Tyres mainly for road use - in UK

[Vdue]

Hi all,

A Happy New Year to everyone from a newbie to the site and the more modern KDX. I've had a KX250, KDX175 and PE175 back in the 80's when I was a young lad so not exactly new to Enduros.

I've been on and off the forum for about a year but eventually bought a KDX220-A10 a few weeks ago. Has been road registered since new and has only covered 1800 miles from new which from all the mots looks genuine. The bike really is pretty mint for an off roader. Reason for the post is tyres (with a "y" of course ). I've looked and looked and given my use would be pretty much 80% to 90% road use with some off road gravel I want to change the knobblies to something better on the road. Seeing as I'm down here in Cornwall in the UK and it's always pretty much wet on the roads during the winter months and a lot of the roads also have mud on them I'm trying to find a more road orientated tyre such as the metzeler enduro 3 (http://www.metzeler.com/site/uk/product ... uro-3.html) or conti tkc70 (http://www.continental-tires.com/motorc ... uro/tkc-70). I have an Aprilia RS250, Honda NS400R and Bimota Vdue for the summer road use, when it is then occasionally dry and warmish. So the KDX is meant for short rides here and there along our quiet, twisty and hilly narrow lanes. The main issue I've come across is try to getting tyres close to the stock 80/100 x 21 and 100/100 x 18.
Could I go for a 3.00 x 21 front and 4.00 x 18 rear? As then the options are much better. Reason I put UK on here is brands like Kenda and Shinko I think are American specific and we don't see them over here.

A big hello to any other UK riders on here. I've seen a few. I was wondering, how do you go about getting or cloning the RB mods being over here. Seems a must have but sending barrels, heads and carbs over to the states? Not so clever....

Cheers,
Chris

[cornishwrecker220]

Hi Chris & welcome to the forum....always good to have a fello Cornishman on board

I run the Michelin comp 4 on the front & AC 10 on the rear ( although the rear mitas Co2 are hard wearing) with HD tubes but I may try the tubliss system in the future...Michelins have a strong carcass & resist pinch flats quite well if running between 14-10 psi ( I'm over 15 stone )
The above tyres serve me well down here as most of the surface is mud or loose gravel etc but if you are from Bodmin or above then your best bet is to run a trials type rear ...either Michelin,Pirelli or V rubber as the terrain up around that area is VERY rocky & like Bon jovi once said.....slippery when wet!!
As for tuning your kdx its hard for us Brits to send stuff over to stateside to get Ron or Jeff to work their magic but it can be done with a little help from a few members on here......I had my motor fully rebuilt & tuned by Justin Gibbs from saltash with great results so there's another thought for you.

[Vdue]

Many thanks...... Yep, probably nice to see another person from the UK, never mind Cornwall! lol. Note how I didn't say England...

The tyres really want to be more road orientated and yes I'm over near Looe/Liskeard so not far from Bodmin and the moor. I'm a tad confused about the sizing more than anything else. I know a 100/100 tyre is essence square in that it is 100mm wide and then 100% of that in height. So given 4 inches is 101.6mm the back would be pretty much the right size as a 4.0. My problem is more the front. As 80mm is 3.15 inches and again it's 3.15inches in sidewall height. So fitting a 3.0 tyre would change the overall running diameter by a small amount. Or is the 4mm so negligible it is really not a concern? Great tip on the chap in Saltash as that is just up the road from me and been trying to find someone who would dyno any of my 2T's and everyone either said no or give us an additional £50 for the lambda sensor that would need replacing. My RS250 and Bimota defo need setting up properly...

[cornishwrecker220]

Not too sure about the front size but 4.00 is the norm for most 18' wheels. If you are looking toward more road biased tyres then take a look at the Michelin T63 or Continental TKC 80 , another is Pirelli MT range ..on another note GT motorcycles in Plymouth have a dyno & it would probably be better for your road bikes....especially the Bimota as if my memory serves me correctly,isn't that fitted with the RG 500 motor?? ( I had a Stan Stephens tuned RG 500 back in 1989, I traded it in on a brand new RGV 250m in 1991 .....I can smell the 2 stroke now as I talk

[Vdue]

I've come across TKC 70 as well which seem the 80's successor. I'd need to go for a 90/90 front in that so the height would be 81mm so only 2mm on the rolling diameter but would be 10mm wider. I'll go and measure the clearance on the front and see if it will fit. Guess it will change it's turning a little but got to be better than what is on there now.
GT have a dyno as well? Blimey I was talking to someone who used to work there about dyno's and 2T's and he never mentioned it!
You not far off on the Bimota Vdue. It is a 500 motor but a V Twin and their own developed engine (1st time) and it was fuel injected. But funny enough it didn't work back in the late 90's so they went bust (now going again) and some guy bought all the bankrupt stock at auction, ran a trophy race series in Italy with them converted back to carbs and then sold them the non-used for road use based on the data from the track. My brother had an RG500, stock, back in the early 90's. I'm currently in negotiations round my way to buy an old one but bloke is a bit of an idiot so it's hard work as he think being sat in an old leaking shed for 10 years makes it worth more money than a fully restored one! lol

[cornishwrecker220]

Yes the RGs are fetching silly money these days ...over 10k for a tidy one ...I wish I kept my bikes of the 80s & 90s as they'd be worth a small fortune now ...funny how you couldn't give them away back in the day.
I know GT have a dyno or have access to one as I asked about having my zrx1200 set up a year ago,I think they use a guy called Alan Jeffrey engineering who has a unit in valley road industrial estate plympton ( just up the road from GT ) I'm sure if you google it you can find out more.

