How to Choose a Tire for your Adventure Bike

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⚠️My top tire choices⚠️:

✔80/20 Street Bias Tires✔
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✔50/50 Tires✔
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✔20/80 Dirt Bias Tires✔

Kyle Bradshaw's Tire Shootout:

JOIN ME AT THE UPCOMING REVZILLA GET ON ADV RALLY IN THE MOJAVE DESERT OF CALIFORNIA APRIL 21-24:

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[chrishart]

Problem is I just want knobbly tyres because they look cool. 😎

[kaiahfoydel]

I'm deep in the process of transitioning from my 18 year old self's boy racer sportbike attitude into something more comfortable in the ADV touring market. Can't tell you enough how helpful your in depth reviews and explanations have been, especially for someone who was not raised around motorcycles or offroading. Keep it up!

[Thirsty_Fox]

I do all kinds of gravel roads, fire roads, and even some single track (provided it's mostly smooth and not too rocky) on a CBR500R with street tires. Sometimes I wonder if we overestimate just how much bike we need, especially looking back in time before adventure bikes or even really dual sports were a thing. People just took their bikes all over.

[lessmore]

Good info again Ian. I almost always bias toward dirt performance. It’s easy enough to dial it back a notch on road, but you can’t simply crank up the performance level of street tires in the dirt on demand. Off topic, i recently added a Merlin Perton jacket to the gear selection & it’s fast become a favourite. They offer great stuff at fair value for the quality it delivers. The fit, functionality & styling are spot on.

[JohannesDalenMC]

Nice video as always Ian!

My approach to tires is quite simple. I want them to work when I need them the most, so I put on as knobby and gnarly of a tire that I can, even on my ADV bikes that see 90% tarmac, because I so often find myself on a trail by myself. When I ride tarmac I just ride at 90kph instead of pushing it at 130-140, arriving exhausted and not been able to enjoy the scenery while I rode.

[elitetileandstone]

Ian, nice shout out to Kyle Bradshaw, for his extensive tire testing. Ironically I'm torn between your top 3, in the 50/50 category. I'm leaning towards the Trailmax, as most of my riding is on the road . I don't foresee taking my DL1000 into the mud or sand. If I owned a Norden 901, that would be another story. Keep up the good work. I always enjoy your videos!

[andrewpollina]

Thanks so much for your thorough videos!!! Your channel has been very beneficial to me as I'm new to ADV bikes! Keep up the good work!

[scottmoss]

Dude, it took you 3:30 to get to the subject of the video. I can appreciate your need for sponsorship and thank you’s. If you get to the content quicker and give thanks and links below, it won’t come off as a paid infomercial. When you did get to content, you did an excellent job, you always do. Left a big thumbs up and shared. You always deliver intelligent concepts, that’s enough. I buy through you links.

[leanit]

The best motorcycle tire IMO has tall knobs. Not so much for the dirt traction, but because in my region small chipped rock is used on the paved roads for winter traction. The little bastards are so sharp that tire punctures are common, even on brand new tires. Taller knobs keep the carcass off the asphalt and prevent the punctures.

[owenlushadv]

great video! Us newer adventure bike riders owe a debt to content creators like yourself and Kyle Bradshaw, so much great information available. I personally bought an extra set of rims and run the Motoz on one set, and a set of the trailmax missions on the other. I use either or depending on the type of trip. But I will always prioritize offroad performance and am willing to sacrifice onroad performance and wear to have the performance offroad, especially when travelling solo. Thanks for a great video!

[kymstock]

My favourite combination is a front knobby pattern ( 20/80) Pirelli Scorpion Rally and a 50/50 rear ( Motoz GPS or Mitas E07)

[rollingsteady]

I ride on the street 99% of the time. The 1% is a gravel driveway. An Adventure motorcycle is just something I can drop without freaking out while practicing slow-speed maneuvers. 100 % Street tires for me. Michelin Road 6 tires here I come!

[ForTheChristians]

Great video! took my old cb300f with straight-up street tires on wayy more gravel, dirt, and even hills than a sane person would. As long as there wasn’t too much mud or large rocks, it was a blast.

[manybikes]

Thanks for the shout-out Ian! I’ll see you at the GetOnADV event. Let’s get at least one ride in together there!

[danketchpel]

Another great video Ian. A couple comments on wear rate, how aggressive a ride is makes a huge difference as does the type of paved surface. Some "chip seal" type pavements can eat up tires really fast. Guys who like to ride very enthusiastically also tend to wear out tires faster. The last is when do you consider the tire worn out? This is a large variable as some will go down to the threads and others well above the wear bars. So I've personally found this "factor" a pretty large variable when reading feedback from others.

Good on you to mention Kyle's tire reviews, he really does put in a lot of effort and time and is unbiased about the results. I ended up choosing the Trailmax Mission tires for 2 of my bikes based on his reviews and further feedback after posing questions to him online. I have been extremely pleased with the Trailmax Missions for the intended purposes. I need to swap my Rallz front for a Dual Venture to see if it fixes the massive wobble problem.

[gustavoenriquez]

Thanks for your video. It is very interesting to watch other experiences with big trails bikes. I’m more than pleased running for my second set of TKC-70/Rocks on my 2019 KTM 1290 SA-R. The bike, when new, arrived with Pirelli Scorpion Trail II. Although these tires had an outstanding grip on tarmac, easy handle and low noise, were useless offroad, and were also defective. After lots of research, I find out they were responsible for an intense handlebar vibration between 50 to 80 km/h, so I changed them with 1500 km. Since then I have used the TKC 70 Rocks just everywhere: Dry and wet pavement / tarmac, small and compact or loose and bigger gravel, sand, mild mud, etc., not only alone, but also with wife and luggage, holding speed about 140 - 150 km/h on the highway. My only concern was that the rear tire pressure (on hot days with load) went up from 42 psi (manufacturer manual cold) till 60 psi. Anyway nothing happened, so it should be normal, as we were about 30% under the maximum allowed weight. Although this is my third KTM in the last 15 years (690->990->1290), it is my first time using these Continental TKC 70 Rocks. I consider these tires as really multipurpose and with a very satisfactory average behavior in multiple conditions. I estimate that the actual set (with some luck) will last 14, 000 km (8, 600 mi), period in which they have been quite punished. As a comparison, I never managed to get more than 6.000 km (3.500 mi) from the TKC 80. At last, I did not know that you had a comercial relation with Revzilla, where I have been a happy customer for about ten years now, and where I bought my new TKC 70 rocks a few weeks ago. Next time I will check your channel first.

[MRGS]

I just changed my Anakee adventures (after 9000 miles) that my 2019 GS came with to TKC 70s and they are an absolute blast love how the humm on the pavement but on the dirt like maintained fire roads or national parks they have crazy grip. Actually they have so much grip now that I lifted the front wheel on a 2nd to 3rd gear hard acceleration 😳😳

[johnelliott]

Thanks BMW R1200GS Adventure, mostly pavement and great for carving for an elderly rider. Going from 20/80 to 50/50, your video helped.

[jaco_oosthuizen]

I have the Anakee Adventure tyres on my XT1200 Super Tenere, and I am very happy with them.

[bywayz]

The top two tire issues in my ADV experience are left unmentioned: puncture resistance, and roadside repairability. Tire punctures, especially with tubes, are an intimidating and problematic issue for rural and backcountry riders, especially for solo riders. Since so many quality tires are stiff tubeless, experience with those considered "the best" has made me care most about whether I can fix a (tubed) flat far from help. Learning which can be fixed is a painful process.