wr250X Tires

Yamafling, It's great to see someone put to gether this kind of list. I hope you stick with it. Some other tires that come to mind that have been reviewed here and on other sites: KENDA,SHINKO( other then the 244),DUNLOP.MITAS,HEIDENAU K60 SCOUT( I want to try this one in a 140/17) and others I sure.

mordicai wrote:

Yamafling, It's great to see someone put to gether this kind of list. I hope you stick with it. Some other tires that come to mind that have been reviewed here and on other sites: KENDA,SHINKO( other then the 244),DUNLOP.MITAS,HEIDENAU K60 SCOUT( I want to try this one in a 140/17) and others I sure.

Might be worth a separate table for the dual sport tires vs street tires.

That being said I'm currently running the Shinko 705s and have thought them to be pretty great dual purpose tires. At 6500 miles I still have about 20% left on the rear and 70% on the front. Grip and stability are more than reasonable for a 50/50 but I keep finding myself leaning over too far and running out of tire. I've had good enough luck with the shinko 705s I'm considering ordering a set of 244s for the occasional dual sport ride outside the KDXs reach.

Now that I have the KDX for dirt I'm swapping to Pilot Powers on the X. Going to get a cycle hill tire changer next month so I'll swap to other tires if I need to for occasional long distance dual sport stuff that the 2-smoke doesn't have the range for.

Big thanks to ramz for helping me with my tire change and other assorted maintenance today.

Replaced the stock bt090 front with at least 10k miles on but probably 15k with a Continental conti motion sport touring front in 110/70-17. I never was able to use all of the front before even with no strips out back, so staying stock sized made sense.





I also replaced the completely flat worn out bt030 140/70-17 rear with a Continental conti force sport touring rear in 150/60-17. The bt030 barely made it and to 5000 miles and really should have been changed at 4000 miles or sooner. It was a fun tire though that worked great on pavement and reasonably ok for a near slick off-road. Im hoping to get double the life from the conti minimum... first test ride shows these tires to be less eager to lean in, slowing the handling but the wear is more important to me right now.







Mileage is 33,602.

Made some more updates, keep the suggestions coming. Providing the info for me helps out a lot, so I dont have to hunt for it.

I may split out another table for dual sports if the list gets big.

B-stone BT016 confirmed fit. Size 110/70-17 front 150/60-17 rear. Just barely got over to the edge only in eastern NC/eastern KY with tire pressures ~ 22 - 24 psi.



OK, I don't go that far on a set of tires. I got until the wear bars. So it would make sense that I'm not getting the same mileage on tires as, say, skierd.

1moreroad wrote:

OK, I don't go that far on a set of tires. I got until the wear bars. So it would make sense that I'm not getting the same mileage on tires as, say, skierd.

The wear bars are just there to let you know it's time to start looking for a sale

1200 miles in and the new rear conti... still looks like new! Despite my and the Arizona and new Mexico highway departments nest efforts it had remained round in the face of a solid 1000 miles of straight roads and a solid 100 miles of dirt all with the bike loaded for travel. Happy so far!

And to note, I normally would not leave a tire on that long(the bt003) but didn't have a choice realistically.

Mileage is 37,382.



Let's call it 4,000 miles and 75% gone. I was hoping for more life than that... oh well.

Dry performance has been good enough for me, I can tell they're less sticky than the bt003 and bt090 but for my riding they're plenty. Wet performance has been outstanding. Dirt performance has been above my expectations with the rear, the front wanders more than id like but then the roads were pretty awful too.

I'm probably going to try a different rear tire next time, get something with a less rounded profile to get back some agility that was lost but hopefully maintain good life . I'm happy with the front.

Holy Shit. 37000 miles !! What are you smokin?

mordicai wrote:

Holy Shit. 37000 miles !! What are you smokin?

I think that was a typo. I think he meant 3700.

Or it was total miles on his ODO clock

Correct, the bike has 37k+ on it. That tire was put on at 33,602 and hence has about 4000 miles on it. I track the overall mileage on here to keep track of how far I get on each tire.

Guys, i read all the posts, searched the forum, but didnt find any words about Dunlop Sportmax Mutant. It seems like exactly what i need - 80/20 SM dedicated tyre.

That looks like an interesting tire. Give it a go! Report back.
My first thought when I saw the picture was "rain tire" and they wouldn't last, but it appears they're actually a good looking, long wearing SM specific tire. I am intrigued.

It appears finding them in the US may be tricky.

Replaced my rear tire today. Bikes mileage is 38,594, tire is just about at 5000 miles.



It is not possible to have tires shipped here in alaska for cheap, so i resigned myself to buying local. Fortunately Adventure Cycleworks in Fairbanks bucks the trend of msrp plus shipping on all tire prices here, great little shop with a full selection of heidenau and otther adv tires at fair and reasonable prices.

http://www.advcycleworks.com/

First a rare shot of my bike on a stand in a shop...



