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firstime911

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Hi,
I'm thinking of buying a new set of tire for R1200 GS adventure LC. It come with stock tkc80. I will need more street oriented tire, long distance touring, rain, and very good at connering and high speed. Around 10 to 15% gravel, dirt, bumpy road.. not doing enduro soft terrain mud yet.

Please recomend. I'm hesitating among MA3 , TA2, actally TKC70 as well.
From my internet research i found
MA3: worn out fast, noise on highway but many people using MA3
TA2: no information on its cons yet
TKC70 Wobble on High speed.

Thanks for the reveiw and feedback.
 
Hi,
....
Please recomend. I'm hesitating among MA3 , TA2, actally TKC70 as well.
From my internet research i found
MA3: worn out fast, noise on highway but many people using MA3
TA2: no information on its cons yet
TKC70 Wobble on High speed.

Thanks for the reveiw and feedback.
I have Michelin A3's on mine: Sticky, good in rain, I never noticed any noise, but the waterboxer is so noisy I doubt I could hear any above 60. No wobble at any speed. They do wear out fairly quickly: 7,000 on rear, 12,000 on front. The second set is doing a little better because I got my full throttle kicks on the first set and am a little more sedate now (at 13,000). It does surprisingly well in gravel and dirt. Mud, not so well.

Until I tackle a multi-day Enduro I will stay with them, then go to TKC80's for that.
 
I hear that the Anakee IIIs are surprisingly good in the dirt. I have been using the Anakee II on the rear and Metzler Tourance on the front. The Anakee II front did not wear very well and cupped severely toward the end of its life, hence the Tourance. For my next set of tires (hopefully this month), I am going with the Heidenau K60 Scout. I need something more off-road worthy but I was afraid of the short life of the TKC-80. I will likely get my hands on the Anakee IIIs soon afterward.
 
I currently am on my first set of Anakee3's and they are doing just fine. A little whine here and there but nothing I can't live with. I expect to get about 10,000 miles out of them based on measurements I took last week. Can't really say anything bad about them. I ran the Trail Attacks on my 1100 GS and loved them. More street oriented, but they did OK on gravel...not a mud tire at all. For 90% street riding, I think I would go with the TA's. I got great mileage out of them, were great in the rain, so so in gravel and I could drag my pegs in the twisties.
 
If you have an oil-cooled GS/GSA I highly recommend the Heidenau K60 Scouts, if available in your area.

Folks on this forum usually fall to one side or the other: Love or Hate the K60's. I had two sets on my '08 GSA and ran about a true 80/20 split. I ran them pretty hard on the pavement in ALL kinds of weather and found them to be excellent performers.

I just installed Karoo 3's on my '15 GSAW today, coming off the stock Anakee 3's due to the K60 Scouts not out in the 120/170 sizes in the states yet. I've started a running comment thread on the Tyre Forum here if you're interested.

Word is the TKC 80's have a very short life, through excellent off-road tires.
 
A3 on my 2010 GS, done a little over 5000 miles on them now and still 60%+ tread left.
Been fine in rain, dirt, bitumen and plenty of high speed corners.
Bit of noise around 40-50mph mark, but dont notice it anymore.
Forget mud, this tyre not made for that.
 
FIFTEEN THOUSAND miles on that rear A3!?!?!?!

That's what my rear looks like at fifteen HUNDRED miles! I can't get over 7,000 on the rear without it getting wonky in the turns due to flatting of the profile.

I still like them just fine for 90% road and 10% easy dirt. I have never heard them make any noise, either.
 
FIFTEEN THOUSAND miles on that rear A3!?!?!?!

That's what my rear looks like at fifteen HUNDRED miles! I can't get over 7,000 on the rear without it getting wonky in the turns due to flatting of the profile.

I still like them just fine for 90% road and 10% easy dirt. I have never heard them make any noise, either.
I put them on @ 50000 and now have almost 66000 on the bike. I’m an older kind of guy, probably don’t scream around as much as you do. Lol.
 
I think most of the advrider complaints are about noise. I'm deaf enough or my earplugs are good enough that I don't hear any noise from my A3. I find the A3 about the same as the Conti Trail Attack. Both are OK for the road but I'd like something a bit more aggressive for off road.

TKC80: great, but wear fast (rear)
K60: Never again. The profile starts flat and wears flatter in few miles.
Karoo III: OK after a couple of hundred miles. Front lasted a long time, rear a medium amount of time. Downside: expensive tire.
Shinko 804/805: This may be the next tires I try. So far reports are good on road with a tread that works on dirt and gravel, too.
 
I think most of the advrider complaints are about noise. .
No, most of the complaints are that they absolutely suck off pavement. I've not tried them as most of our roads here in Vermont aren't paved and I wanted something more 50/50, but if I was looking for an 80/20 those reports would definitely have me looking elsewhere.

Agreed, the Shinko 804/805 looks worth a try for my style of riding.

To the OP: why not the tried and true Tourance?
 
I was pleased my 14 GSA came with Anakee 3's as Anakee 2 had been my favorite tire on my previous GSs, I probably went through 6 sets of them. The A3's were fine at first but by 2,500-3,000 miles the rear was severely squared off. By 4,800 it was down to the wear bars and I was glad to get them off as handling had gone to crap. The front probably would have been good for another 2,000 miles. I later read numerous posts on A3's complaining about the same thing so it wasn't just me.
I replaced them with Conti 2's and they were night and day better, but I expected that because comparing any new tires to the worn out ones just taken off is always that way. The big difference was 3,000 miles later they still felt as good as new and almost looked it too. I replaced them (with Conti's again) prematurely at 5,500 miles because I was leaving on a 3.5-4K ride and I wasn't sure they'd last. They *might* have made that trip, they'd gone another 2,000 for sure.
 
I noticed that the older original design Metzler Tourance are still being made...they were original equipment on my 09 GS..since then I have used Conti Trail Attacks,Michelin and several sets of Tourance EXP and Tourance NEXT(on 09 and 2012)...I like the Metzlers and may go back to the original style Metz for my next set...as I recal the EXP and NEXT are rated at 90/10 or 95/5 tires and the original style Tourance rated at 85/15 or so.
 
I'm curious as to what the op choose. I purchased the Trail Attacks2 to replace the Anakees, but haven't had them installed yet.

No real complaints from the Anakees, worked well enough in dry dirt/gravel roads, but was wanting some thing more street oriented.
 
Conti TA 2's.......

Just put these on last year. I had the original TA's on the bike when I bought it. They are great on the road. Gravel roads are "ok" but I don't mind my rear end kicking out from time to time. I've had them on some single track stuff that I shouldn't have been on with them but go through fine. The obviously suck in mud. Light sand so so. Deep sand, check please. I'm looking at the new TKC 70's. I want to do more dirt but not enough to warrant the TKC 80's and I don't want to lose my road fun.
 
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