my swing arm.

IRC VE-39 front. In a word, they're fantastic.
The front has about 3000 miles on it now and still has fantastic
cornering bite and overall traction in every condition I've put it in,
which is just about everything from deep loose sand to deep mud to good
loam to ball bearing gravel to wet roots and logs to loose rocks on top
of rocks. And lots of pavement, wet and dry. Off road, above 15psi it
skates around and causes brown moments, below 14psi it won't hold its
line, but in that sweet spot its just about perfect. I'd say its about
2/3rd worn now and will be happy to get another.

IRC VE-40 BJ Comp 110/100/18 The rear has about 350 miles on it. Its the special 'desert racing'
model with a reinforced carcass for high speed racing and riding (and
surprisingly its cheaper than the regular version from Dennis Kirk).
Ran it at 12psi and its just about as good as the front i.e. it just
flat out works everywhere. Big wet root system or a log you need to get
over? Rocks rocks everywhere? Tighter than the bars single track
where you need to power around corners to slide and manuever? No
problem. I really really like this tire. Now to see how long it lasts,
next big dirt ride isn't until October unfortunately.

Skierd

Any update on the IRC tires?
Your last update sounded really promising. How are they on the road or wet weather? You certainly see to like them off road? I'm sure you have some more miles since last update?

EyTy

Yup, I've done about 1000 miles since the Michaux. Today's mileage: 8307.

Front IRC VE-39 is about shot. Its really starting to wander around on me on the highway and isn't biting quite as well off road, but considering it has just over 4000 miles on it and more tread than the D606 did when it came off with the same mileage I'm extremely happy. That being said I did have fun with it on my 500 mile spontaneous round trip to west virginia and back on tuesday in wednesday to surprise my g/f who's going to school out there, including some fire road adventures in and around Green Ridge State Forest on the way too and from. BTW, new top speed is a traffic limited 93.2mph.



compared to new (and the dead D606 it replaced with ~3500 on it)




The rear tire IRC VE40 BJ comp is half worn at 10/32nds at ~1500 miles, give or take. Its hard to get an accurate tread height with my calipers as the base of the knob has a wide flare for reinforcement.



Both are great in the rain, actually got caught in a couple bad storms commuting without drama, though the rear is a bit slippy compared to more street oriented/legal tires. I don't push it in the rain so it works for me. Front feel great as far as I'm concerned. Both tires suck in mud, at least at this level of wear. I did some riding on the C+D Canal roads on Sunday and it was wet and sloppy in the play area. Neither tire hooked very well, the front was particularly prone to squirming instead of cutting through the slop and the rear was happy to pack up with mud/clay/mush and get loose. But, they're tires meant for hard terrain, particularly desert racing, and the front has a ton of miles on it, so I can't really complain.

I think I'm done with the hard riding stuff for the year, not going to have time with my class load and work, so they're both probably coming off in the next week or so. The rear is getting replaced with the stock tire to use it up, not sure what to do with the front. I have a barely worn stock front, but I hate the stock front, and a somewhat more worn K761 with about 3000+ on it but I dislike it less. Either's going to be better for highway travel though, which I'm going to be doing more of. I'll probably just burn up the stockers...

Thanks to SheWolf for the tip on the Mitas. I was going to put D606's on but chose the Mitas C16/17 instead. Great call. I just spent a weekend offroad and these tires definately outperformed the 606's, especially the front tire.

Ok, I must really suck at riding dirt, then. I took my Mitas out to an ORV park with lots of trails of all sorts. Compared to the stock tires, the Mitas front seemed... hrm... squirrely... very affected by obstacles... I kept fighting with the front end, trying to prevent it from going every which way but straight. After a while I seem to have gotten used to it, but at first it was pretty annoying. Am I missing something?

The only thing I could think of is that my tire pressure was too high. I think for hard dirt with lots of rocks, I need to drop it more.

rmax wrote:

Thanks to SheWolf for the tip on the Mitas. I was going to put D606's on but chose the Mitas C16/17 instead. Great call. I just spent a weekend offroad and these tires definately outperformed the 606's, especially the front tire.

Sounds like high pressures to me. I had similar problems with my IRC VE39 front when I ran too high. 15psi about settled it perfect, ymmv of course.

The StoneEaters worked the best for me off road around 15 PSI. I don't have rimlocks, so I didn't chance going any lower.

Ok, then I was running them WAY too high. Did you run 15 PSI both front and back? I don't have rim locks either.

SheWolf wrote:

The StoneEaters worked the best for me off road around 15 PSI. I don't have rimlocks, so I didn't chance going any lower.

The front was. The rear was down to 12. With that hard sidewall it didn't really squash out too bad.

Ditto with the IRC's, front 15psi rear 12psi.

Oh, and I forgot how nice of a street tire the stock front is. I think it helped bump up my gas mileage a few clicks too, took me about 10 miles further for the reserve light to pop on than normal with the first full tank I've ran on it since taking it off back in March. Once of these upcoming nice days I'm going to swap the rear back to stock, regrease the suspension, and throw the 14T back on for a while.

8618 miles, back to stock rear tire with ~10/32nds of tread and ~800 miles on it. Also pulled the rim lock and swapped to a 14T front (with a 46T rear), making for a much more pleasant ride on the highway and around town, raised the bike back up to the original set height (feels much better taller when riding imo), and greased the suspension and wheel bearings for winter.

SW: Im thinking to try out a Mitas front tire .. is this the tire I should be looking at http://www.mitasmx.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=31 ?

That's what I'm running on mine, yup.