Race tire selection

So I'm racing in the Dawn t Dusk 12 hour enduro in Wales, UK next month. Almost all my racing and trail riding has been in mountains and/or hard pack up until this point. This race apparently has very rocky areas and old mining pits. However, it also has natural dirt trails that will probably get pretty muddy. I've seen several videos of past races with very muddy steep hill climbs, but also rocky sections. I've never ridding in Wales or any of the U.K. so I'm not really sure on tire selection. There are no restrictions on tires, they do not need to be DOT.

I would love to hear some suggestions for tires and there size.

I'm sort of leaning towards Maxxis ITs but have no experience with them and I'm not sure what size.

I run the Maxxis Desert ITs on the 450x and they are very good and durable tires.

Given the mud however, you're likely going to want a softer compound than the "Desert" version.

Don't have a recommendation on that however.

Michelin S12XCs /thread

X-Racer wrote:

I run the Maxxis Desert ITs on the 450x and they are very good and durable tires.

Given the mud however, you're likely going to want a softer compound than the "Desert" version.

I've been reading a lot about the Desert ITs and I think I'm going to give them a try. Several people said they have run them in mud and they work fine. Because of the shale and very rocky areas I think I'm going to need at least an intermediate tire.

I got the rear in 110/100 which is still significantly larger than a d606 120/90 in every dimension.

I'll post how they work out.

Desert ITs are an incredible tire. I ran them with GoldenTyre Mooses for a 12 hour enduro in the nastiest, rockiest, muddiest, terrain you can think of. They held up great and got me through sections I didn't think I would get traction on. I love these tires, and they run fine on the road too. Still look pretty new with no chunking or excessive tire wear.

thumpjump wrote:

I got the rear in 110/100 which is still significantly larger than a d606 120/90 in every dimension.

Ummmm... I don't think so.

The first number is the tire width - so a 120 is going to be wider (larger if you will) than a 110.

The second number is the aspect ratio by percentage, giving the height of the tire. The 110/100 is going to be 110 mms high. The 120/90 is going to be 108mms high, 2mms less than the 110/00. So the 120/90 is 10mms wider than the 110/100 and 2mms shorter. If either is significantly larger in any dimension, it will be the 120/90, in width. The greater height of the 110/100 is negligible - I doubt you can detect 2mms.

But if they work for you, it's all good no matter what the sizes. Not to mention that one manufacturer's 120/90 may be noticeably different in size from another manufacturer's 120/90 (or whatever size you are talking about.

Hi Jäger,

Manufactures use different sizes despite the size stamped on the tire. Just like one clothes manufactureres may make a size large, which may be a medium in another manufactures product. From Maxxis website, the desert IT 110/100-18 is 27 inches diameter and 5.0 inches wide. The d606 120/90-18 according to Dunlop's site is, 26.8 around 4.8 wide. So maybe I shouldn't have said significantly larger since width and height are only .2 inches bigger on the maxxis, but it is a bigger tire all around. Plus tread depth on the IT is 30/32 and the d606 is 20/32.

I just wanted to post a tire size that works incase anyone else wants to try.

thumpjump wrote:

Just like one clothes manufactureres may make a size large, which may be a medium in another manufactures product. From Maxxis website, the desert IT 110/100-18 is 27 inches diameter and 5.0 inches wide. The d606 120/90-18 according to Dunlop's site is, 26.8 around 4.8 wide. So maybe I shouldn't have said significantly larger since width and height are only .2 inches bigger on the maxxis, but it is a bigger tire all around.

What particularly interests me at this point is you managed find actual physical measurements from the manufacturers? I haven't stumbled over that before. I was aware that what the manufacturer moulds on the tire isn't necessarily the same physical dimensions as another manufacturer also making the same tire size.

Jäger wrote:

What particularly interests me at this point is you managed find actual physical measurements from the manufacturers? I haven't stumbled over that before. I was aware that what the manufacturer moulds on the tire isn't necessarily the same physical dimensions as another manufacturer also making the same tire size.

When I was trying to pick the tire size I stumbled on the dimensions. Maxxis lists them under each tire within the "specifications" tab:
http://www.maxxis.com/MotorcycleATV/Off-road/Maxxcross-Desert-IT-Rear.aspx

Dunlop lists it under the specific tires description: http://www.dunlopmotorcycle.com/tirecatalog_tire.asp?id=14

I almost ordered the Desert IT in 120/100 - 18 Maxxis, but discovered it was actually 5.3 inches wide, which would be very close to my FMF pipe on full suspension compression. The 120 Maxxis is 27.5 tall, which is .8 inches taller than the 120 Dunlop. Again, all according to the manufactures measurements, I didn't actually measure them.