i'm impressed with the d606's!!
Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2004 7:13 pm
Hey there KLR folk,
Yea I'm still here, but busy as hell and can't seem to find time to
do much reading/writing on the list here.
I finally got all my off road gear together, put some new Dunlop
606's on the bike and headed off to Mendocino National Forest last
week for 4 days. sweeeeeet
When I rode the first 50 miles on the new tires, I was feeling both
ends slide with minimal lean angles (about 1/2 way over for me) and I
could VERY easily slide the rear out with the throttle when leaving a
red light or stop sign and turning.
I figured that was the way it was going to be, just like the Kenda's
and for the most part just like the Maxxis too, and I was again
getting bummed out that I was going to have to ride around like
grandpa Walton when on the street.
With about 80 miles on the tires I left for the 2 hour, back road,
super twisty roads that led to the camp ground I was staying at.
After about 50 miles I was into a section that is super twisty for
quite a ways and I was leaning it over more and more and could swear
that the throttle steer ability (rear tire slide) was getting harder
and harder to do. I kept cranking up the throttle just a bit more on
the exits of turns and the rear seemed to stay planted just a little
bit better and longer with each minute that went by. I pulled into
camp feeling alot better about the tires because I was getting closer
to riding like I do on Avon Gripsters. I couldn't wait to see what
the would do off road.
I rode around off road all weekend putting about 350 more miles on
the tires and had a blast. I have never had so much traction off
road. I tried them at 33-34 psi just to see what they felt like,
then I was airing them down to 24, 22, then 20, then 19 and finally
18 psi. 18 felt pretty damn good but I guess I need to experiment
more with them to see if lower would be better, but I was worrying
about pinch flats. They slid the most on hard packed dirt roads with
lots of gravel/rock on the road. But I guess anything will slide on
that kinda surface.
The real eye opener (and exciting part for me) was when I came home
on the street again. About 10 miles from camp I hit the super
twisty's again and I just kept leaning it and leaning it and leaning
it after every 2 or 3 corners that I went through. HOLY Dual-Sport
Tires Batman, these things worked AWESOME!! 25 miles later with my
confidence in the tires way up and not feeling any sliding I was
leaning over just as much as I would have on the Avon's when I'm
riding hard and fast but still leaving that 10% buffer for
surprises. Now I did feel like I was riding damn close to the
envelope on these tires when I was cornering like that, but I was
also noticing that when you went just a little too fast or leaned a
little too much, they just slid a little and it was very
controllable. And of course while leaned way over throttle steering
comes back into play to help you turn tighter if needed.
The tires seemed to be getting "molded" or "scrubbed" for the way I
was riding the street, and I believe that if I keep it up, they will
continue to get a little better while the knobs get shorter and
stiffer. I still have about 1 mm of area on the front tire edge that
is not getting used yet and about 3 mm on the rear.
I probably won't be scraping the pegs on these things but I can
definatly live with that since I am still able to ride really fast on
back twisty's AND have awesome off road tires. Yep, until I get the
money for another set of rims to have both Avon's and some super off
road tires always waiting for me to switch out quickly, I think I
have finally found a tire that will keep me very happy in both my
worlds. Now to see just how many miles I get out of these things. I
only have about 600 miles on them and they are looking about 1/4 to
1/3 gone.
MrMoose
A8 (Barbie and Ken special)