What's better for socal - Michelin T63 or Pirelli MT21 ???

To those that have used either or both on their WR250R, please share your experiences.  Typical usage is hard pack fire roads, some rocky stuff (mostly dry, but riding up north it will be wetter).  Also socal desert which is mostly hard pack, but of main concern are the many 3"-8" deep sandy patches one encounters.

Road use is limited to only reaching trails from the house or staging area (typically less than 20 miles each way).

Not sure if you're talking about front, rear, or both so here goes.  I haven't tried the Michelin but the MT-21 is kinda meh IMO. I ride SoCal and I think the winning combination is a Kenda K772 Parker DT front and a Pirelli MT-43 rear (yes, the trials tire).  For dry terrain, nothing beats the MT-43 and it wears exceptionally well - I got over 2400 miles with my last one with 60% road.  Run it at 10 psi full time.  Trials tires last the longest and grip the best when they're that low.  Only 2 downsides: It lacks grip on steep downhills so it'll lock up easier than an aggressive knob will - pretty similar to one of those mostly-road dual sport tires actually.  Also, it has a really tall sidewall so if you're already on your tip toes, it might push you too high.  If the MT-43 is too tall, then the Parker DT rear is supposedly pretty nice for a DOT knob, but wears fast.

For front the Parker DT has good grip in most terrain, and wears fairly well.  Plus its cheap so that's always nice.

Both my offroad bikes have mt-21 fronts no complaints. Havnt done deep sand yet. Did some motorcross and worked great. I am still looking at rears. Have one with the trackmaster 2 kenda and works good. Just not sure how long it will last.

Going to try out the mt -43 rear one of these days. Heard great things about it.

I ran T63 all last summer and MT21s all this summer. I feel like I have more confidence off road on the MT21s. The T63s seem a touch better on road, but not worth what I was giving up off road. MT21s seemed even more superior on gravel. I've read that the MT21s are not as good on wet pavement, but I don't ever ride on wet pavement. I usually ride on rocky trails and dirt roads. I also thought about trying an MT43, but decided to pass because if I get a flat I just want to ride it home and I was worried the trials tires would be too soft to do that. For that reason I also put two rim locks on both tires, so now if I do get a flat I have a better chance of the tire staying on when at speed and for limping home. This also lets me run the MT21 at 15psi with a little more confidence. So my recommendation is go for the MT21s and consider rim locks. That will give you a set up that's capable, versatile, and able to take a puncture without leaving you stranded.

Nah the MT43 has a really stiff sidewall actually. I run a Tubeliss system though so the only time I've had an MT43 flat I only rode a few yards, repaired it, and was back on the trail in 5 min.

I have no CA riding experience, but I am currently running a T63 rear and MT21 front and like the combo a lot.  I ride paved roads, gravel & dirt roads, and some single track, and this combo seems to do everything reasonably well.  No idea about longevity yet, as I have less than 1000 km on the rear, and less than 2000 on the front, both still look great.

My wife has around 5000 km on her T63s, front and rear, on a Super Sherpa, and both have lots of life left, (maybe 50% done?).  For some reason the front T63 doesn't look quite aggressive enough to me, and we have lots of sand here around the Great Lakes, so I feel better with the MT21, which I liked on the front of my previous dual sport too.  I have not tried an MT21 rear.

I'm not a fan of the MT21

I've run it this summer on my front tire.  And as of today, it has worn out more quickly than my rear D606 which I installed the same day.  Also, it didn't wear evenly.  Some of the knobs are worn down to the quick, and others remain almost unworn.  This strange wear pattern has caused some headshake at speeds over 65.



The MT21 was highly recommended when I bought it.  Perhaps I got a defective tire?

Thats how knobby front tires wear when you run too low of psi on the road.

I have your tires twin in my junk tire pile, I ran it on my KLR and always had 20-25 psi in it so it worked good offroad, on that heavy bike it needed 30-35 on the road to wear evenly.

How much psi did you have in it?

