D606's and lots of highway

Hello, Second time poster here, long time lurker:)

I just got my WRR and I'll be taking it from my home in Germany to the Pyrenees in Spain (actually all the way to Madrid) at the end of the month. Total round trip riding will be about 3,000 miles, with 500 of them off road. I'm going to the Horizon's Unlimited Mountain Madness and will be "racing" in the Pyrenees which = rocky and loose terrain.

I'm fitting new D606's (front and back) just before I leave. I saw Skierd's and Shewolf's miles and feel some comfort knowing that they still had tread left after many more miles than I'm planning. However, I'm riding about 1,300 - 1,500 miles before I even get to the event, mostly on highway at 70mph+ and 90+ degree temps.

My question is, do you thing I'll be OK running on the 606's with 1,500 highway miles in this type of terrain, for 500 miles and 3 days off road, and then ride back home another 800 miles via highway? I hate to bring extra tires with me, or figure out how to get them to my destination.

Any tips to prolong the 606's life while on the highway (i.e. tire pressure, speed, etc...)?

Thanks!

thumpjump wrote:

Hello, Second time poster here, long time lurker:)

I just got my WRR and I'll be taking it from my home in Germany to the Pyrenees in Spain (actually all the way to Madrid) at the end of the month. Total round trip riding will be about 3,000 miles, with 500 of them off road. I'm going to the Horizon's Unlimited Mountain Madness and will be "racing" in the Pyrenees which = rocky and loose terrain.

I'm fitting new D606's (front and back) just before I leave. I saw Skierd's and Shewolf's miles and feel some comfort knowing that they still had tread left after many more miles than I'm planning. However, I'm riding about 1,300 - 1,500 miles before I even get to the event, mostly on highway at 70mph+ and 90+ degree temps.

My question is, do you thing I'll be OK running on the 606's with 1,500 highway miles in this type of terrain, for 500 miles and 3 days off road, and then ride back home another 800 miles via highway? I hate to bring extra tires with me, or figure out how to get them to my destination.

Any tips to prolong the 606's life while on the highway (i.e. tire pressure, speed, etc...)?

Thanks!

I have no first hand experience with D606s on the WRR yet but I used to run them on my DRZ all the time. The rear did not last more than 1500-2000 miles max with mixed highway/off-road use. I used to run them around 25 psi for dual sporting and aired them down to around 20 when I knew I would spend extended periods of time off road.
I am about 180 lbs dressed to ride and would often carry 30 pounds or so of crap on the bike. The DRZ is about 40 pounds or so heavier than the WRR and it also has a bit more power so it will be slightly harder on the tire. Road surface is also a very big player with respect to tire life...
All that said, I, personally, would not try and do that whole trip on one tire. I would probably use the stockers or something like that to get there and then change to something more dirt-worthy down there. maybe you can ship a rear somewhere close to where you're going and then swap it out. It will probably be fine for the trip home.
YMMV.

Picard,

How'd the front tire do? If the front holds up well, then maybe I'll strap just a rear tire to the back and take it along. One tire shouldn't be too much of a problem. Shipping is not going to be easy. I'll be camping the whole time and I'm not setting myself to a particular schedule (i.e. I wont really know where I'm going to be until I get there). Another option is to find a dealer that sells a compatible tire in Spain. I haven't seen to many 606's, but they do have Mitas and MT21s around here.

The front lasted maybe 3k. I don't like to run the front too far down as traction really suffers off road. You will probably be able to do the full trip on one front but it will be really worn down when you get home.

I have a set of Mitas (80/100 front and 100/100 rear) ready to be mounted but I won't have data on these before you leave ;-)

Have you tried to find inmates down there (ADVrider, WRR list, other off-road bike BS lists)? If you found a nice person willing to accept a tire shipped to his/her house and store it for a week or two you could pick it up and mount it whenever you get there.

Thanks Picar!

When I get to the offroad stuff, I'll only have about 1200-1400 miles on the tires. After that, I'm only concerned with getting home 800 +or- miles on the highway. I don't care about off road performance after that point, only safely traveling at 70mph loaded with about 230 lbs of person and gear.

The online tire dealers here in Europe have a lot of tires that we don't normally have back in the States, thus it's hard to find reviews. There are a lot of Mefo with aggressive tread and many different Mitas. I've searched the interwebs, and can't find hardly any real reviews from similar bikes as ours. Frustrating!

There are some KTM 950/990 guys on ADVrider who run the Mefo Explorer / Super Explorer and they get good reviews. They seem to last several k-miles and the Katooms are REALLY hard on tires.

picard wrote:

There are some KTM 950/990 guys on ADVrider who run the Mefo Explorer / Super Explorer and they get good reviews. They seem to last several k-miles and the Katooms are REALLY hard on tires.

I don't know about D606's but I don't get more than about 3000miles out of a set of tires, but I do change them when I even think they are not providing the kind of traction I require. My Michelin T63's are about to hit the garbage bin after just over 2000 miles. I'm about to give the non-DOT Michelin S-12 XCs a shot.

I think you'll be fine for your event.

D606's will last the ride and have plenty of meat for the off-road section when you get there. I liked 15psi on the front and usually ran 25-29psi+ in the rear while loaded up, less if without luggage. The rear will just wear (and grip) until the knobs are gone which took about 4500-5500 miles with my riding. The front will start to scallop badly and eventually tear knobs at 3500-4000 miles but will still have a decent amount of traction on and off-road.

at 70+ mph and 90 degrees on the highway? I really don't know how you guys get such mileage. I have to believe what you say - maybe Colorado roads are particularly hard on tires...

