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Michelin SIRAC 'review' + What to get next?
Right, my baby had Siracs fitted OEM. Advertised as 90/10 on/off.
http://www.mttf.es/neumatico/ruedas/P-SIRAC_AVAR.jpg Done 3500 hard miles so far and barely showing signs of wear. :093: Pretty much faultless on the road, quick up to temp and excellent in all weathers. Holds lines well through corners, predictable steering. I am finding the front was 'tracking' road imperfections slightly - white lines, tarbanding and so on, but nothing to worry about. Off road then: Ok on 'hard' packed trail. Skittish and unpredictable on loose gravel, not really suitable. Didnt try it on sand. However - a warning - do not even think about anything soft. I don't even mean mud - its more like 'stay off your lawn'. I got caught out by coming off a road in the Alps and down a 15-20% dry grass incline. (Wasn't even planning anything exciting - a call of nature). Done my business but couldn't get back up. The tyre would scrub off the top dry layer of grass, find moist earth and spin like mad - no traction whatsoever. Loaded up and with full tank I tried pushing it up, and just about gave up to start unloading when a passing Italian VFR rider offered assistance... :icon_redface: So, avoid anything even potentially soft. However if you are happy to stay on tarmac/commute SIRACs are great. My planned riding mix is 90% London commute / 10% week-end easy off-road fun. The off-road bit is now suspended until more suitable tyres are fitted. Given that, which should I go for next - which is better off-road? (they are both �130/pair on eBay) Continental TKC-80 http://www.whichmotorcycleforme.com/...onti_tkc80.jpg Bridgestone TrailWing302 http://adi95.bg/images/gumi/BRIDGESTONE/TW301_302.jpg |
R or Z ??
I've got Tourances on the Tenere, and I'd say they are pretty much the same as the Siracs on anything but firm-ish ground. Great on fire roads, gravel, rocks etc but the front washes out at the first sign of grass, mud or sand (apart from deep sand for some reason!). That doesn't mean they behave the same on an R, I can't comment on that.
I've just ordered a pair of TCK80's for the Tenere, as the Metz is down to 2mm on the back and 3 on the front, and will be verging on legal after this weekend! The Tourance are a good tyre, and great for touring with some off-road ability - on road they are hard to fault. I'm not sure about the Bridgestones, I had deathwings on my Varadero and they were tourture in the wet - I've never gone back to them since (other than the XJR where the road tyres seam OK) |
I've got TKC80's on at the moment and prefer then to the Tourances that came off, even in the wet.
However, if your commuting then I dont think the rear will last you very long, the front still looks like new. I'm probably going to try Mitas E07 as I'll be 90% on road for the next few thousand miles. http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.p...dsco=110&m_s=1 Nick. |
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Should have let so air out of your rear tyre |
Am I the only one who got low miles from the Siracs?! by 5000 they were toast. The rear was smooth in the centre, and the edges were chunking. The front was wearing funny on the trailing edges of the treads as well and would move about and push out in bends.
Nick, if you are doing primarily road miles like me then I can heartily recommend the Bridgestone Battlewings. Loads of grip wet or dry, I almost had the pegs down this morning :) Maybe time to dig the one piece and the sliders out and go roundabout surfing on the weekend :laughing7: |
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Currently on Bridestones BT-45's which are probaly better the dry (I'm not good enough to explore their limits), not as good in the wet but track much better and seem to be wearing a bit less (my Sirac's were not worn to the limit after 12k miles - still had about 3mm at the rear) Can't really comment on off-road. From what i've heard I'd suggest the TCK's, but as said your rear will wear pretty fast (4-6k miles) judging by what JMo got from them. Personaly as I don't go offroad I'll be trying the Tourances next to give a full comparison with the common tyres |
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Try the Michelin Anakees. They are good on my GS's and DR:003::eusa_clap:
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1 x Tourance 2 x MT21 1 x TKC80 and the TKC fitted at the moment is past its best. I like the sound of these Battlewings, think I might try them next and stay on tarmac over the winter.Looks like roundandblack on ebay do them for a shade over �120 delivered which ain't bad. |
I don't know anything about the Sirac's, because I run Tourance's(OEM). At 18.000km got them replaced with new Tourance's, although the old ones were not completely shot. At first I'd change to TKC's(mostly too for my allroad trip to the Ukraine, which failed), but the short mileage(about 6.000km), made me change my mind and go for the Tourance's once again. I'm happy with them, for me good handling in dry and wet weather and good mileage. So to keep this beautiful hobby affordable, I'll stick to the Tourance's, more so I only occasionally do offroad ridin', mostly gravel roads(farmroads and such).
Greetz, Hans. |
Update - My SIRACs are slowly giving up the ghost (1.5mm left)
Spent ages trawling the forums for a 50/50 tyre that can take the commute miles and be decent off-road. Result - Heidenau K60. Everyone seems to love them, off road capability allegedly equal to TKCs and they last 7,000+ miles: http://www.graficoetico.it/adv/heidenau_k60_2.jpg Ordered a pair from www.moto-tyres.co.uk for �105 including postage. Will try to stick them on maybe this week-end or next. My first tubed tyre change, so I'm expecting a struggle :120: |
Hope the off road ability of the K60's isn't the same as TKC's - I have the K60's fitted to my ten at the moment and am in the process of swapping them out for a better off road tyre. The K60's were OK but on wet grass they spin up too easily and in mud they just weren't up to the task.
