Adv Tires for the FJR?

Thinking ahead to Alaska 2019.

With the amount of fresh chip seal, road repair and the , "Top of the World" in my mind, I'm exploring my options for tires with a bit more aggressive tread than the typical "Sport Touring" tires we know and love.

I find some in 170/60-17 but few fronts.

Does anyone have experience running a 80/20 or 70/30 tire on their FJR.

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

TKC 80s Rock

https://fjriders.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=1703&p=22322&hilit=Labrador#p22322

I suggest a TKC-80 up front. Should last the trip and having an aggressive tire up front will help. Something like a Tourance, Avon Trail Rider or Anakee in a 170/60 will work.

https://advrider.com/index.php?threads/semi-adv-tires-for-an-fjr1300.421838/

Don’t expect them to last anywhere near as long as a street tire.

Run street tires up, swap for 50/50 while there, swap back to the street tires for the ride home. Of course you will need to arrange a place to do the tire swap.

bigjohnsd said:

Thinking ahead to Alaska 2019.
With the amount of fresh chip seal, road repair and the , "Top of the World" in my mind, I'm exploring my options for tires with a bit more aggressive tread than the typical "Sport Touring" tires we know and love.

I find some in 170/60-17 but few fronts.

Does anyone have experience running a 80/20 or 70/30 tire on their FJR.

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

Click to expand...

Pirelli Scorpion Trail 2 is available in a 180/55/17 and 120/70/17

Shinko 705's are available in a 170/60/17 and 120/70/17

TKC 80's are great but will wear really fast on the FJR loaded

Does anyone have experience with Conti TKC 70?

I'm liking TKC80 front TKC 70 rear from the pictures.

The question is, Will they go 8,000 miles?

No personal experience but the comments Ive read on ADVRider about the TKC70 have been mixed at best.

In reality I think you could run a road tire on the rear. I ran a Avon TrailRider on the front of my GSA and a Shinko Raven on the rear on our trip last month. We didnt do a ton of off pavement riding, but we did some with no problems. If you are planning on roads like the TOW, Denali Hwy or even the Dalton to the Arctic Circle, then a road tire on the rear will do unless it gets real muddy. If it gets sloppy, then you are in trouble on an FJR even with knobbies.

I know I cannot do 8,000 miles on any motorcycle rear tire on my FJR, especially on the chip seal roads up north.

Pterodactyl, question for you:

I rode the UCCC (Key West/Prudhoe Bay/Key West) and did so on PR2s with no issues. The biggest problem for me was the construction zones with the large

gravel. They were like riding over a patch of golf balls that were 6" deep. I do not feel tires would have made any difference. (?) My question for you is if you thought

road tires were actually better? It seems like any gaps or groves in the tires would make them more prone to slicing with sharp rocks. I am interested in your opinion

since I will be attempting the Haul Road 1000 next year. This could also be of interest for John (OP)

Thanks

101stpathfinder said:

Pterodactyl, question for you:I rode the UCCC (Key West/Prudhoe Bay/Key West) and did so on PR2s with no issues. The biggest problem for me was the construction zones with the large

gravel. They were like riding over a patch of golf balls that were 6" deep. I do not feel tires would have made any difference. (?) My question for you is if you thought

road tires were actually better? It seems like any gaps or groves in the tires would make them more prone to slicing with sharp rocks. I am interested in your opinion

since I will be attempting the Haul Road 1000 next year. This could also be of interest for John (OP)

Thanks

Click to expand...

Tony, I ran Shinko 804/805 big block tires on the KLR last year going up to and on the Dempster - they worked fine but I have no idea how that style of tire would work with real horsepower. The Dempster is famous for its sharp shale, I had no trouble with cuts between the blocks. The Shinko's handled the gravel and construction zones fine, even when worn.

No, I do not think that street tires would be better in deep gravel. I would want a tire closer to what John mentioned; a tire with enough edges and knobs to provide traction. The risk of a sharp rock cutting the tire will always be there, especially on the side wall.

PS. Tony, you are nuts.

bigjohnsd said:

Does anyone have experience with Conti TKC 70?
I'm liking TKC80 front TKC 70 rear from the pictures.

The question is, Will they go 8,000 miles?

Click to expand...

By golly now that you mentioned the TKC70s that would make a great tire for an Alaskan FJR trip. I put them on my Tenere before going to Colorado to attend NAFO in 2016 and just took them off before we went to Baja. These tires have close to 6000 miles on them. The front tire tread is blocked off and the rear is very squared off but it wouldn't surprise me if they went 8000 miles. I've rode about a thousand miles of gravel and over Cinnamon Pass in Colorado with the TKC 70 and I think it would make a great FJR tire. The front tire had some weird vibration when I first took off for Colorado but it went away in a little over a hundred miles. They hooked up perfect on rocky steep climbs over Cinnamon Pass, never did anything stupid on gravel, got me through some deep sand after being well worn, and railed the corners nicely on the black top.