Hi Skierd,

Your TAT trip report on ADV was one of the main reasons I decided on the WRR. Thanks for all your input!

I think I'm going to just try to make it on the one set of 606's. If after my off-road adventure my tires are too worn, I'll go down to Barcelona where I'm sure I can find a set of tires that will get me home. To bad HF doesn't live in Spain so he can give me a spare 606 too

skierd wrote:

D606's will last the ride and have plenty of meat for the off-road section when you get there. I liked 15psi on the front and usually ran 25-29psi+ in the rear while loaded up, less if without luggage. The rear will just wear (and grip) until the knobs are gone which took about 4500-5500 miles with my riding. The front will start to scallop badly and eventually tear knobs at 3500-4000 miles but will still have a decent amount of traction on and off-road.

picard wrote:

at 70+ mph and 90 degrees on the highway? I really don't know how you guys get such mileage. I have to believe what you say - maybe Colorado roads are particularly hard on tires...

Maybe. A lot of it has to do with riding style too I guess. I'm not one to try to roost out of every corner and win the stop light grand prix at every light either. Especially loaded up and traveling, I'm pretty gentle on throttle transitions and try to leave a healthy bit in reserve on corners, just in case. Then again, I didn't have any chicken strips left on the knobs either, at least not after going through Deal's Gap...

skierd wrote:

Maybe. A lot of it has to do with riding style too I guess. I'm not one to try to roost out of every corner and win the stop light grand prix at every light either. Especially loaded up and traveling, I'm pretty gentle on throttle transitions and try to leave a healthy bit in reserve on corners, just in case. Then again, I didn't have any chicken strips left on the knobs either, at least not after going through Deal's Gap...

I hear you. Not many stoplight races to win on the WRR anyways :-)
I do like to roost out of corners but there are people who do that more than I do ;-)

Still, I would not risk having my trip ruined over a tire.....

7000+ on my set. I'm gonna go with another rear once my Mitas runs its course and throw on an IRC on the front. The front 606 I found a little too sketchy in loose gravel.

Well I mounted the 606's for my trip to Spain that is starting on Monday. First impression of the back tire is great! It hooks up well on the dirt and does good on the road. Front tire is a different story. The front, IMO, sucks in loose dirt, slippery, and loose gravel. I tried all different tire pressures and suspension setups, but I think the front Trail Wing hooked up better (at least when new) in loose terrain.

Then there was another problem with my front tire. At about 50mph it had crazy wheel hop. After many attempts reseating the bead and verifying the tube is not twisted it turns out there's a flat spot on the tire, not to mention it was manufactured in 2005. Thanks for that Cycle Gear!

So a little panic set in trying to find a tire. Remember, I'm in Germany. One of the least fun places for dual-sport riders who actually like to go off road. So it's hard finding a tire like the 606 at a local dealer. Luckily I was able to find a Pirelli MT-21 front tire. Spooned it on, and all is well. I'm not sure though how it's going to hold up with 3000, mainly highway, miles. Good thing there are a lot of moto shops in Madrid.

D606's on the highway? They do fine. Here's my recent 3,300+ mile trip - 99% highway and all on 606's. You'll notice I swapped out for a new set after my first 1k miles, but that's only because the ones that were on there were already 75% worn before I left. They'll last that long no problem.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=595729

I'm not saying the TW's were good, just felt more predictable to me than the 606 front. After 1500 miles on the TW's they became quite scary in the sand (actually very fine and loose dirt). Maybe I need more time on the 606 since I only did 2 dirt rides on it. The 606 seemed better in hard pack though.

SheWolf wrote:

thumpjump wrote:

I think the front Trail Wing hooked up better (at least when new) in loose terrain.

I found the TW's to be terrible in loose stuff, myself. Hard pack and pavement they were good.

I know there are a few teams who run 606's on the front for the Baja 1000, so they can't be all that bad in the loose stuff.

Maybe I need some more saddle time with them or, maybe I need to man-up and pin the throttle in the loose stuff.

Sounds like you got a bad/old tire. I liked my D606 front except for the fact that it starts to cup and scallop at ~3500-4500 miles for me, worked good to great at 15psi in every imaginable condition.

I guess it's possible that because the tire had a pretty bad flat spot/low spot, it might have caused instability in the sand, but I doubt it. It's probably just rider error.

BTW - What made you go down to 15 on the street with the 606? What was wrong at let's say, 18 or 20?

skierd wrote:

Sounds like you got a bad/old tire. I liked my D606 front except for the fact that it starts to cup and scallop at ~3500-4500 miles for me, worked good to great at 15psi in every imaginable condition.

I've found that at 20 in the front it starts to get a bit squirly above about 60 mph on the pavement. I run mine at 18 and it's smooth.

When I left Michigan last week it was 55 degrees and my front tire was right at 18 psi. By the time I got to Southern Illinois the temps were up in the 90's and it started getting squirly again. I stopped to check my tires and sure enough the front had increased to about 22 psi. I dropped it back down to 18 and she ran smooth again.

Good to know! I'll be in the mountains (Pyrenees) where the temps get into the 50's at night and 80-90's in the day. So I'll keep this in mind.

Krabill wrote:

I've found that at 20 in the front it starts to get a bit squirly above about 60 mph on the pavement. I run mine at 18 and it's smooth.
.......

Interesting. I'm one of those freaks that like to go by the book so run it high. The only time I've gone down to 18psi was at an ORV park.

*What kind of wear do you think happens at lower psi compared to higher psi?