[pt65]

Hi,

as far as rear tires - for both street and off road use, the Motoz Mountain Hybrid is hands down the best deal. Its a bit more expensive than others, but extremely well worth it.

Wear comparison :

Motoz Mt Hybrid - had already done 2 Enduro rides of about 250 miles each. Looked like it had been just scrubbed in ie new. After 4 more Enduros of similar distance, the tire showed visible signs of wear, but still good for at least 3 more Enduros, maybe even 4.

Sedona and Dunlop knobbies - brand new : after 1 Enduro of 250 - 300 miles there was visible wear. After another half day both were pretty much done. Still, we want to squeeze all the life out of them right? So, probably will keep it on for another 200-250 miles.
And BTW - dont ever try to mount Sedona med compound tires yourself. they are by far the stiffest tires I have ever seen. I got oine side on, gave up on the other side, brought it to a shop, and even they had a horrible time mounting it. I may very well just cut that POS off even if it means cutting the tube.

On my dirt only KDX I mounted a Motoz Tractionator: after about 4 full days of spinning it up over about 50:50 dirt and rocks, the grooves in the knobbies are still very clearly visible, there is minimal wear, and it grips wonderfully over most surface types.

I have no affiliation with Motoz, but these are best damn tires (value and performance) I have had yet on Enduro and dirt bikes. unless they change their formula or drastically change their prices, these are the only tires I will be running.

FYI - the Mountain Hybrid does have a bit of a trials tire look to it, and it will slide a little easier (some of us like to do that, yes?) but it still has plenty of grip to get thru muddy single track.

Cheers.

[Vdue]

Yes the RGs are fetching silly money these days ...over 10k for a tidy one ...I wish I kept my bikes of the 80s & 90s as they'd be worth a small fortune now ...funny how you couldn't give them away back in the day.
I know GT have a dyno or have access to one as I asked about having my zrx1200 set up a year ago,I think they use a guy called Alan Jeffrey engineering who has a unit in valley road industrial estate plympton ( just up the road from GT ) I'm sure if you google it you can find out more.

Yep and £10K is not even for a mint one! I think that is called the wonderful world of hindsight. I've kept my Aprilia RS250 from when I bought it in France in 98. Not quite the same thing but it's now worth perhaps 2 to 3 times what I paid for it then. mind you it only has 3K miles on it. I'd never sell it though as very attached to it.
Ok, so they use Alan's rolling road. I know them as he, well his son, remapped my Subaru last year. Interesting. small old world....

[Vdue]

Hi,

as far as rear tires - for both street and off road use, the Motoz Mountain Hybrid is hands down the best deal. Its a bit more expensive than others, but extremely well worth it.

Wear comparison :

Motoz Mt Hybrid - had already done 2 Enduro rides of about 250 miles each. Looked like it had been just scrubbed in ie new. After 4 more Enduros of similar distance, the tire showed visible signs of wear, but still good for at least 3 more Enduros, maybe even 4.

Sedona and Dunlop knobbies - brand new : after 1 Enduro of 250 - 300 miles there was visible wear. After another half day both were pretty much done. Still, we want to squeeze all the life out of them right? So, probably will keep it on for another 200-250 miles.
And BTW - dont ever try to mount Sedona med compound tires yourself. they are by far the stiffest tires I have ever seen. I got oine side on, gave up on the other side, brought it to a shop, and even they had a horrible time mounting it. I may very well just cut that POS off even if it means cutting the tube.

On my dirt only KDX I mounted a Motoz Tractionator: after about 4 full days of spinning it up over about 50:50 dirt and rocks, the grooves in the knobbies are still very clearly visible, there is minimal wear, and it grips wonderfully over most surface types.

I have no affiliation with Motoz, but these are best damn tires (value and performance) I have had yet on Enduro and dirt bikes. unless they change their formula or drastically change their prices, these are the only tires I will be running.

FYI - the Mountain Hybrid does have a bit of a trials tire look to it, and it will slide a little easier (some of us like to do that, yes?) but it still has plenty of grip to get thru muddy single track.

Cheers.

Cheers for the comments. I had a look and seems we can't get Motoz over here in the UK, although I did find some reviews in Germany so looks like they must be able to get them. Perhaps they'll come over some time soon as I see they've started selling them in Oz....

[cornishwrecker220]

Chris don't know if you'd be interested at some stage but if you do then I have a Pro Circuit platinum front pipe ( only used for 1 ride ) & a 35mm carb off a kdx 200 ( kdx 220 uses a 33mm carb ) both hard to obtain here in the UK & a good aftermarket mod for the 220.. I'll take £200 for the pair , I travel to Plymouth most weekends so if you fancy it then giz a shout .....zerosevendoubleeightonefourfivezerofivezeroseven.
Alan.