Went the mitas route.

Well we just got the rides bike home and took the track masters off the front and rear, pulled out the Michelin foam tubes(what a bitch that was) and replaced hers with Distanzias.

Today my tires showed up. A front Mitas E-09 Dakar and a rear E-07. This is for mostly roads as I will put on a rear knobby any time I might get into anything serious off road.

Time will tell how the mileage will do but should be better then full knobbies have been. So far I seem to get about 4000kms from a rear track master.

Where'd you find 'em in S.Ont.? Or did you mail-order from mx1canada?

That's what I did. Free ship after $99

After my experience with the hiedeneau and the customer service I got from a local company to me I have been unable to deal with that company or buy those tires anymore. So had to look for something a but more road aggressive non knobby tire for commuting on.

Funny you should mention Heidenau - went out in the garage yesterday and the front K60 on my F800GS was flat. It's got maybe 3,000 km on it. Just went flat in the garage. No external signs of damage - I'm just about to pry it off the rim to see what's what. I let it sit in the sun all morning to soften it up. If it's the tire and not merely the tube, I'm gonna be some pissed

I'd be interested to hear your experiences with the Mitas after you've got some mileage on 'em.

Got them on now. Just came in from the shop. The rear is a 4ply tire good heavy stuff too. Not sure on the front. But I must say they were a bugger to mount. I like the look of them, gonna take the bike to work tonight to we'll see how the handle a bit in the way in. The real question will be if there is enough traction to handle any of the stuff we ride. I'll post some pics when I off load from camera.

K60 problem was a miniscule piece of metal imbedded in the tube. Jeez.

First impression these tires must be shorter as bike seems slower so I'm going change sprockets again. But they also are not as grippy on fresh graded gravel roads as a knob would have been into work but seem to be smooth on the pavement. My ride in is only 30kms to work and about 1/2 of that was on gravel.

I have been running a Mitas E-07 rear for nearly 10000kms. I put it on in August last year during a long trip as I heard they were half decent off road and I would not chew it out after 5000km like I had with the Trailwings. I wish I had of started the trip on an E-07 as getting replacement tyres along the way was a pain due to the lack of decent sized towns along the way ...

Interestingly mine looks a little different from yours - there is a central ridge along the spine of the tyre holding the knobs together on mine where there is none on yours. I am a few mm from reaching this ridge - not sure if this is supposed to be a wear mark or not but I suspect I will get another couple of thousand out of it before I will consider replacing it ...

As well, rather than being "shorter" I found mine had a significantly larger rolling diametre (e.g. "taller) even though it is advertised as a 120/80 18 tyre. From what I worked out it knocked out my speedo 5% - the bike definitely felt a little "doughie" once I put it on but as I was doing a lot of kms and mainly sticking to the tar or well formed gravel roads this was fine with me.

I had the kenda track master 120 on mine and I think it was a taller tire then this one. Good to hear about your high mileage as that is why I got this one. And yes mine does have that centre ridge just the lugs are so deep you can't see it in the picture.

Sorry - your right. I missed it in the photo (it is barely visible). Its a long time since my tread was that deep

Enjoy the tyre ... love to know how the E-09 on the front goes. My front definitely needs replacing soon - I still running the original (now done 21000kms!).

sewerat wrote:

First impression these tires must be shorter as bike seems slower so I'm going change sprockets again. But they also are not as grippy on fresh graded gravel roads as a knob would have been into work but seem to be smooth on the pavement. My ride in is only 30kms to work and about 1/2 of that was on gravel.

Lookin' good. Maybe try putting the original 13-tooth back on the front? I'm running 13/48 with Michelin T63s (which don't seem very tall), and I like the ratio. 14/47 doesn't seem much different than the original 13/43 ...

My 13 has a broken tooth so for now I'm going to try a 12. It's the extreme but should give me an idea of the difference.