I was pondering either TKC80's or the Trelleborg Army Specials for better off road riding, if the TKC's are the same as K60's it looks like I will be looking at the Army Specials in more detail. |
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Kieth, if you want grip in muddy conditions etc the swiss army is the way to go. Just be very careful on the road untill you scrub them in. I had them on my DRZ 400 and used the for road, greenlaning and Hare and hound 3 hour Races. And that is what I will be fitting to my Tenere after Xmas. |
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How scary are these on road? I have looked at these and there seem to be quite a few followers. I understand that they are knobblies and as such they should be treated that way but . . . Thanks:hcrap: |
I can see why the K60's might have longer road wear, but I can't see why they would be comparable with the Twinduro's off-road. It has to be said mind you that off-road covers a huge range of surfaces. Here in the North I don't think they'd have the capacity to clear the mud and peat away fast enough. although they do have more aggresive pattern than the Tourances, so I guess they will have some advantage there.
It might be as well to state what kind of surface you ride , rather than just 'off-road' The Tourances are superb on fast gravel fire roads, but diabolical on anything wet or slipery. The Twinduro's are a good all round tyre but have a short life, as you would expect. It's all about balance, I'd rather have a tyre that has better off-road manners (mud, rocks, slurpywetgrassymudlikestuff) and take it easy on the tarmac - that doesn't mean I'm right, just that I know what my prefference is. I have noticed an interesting change in the ability of the Twinduro's since upgrading the fork springs, no more of that funny low speed wobble you get, and they feel much more grippy, which leads me to ask, if it's just the suspension feedback that is causing such a difference of opinion on the tyres ?? It'll be interesting to see if there is any change in the wear on these too. |
Siracs comparing to my other tyres
I have Sirac on my XTZ. Now it has 4500km. Front is ok (3mm evenly on the tread), but rear is squared (2-3mm in the center and 6-8on the edges). Due to square rear tyre the bike is falling into the curves, so I will change the rear for the next season. I had Michelin T66, Mitas E07, Mitas E08 on my XT600E, Metzeler Tourance and Mitas E08 on my XTR, Bridgestone TW41 and TW42, TKC80 and Mitas E09 Dakar on my DR400S and now the Siracs on XTZ.
TKC80 was
the best compromise toward to off-road, but with low milage (4000km) of the rear. I was using DRZ with TKC in the winter on road and they were surprisingly good on tarmac too, but in summer you can see like the rear tyre knobby are quickly going away on tarmac! The
balanced compromise on-off were
E07 (low price, lower milage, quickly squared rear and toothlike front).
The best compromise toward to on-road are surely
Sirac, but low milage of the rear. Tourance were good on road (only danger on white road marking by wet), but disaster off-road, milage high - 8000km rear and 15000km front. Similar, but not as good on-road were E08. E09 were better than TKC80 by off-road, but more noisy and vibrating on-road. Now I will try rear E08 with front older Sirac.
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Used a TKC on my Transalp front and rear did over 4000 miles on the rear and it was pretty cooked but great tire for road and most off road, cant grumble at that mileage either for a knobbled tire. The front TKC is pony in the dirt mind and sometimes a mix and match works. A friend used a T63 front with a mitas rear on his Africa twin for our summer trip to the pyrenees and after 2000 miles it still looked good on the front even with the heavy weight of a twin on it. The majority of front wear comes from heavy breaking into the twistys, just try not to front break:icon_smile:
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Keep clear off the Bridgestone TrailWing.
My V-strom didn't grip at all on hard/soft sand or even on grass. The tires are not that convincing in the rain either. |
what about these....Heidenau K60`s anyone tried them out,,, ????
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Hi, this is my first post on xt660.com
Anyway I rate the k60 as a great tyre I had them on and replaced them with Mitas E-07 and the k60 is better in my opinion. Cheers |
If you want a road tyre try the new Michelin Anakee 2s - great on dry roads and AMAZING on the wet = grip is almost the same. I now enjoy riding in the wet. Covered just under 1k miles and no signs of wear.
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Just swapped Anakee2s for Conti Escapes. I'll post a review and pics later when I've got a few miles on them.
I didn't really like the Anakees and don't like to follow the crowds so went for the Escapes. Very weird profile, and much sharper steering (660R) but not tested grip yet - too new and it's been Guzzi weather. I thought the Anakees were reluctant to turn, but once they did were grippy enough, but then you were soon at the outside of the front tyre - and I wasn't happy about that. If you get to the outside of the Conti's then you've just crashed... either that or else they're VERY sticky (I don't think so) They have a very round profile. One funny thing, they feel a lot taller. The bike doesn't seem to pull through the gears the same. I'll test with the sat nav - I know the Anakees were about 80mph at an indicated 87/88 (10% error!) Rob |
im using mitas E-09, after tourance failed for offroad driving i was looking to find something with fair price and knobby to get me out of muddy situations.
In Croatia i found them for little bit over 100� for a set. So even if i would change 2x yearly depending on mileage im still in similar price. Road handling is quite good, maybe rainy conditions aren't so friendly especially in winter time but it's a compromise. Ofcourse i have to mention that Mitas looks just like Michelin T63 which is little bit more expensive tyre |
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