Pirelli MT 43 4.0 x 18

Will this fit my bike? It looks huge - and fun. But also huge

Yes, it will work just fine. I have it on my WR250R off road wheel with tubeless tube. I have pickup a Motoz tire (bigger than the Pirelli) that I am going to try when the Pirelli is warn out.

thanks Abchel. It looks like a blast and is just so much bigger than my Trakmaster II. I am still not sure what the difference is between trials tire and knobby but a lot of people seem to love these on the WRR.

Will not work very well in the mud and probably deep sand .

I've got the MT43 front and rear - they work absolutely great on gravel, hard terrain, rocks, wet rocks and roots. They work fine on pavement except the front is a bit squirmy - I'm thinking of going back to to a front DOT knobby. They wear longer than any other tire with similar traction - I get 3000 miles out of a rear while knobbies only last 2000 and at that point they don't have much traction.

They don't work so well in sand. I've never tried mud, but I'm guessing they suck in mud too.

The rear tire is quite a bit taller than stock tire, so I geared down a bit extra. It also raises the seat height. No problem with tire clearance.

I've just fitted an MT43 after running a D606 for 14,000km. The 606 knobs were breaking out of the side of it, exposing the carcase cords. There was tread left in the middle though...

We run our tyres until they are absolutely rooted, so I'm pleased with the economics of the Dunlop. I've used an MT43 before on my TTR, but it was too big, and started wrecking the shock flap, so I gave it away. This was before the WR came along

For what I need, the Pirelli is just excellent. It's good in sand, great in rock and doesn't rear-wheel steer like bloody knobbies do. This trait is especially appreciated in sheep pads (meandering ruts worn in the ground from little hooves going back and forth). The pads cause all sorts of weird and destabilising issues with knobbies, but trials-type tyres are much better.

Sand: As I said, I find it fine in sand. If you don't gas it too much, it just floats along on top. Knobbies sink in, sap power and try to trench up. Imo, of course. Well-worn wide knobbies are good on the front in sand for the same reason. Remember, that we are travelling a lot slower than most of you do, but even at normal speeds in in sand my comments hold true for me.

Rocks: Brilliant. Enough said.

Hard pack of any sort as long as it's dry: Amazing. Leaves knobbies for dead.

Wet: Don't know, but suspect a bit of poo might shoot out from time to time.

I would be reluctant to fit another Motoz tyre for my use. I think they would be much better for fast, competitive riding. Mine started to crack all around the outer knobs. I think we just run them too long, though there was plenty of tread left.

End of book...

If you ride in rocks and sandy hard packed trails the mt43 works awesome plus works and last really good on the road.

I tried one on the bike I had before the wrr but it doesnt work well on my local muddy, grassy trails, those conditions are its only down fall.

Yeah, I can imagine that would be the case. Scared.
We used to ride in a 24hour reliabilty trial, which is still held annually in all weathers. Then, we were only allowed to use trials universal tyres. You either learned to ride mud and grease with them or you didn't ride. A lot of the time, I was just along for the trip; my bike did what it wanted, including throw itself down the road, pouring rain and greasy clay. Nasty.
In the dry it was a different story.

I just put a MT-43 on the rear. I have rimlocks and will take it down to about 10 PSI for trails. I have aired up to about 28 for paved roads. Do you have any recommendations regarding what pressure to run this tire in gravel roads?

They have pretty strong sidewalks. Around 15 - 20 should do it. I just leave mine at around 12 - 14 as the use age changes so much.

66T wrote:

They have pretty strong sidewalks. Around 15 - 20 should do it. I just leave mine at around 12 - 14 as the use age changes so much.

Okay, thanks for the advice. I will lower the pressure and see how it feels.

Are these tires wider, or bigger in circumferance, and if so how much compared to the stock tires, I like they way they look, thinking they will be the next ones to go on, cheer`s

Even though they are quite a bit bigger in diameter I didn't find it necessary to lower gearing. However, they do cause the speedo to read slower.

I am finding my MT43 on the front to be pretty squishy on pavement......more so than the D606 I was running before. The MT43 feels like there is a lot of wiggle. Also, above about 30 mph, the front has some wobble (head shake?) to it. Looking down at the side of the tire while riding at that speed, it looks like the tire may not be perfectly true. The rim is true, and the tire appears to be evenly seated relative to the ridge on the side of the tire vs the rim. Do I need to just deflate it a bit and try to reef sideways on it to get it to settle down, or what?

Take a look and make sure the tire bead is even all the way around the rim on both sides, I run a new tire at around 25 to 30 lbs PSI for around 100 miles before I drop the pressure, no bead lock`s, if you are running 15 lbs and it wanders try 20 lbs, every tire brand is different for pressure and feel, it depends on bike weight your weight, lots to figure in here, just try different things, you will find what works for you. cheer`s

I do have a bead lock on the front.....do you think that is the problem?