Opted for a Heidenau k76 in 150/70-17.







So far so good, I like it. Similiarly nice rounded profile like the Conti, but the larger diameter has quickened the steering back up as I never moved my forks with the conti... feels like a motard again! Hoping for some serious tread life out of it, 9-10k is apparently routine for this tire.

That's a sweet tire there. Have you run distanzias? I'd like to know how it compares.

Never run distanzia's, sorry. Probably never will, they just cost too much for how much riding I do.

Just about at the 1000 mile mark on the Heidenau's. Still look new down to the flashing between the tread blocks, only sign of wear is they are dirty and have solid 1" chicken strips around the edges (roads are mostly flat and flowing here, not a lot of tight curves and even if there were there's too much dirt, dust and moose crap to really push it).

I have a pretty noticeable vibration at lower speeds, up to about 35mph, that goes away if I lean at all so I suspect its the tread pattern. No howling tire noise at least, so far its pretty quiet.

Gravel traction is great, hard pack traction is great, and its much better on loose dirt and sand than street tires. Haven't tried it in the mud but I'd imagine it'd pack it in pretty quickly, might go find some forest roads on sunday to really test it. One downside is that it has enough of a traction advantage over the front tire (still a Continental sport touring tire) to make the bike push and understeer on gravel, not quite bad enough to cause a constant pucker factor but enough that its obvious I have more drive than steering capability with the current combo.

Pavement traction is significantly less than the street tires I was running before, probably less than the knobs I ran on my dirt wheels, and is probably because the tread compound is very hard for long life. Rain traction is acceptable, almost as good as its dry traction, but there is definitely less traction and feel compared to the sport tires I was running before. Its also a big damn tire, probably too big for the bike, as it feels less nimble than before even though the rear is back up where its supposed to be and then some.

Overall I think I've gone too far in search of ultimate tread wear and am stuck with a tire that's not a ton of fun for the next couple thousand miles. Its not a bad tire though, and I think it would be half of the ultimate WRX adventure touring package... so long as the other half is a 21" warp 9 wheels with a 90/90-21 K76 or similar on the front. Or a more 90/10 17" front dual sport tire.

hell0men wrote:

Guys, i read all the posts, searched the forum, but didnt find any words about Dunlop Sportmax Mutant. It seems like exactly what i need - 80/20 SM dedicated tyre.

please, see https://wr250rforum.forumotion.com/t7406-dunlop-sportmax-mutant-17

I think I need some new tires...



So I ordered some Avon Distanzias at Canadamotorcycle
I think I got a good deal, at least the best I could find.

I will try and put them on myself when they arrive. Wish me luck.

Hey Delta-T, my BT003R rear was looking like that today. Decided to put my new one on. Ended up popping the tube somehow at the valve.

Gotta wait a few days until one comes in, I couldn't believe that anyone locally didn't have a tube in stock.

That funny because I took my tires off yesterday figuring that it save me some time to put the now ones on and I damaged both tubes during the process. So I had to order two tubes today. Luckely they didn't ship the Distanzia's yet and they were able to add them to the order saving me shipping.
It was probably better to change the tubes anyway. The stems were pretty rusty where they meet the tube.

I made a redneck bead breaker which worked good. I'll post a pic soon.

I use michelin pilot activ , im very happy with them

My new Distanzia's are on !

The plan was to do it all myself, but I have to admit that I have failed miserably.



Taking the wheels off wasn't a big deal, with a little help of some youtube movies I found.
getting the old tires off the rim wasn't to hard although it was tricky not to scratch the black rims.



I made a redneck bead breaker and that worked great !

I managed to pinch both tubes, with was basically just my stupidity. So I had to order some new inner tubes. The old ones were somewhat rusty where the stem meets the tube so I think it was smarter to replace them anyway.



Putting the fresh rubber on was a p.i.t.a. I just couldn't do it. The new tires were just too stiff and I tried for an hour or so and finally gave up.
I drove over to a local tire shop where they have a machine. It took them minutes.





I took it for a testdrive and there is no rubbing at all.

My first impression is 'different'. Because the are a lot rounder the bike steers lighter and falls more into corners then before.
I will get used to that quickly. I didn't balance the tires but there was no shaking so all and all I am pretty happy.

I also went down a gravel road and I think I need to figure out what tire pressure is best. It felt slippery. I now run them with 26 psi. I might have to lower it a bit.

Anyone try the Bridgestone s20 sm's yet ?

Delta_T,

When mounting the tires it really helps if you put the new tires on the roof of a car in the sun or something while you pull the old ones off. It get's them good and hot and makes the bead more flexible.

Using proper tire mounting lube (slimy, nasty stuff) helps a ton as well. I bought a gallon of it for $6 at the local parts store.