Front tire with lots of tread but the tread showes some cupping or scalloping. I might need to run a touch more pressure when I mount the new ones.

The rear tire starts out with ridiculously deep tread and has blocked off with all the slab miles.

redneckj said:

Shinko 705's are available in a 170/60/17 and 120/70/17

Click to expand...

I ran 705s on my S10 during my trip down to Baja. The rear wore down pretty quick. I still have the front on. It is doing okay. I moved to a Mitas E07 for the rear. E07s are very popular with the S10 community. I don't know if they have E07s that would fit the FJR. If they do, you may want to look at the E07 Dakars. Stiffer side walls that may help with the sharp rocks.

Blind Squirrel said:

redneckj said:

Shinko 705's are available in a 170/60/17 and 120/70/17

Click to expand...

I ran 705s on my S10 during my trip down to Baja. The rear wore down pretty quick. I still have the front on. It is doing okay. I moved to a Mitas E07 for the rear. E07s are very popular with the S10 community. I don't know if they have E07s that would fit the FJR. If they do, you may want to look at the E07 Dakars. Stiffer side walls that may help with the sharp rocks.

Click to expand...

I also put the Shinko 705 804 / 805 on the Tenere before Baja in February. The rear is pretty roasted after 2600 miles and I'm guessing it will have to come off with another 500. The front 804 isn't doing that bad and I might expect 4000 of usable tread out of the front, which is amazing for a knobby on a big bike.

****Edit*****

After reading Fred's following post I realized I WAS MISTAKEN. i currently am running the shinko 804 / 805.

The 705 really isnt a knobby. Its still more of an 80/20 street/dirt tire. I only get around 4500-5000 miles out of a rear on my Strom, and thats with a good bit more than 20% dirt riding. The clay dirt roads of the northeast are pretty easy on tires, but test your riding skills when they get wet.

The Shinko 50/50 DOT knobbies are the 804/805. I have those on my Strom now. After about 4000 miles the rear is very squared off. Never really liked it that much when new due to the large center blocks. It has always had a tendency to kick out under power. The front has always been, and is still excellent and will probably outlast the 705 fronts. Don't know if the 800 series are available in FJR sizes, but it would be easy enough to check.

FWIW I just bought a Continental Tkc80 to replace the rear Shinko. I dont expect it to last much more than 3k miles, but maybe that will be enough to finish off the 804 up front. I got a better than usual price for it from Revzilla, (normally almost $200 ea.) and used some accumulated Zilla dollars to get it down to $100. The Shinkos are all much less scratch than that.

Edit- I just checked and the front 804 is not available in any 17 size. Thats too bad.

I've run pretty much every tire possible, trail wise, on the dl650. My favorite by a long shot is Mitas E-09. They wear rate has been very good and they work surprisingly well on the street. Ask Bugnatr, when he was in my hood that's what I was running.

The TKC's wear to 75% gone then tend to wear slowly from there. At 75% worn, they are pretty much useless in any soft dirt.

and.... should those Alaska Riders in your Group be concerned the intrepid leader is looking at knobby tires?

bigjohnsd said:

<snip> Does anyone have experience with Conti TKC 70?

Click to expand...

Ran a set on the Tenere on a trip to Bella Coola a couple years ago with '007. When new the tires were awesome. No issues at all with the dirt section to BC, very confidence inspiring...brought me back to the dirt bike days of my youth. We continued on to Hyder and Salmon Glacier and again, they were very good in the wet dirt section to the glacier.

Rear tire continued on for ~7,500 miles and looked like Kevin's when I pulled it off. Definitely would use again. I removed the front tire at ~5,000 miles due to cupping and vibration. While it still had plenty of tread, the cupping was to a point I didn't want to use it any longer. Not sure I would run the front again.

@Abercrombie - Couldn't tell from the pic. Is the front cupped or just flattened in the middle?

~G

escapefjrtist said:

bigjohnsd said:

<snip> Does anyone have experience with Conti TKC 70?

Click to expand...

Ran a set on the Tenere on a trip to Bella Coola a couple years ago with '007. When new the tires were awesome. No issues at all with the dirt section to BC, very confidence inspiring...brought me back to the dirt bike days of my youth. We continued on to Hyder and Salmon Glacier and again, they were very good in the wet dirt section to the glacier.

Rear tire continued on for ~7,500 miles and looked like Kevin's when I pulled it off. Definitely would use again. I removed the front tire at ~5,000 miles due to cupping and vibration. While it still had plenty of tread, the cupping was to a point I didn't want to use it any longer. Not sure I would run the front again.

@Abercrombie - Couldn't tell from the pic. Is the front cupped or just flattened in the middle?

~G

Click to expand...

The front tire has noticeable scalloping after 6000 miles but I don't remember any vibration coming from the front tire. The recommended front tire pressure for the Tenere is 33 PSI. I suspect the cupping or scalloping would be drastically reduced by not cornering or braking so aggressively, and adding a couple PSI when doing extended highway miles.