If its a problem i would think it would make the tire thump more like its out of balance or out of round, if it squirms around that to me is more tire pressure problem, if you have the fork`s dropped in the crowns that changes the rake,"steering" and then you have to play with tire pressure also, road surface has a lot to do with tire pressure and feel. What I do is just try different pressures and see what one works best with that tire, if your not happy maybe find another tire for your conditions, (road, dirt)

Fiftygrit wrote:

If its a problem i would think it would make the tire thump more like its out of balance or out of round, if it squirms around that to me is more tire pressure problem, if you have the fork`s dropped in the crowns that changes the rake,"steering" and then you have to play with tire pressure also, road surface has a lot to do with tire pressure and feel. What I do is just try different pressures and see what one works best with that tire, if your not happy maybe find another tire for your conditions, (road, dirt)  

+1. Good advice.

dogfarm wrote:

I just put a MT-43 on the rear. I have rimlocks and will take it down to about 10 PSI for trails. I have aired up to about 28 for paved roads. Do you have any recommendations regarding what pressure to run this tire in gravel roads?

I tried running at higher pressures for pavement, like 20-25psi, and the center knobs wore right down on the rear tire. I now run it at 10-12 lb for pavement and it actually wears better. If I remember to air down, I will run it at 6-9 psi for dirt and gravel, and it gets a bit better traction. I do have rim locks.

Thinking about getting these tires as well. They seem to be great for the kind of off-road riding I will do.

What I am concerned about is their road ability. Especially after reading the post about the front tire. Is this a usual experience or just an isolated one.

Was also thinking about the Karoo 3 and K60 scout. would it be ok to have a Mt-43 rear and a say a karoo 3 or k60 front? Looking to have good road feel and performance from the front.

I have been extremely impressed with the MT43's abilities off road. It seems to find and maintain traction better than the D606's that I had before. So far, I like the Dunlop on the road better, but I am trying to work with the MT43 to see if I can make it work better on the road.....I don't want to give up!

The other thing that may help me is to have the front wheel balanced. I never ran a beadlock with the D606's before, maybe that is the shudder I am feeling on the road with the new tires.

I just started a thread in the chain and sprocket section but maybe you guys can help me out.

OK, so I went out for a 300 mile dual sport ride over the weekend. It was cold, rainy, and just plan miserable.
It was also my first long ride with the MT-43 tire on the rear, hooked up great at 12PSI BTW. But, boy is she ever a tall girl and I think that is part of my problem. I thought that a 14-52T with the MT43 would be a good dual sport setup. But it seemed way too tall. I was constantly down shifting just to get up little hills, could barely clutch the front up in 3rd gear. Could the MT43 tire height make that big of a difference?
I run a 14-47T with my 17’s supermoto wheels and can clutch it up in 3rd, 4th gear and ride wheelies for miles. And it’s still got enough grunt in it to bring the front wheel back up if it dips a little.
But the dual sport setup (14-52) with the MT-43 just felt dead. I couldn’t even top out the speedo on flat land.
I had to go with the 14t up front because of the chain eating the swingarm. I’m a heavier guy (210lbs) and likes to wheelie. The 14t up front was the only way I found to keep the swingarm in one piece. Id hate to go bigger on the rear gearing but it would be even worse for me to drop the front and start eating the swingarm again.

Any thoughts or words of wisdom?

Thank you all in advance.

thegg wrote:

I have been extremely impressed with the MT43's abilities off road.  It seems to find and maintain traction better than the D606's that I had before.  So far, I like the Dunlop on the road better, but I am trying to work with the MT43 to see if I can make it work better on the road.....I don't want to give up!

The other thing that may help me is to have the front wheel balanced.  I never ran a beadlock with the D606's before, maybe that is the shudder I am feeling on the road with the new tires.

I've found that rim locks work OK up to 45-50 mph, but after that they need to be balanced out. I got the lightweight locks and the instructions had their weight. I just put the equal amount of spoke weights opposite, and it works fine as fast as I can go.

Second this^^^^^^ I ended up drilling out some old 3/4oz splitshot fishing sinkers to use as spoke weights.
Had to use what was on hand but it turned out to work great.

I tried the MT43's on both the front and back. Went for a 200 mile ride and immediately took the front off. It wobbles at slow speeds and never felt confident inspiring in any loose sand turns. I will say on hard dirt and rocks, it stuck like glue. However, riding at 65 to get to an off road location, the front had to go bye bye. I put back my front TKC80's and couldn't be happier in all conditions.