Rusty Shovel wrote:

I'm not a fan of the MT21

I've run it this summer on my front tire.  And as of today, it has worn out more quickly than my rear D606 which I installed the same day.  Also, it didn't wear evenly.  Some of the knobs are worn down to the quick, and others remain almost unworn.  This strange wear pattern has caused some headshake at speeds over 65.



The MT21 was highly recommended when I bought it.  Perhaps I got a defective tire?

My MT21 looks the same after a bunch of high speed highway runs - more than I originally planned on. I think I got about 2000 miles out of the tire and it was pretty much at 18 to 20 PSI the whole time.

Since I tend to do more road, gravel, and hard pack during my weekly commuting I switched to Shinko 705's which seem to do very well on those surfaces and last a decent amount of time (about 2 times longer than a D606). If I am going to be doing some gnarly riding for a week or two I will then put the 606 rear and XCHM front (trying this out instad of the MT21 - may not be as good on the road but I don't intend to use it for that) on the bike.

For gnarly weekend stuff I take either my Beta or Gas Gas.

How much taller is the mt43 and in being taller did if affect the balance ? What gearing do you run with the mt43?

tmate wrote:

How much taller is the mt43 and in being taller did if affect the balance ? What gearing do you run with the mt43?

13/47 works well with the MT43. It's pretty tall but you can lower the rear shock if you want to raise the rake back up if you want.

Seems most are running 13/47 without the mt43. Maybe I'll try 12/47 since I will be 90% off road.

tmate wrote:

Seems most are running 13/47 without the mt43. Maybe I'll try 12/47  since I will be 90% off road.

Be careful with a 12T on a WR.

A little update regarding tires.  I went with the Michelin T63 front and rear.  Great choice, SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE DEATHWINGS!

Great all around tire so far.  I will try an MT21 on the front next time just to compare though.

I've done a lot of trail riding here in AZ following guys running the MT43. I've been a die hard knobby guy running tubliss. The only places I had an advantage was a slight edge in downhill braking on loose stuff, mud (rare here) and from a dead stop in a sand wash. I used to race flat track & knobbies are more controllable past the traction limits in a slide.

The MT43 advantages observed, much less tendency to kick sideways off rocks, straight line traction on damn near everything is better & following several A riders their cornering speeds were very good. My regular MT43 riding bud's were running the same tire to 2 or 3 of my knobbies. In my case that would save me $300 to $400 a year in rear tires

After riding the 250 & acknowledging it wasn't real prone to spinning the rear tire, I elected to try a MT43 with 14/49 gearing. I'm generally one of the faster guys in my group of geriatrics on my KTM, on this ride I took the WR to shake it down with a new MT43 rear & M59 front.
The general consensus was I'm faster on the 250 with the MT43 rear, this was mostly 2nd-4th gear twisty rocky two track on decomposed granite with some sand wash connecting the dots. 200 miles total 70 on the freeway all done at 12 psi.

I'm sold

Been contemplating giving the MT43 a shot on the back of my WRR in the SE US here. We are a bit more apt to have mud and wet conditions but what also comes with that is lots of tree roots and rocks which I think the MT43 would do well on.

A good friend of mine has one on his KTM 450 and told me that you need to change your riding style a bit. Instead of trying to avoid rocks and roots look for them since the tire hooks up well and be wary of mud. He seems to ride the hell out of that tire but then again his skill level is a hell of a lot higher than mine.

I was worried about the transition with my tendency to throttle steer. With the softer power delivery of the R2 it's was not an issue on the terrain I rode on. I did notice when I nailed the throttle in the deep sand to finish a turn the rear just digs in & drives forward vs sliding around to square off a turn, but once you've done it a few times you get a feel for it.
I have seen guys struggle during braking on gnarly rock down hills with a turn at the bottom. Once sliding, they are not as effective.
The freshly cut rain grooves in the concrete hwy had me checking to see if I had a flat, little bit of wiggle going on.