Three full days of fairly serious dirt riding coming up over the next month, and the E-09s I put on just before the HUMM aren't looking so fresh with 3,500 miles on them, so I thought I'd give some of the Army Specials a go.

They're obviously in the middle of rebranding them, because the rear is marked up as Trelleborg, but the front says 'Mitas Sport Extreme Army' or something like that.

Changed them over last night in just under two hours, which is some sort of record for me. I was aided in this by the new tyres being non-directional (or at least not having direction markers on them), thus avoiding my usual trick of fitting at least one tyre backwards and having to take it off again.

Front went on pretty easy. Rear less so. Had to use the bike to break the bead on the rear E-09, then had a good fight getting the Army Special on. Not so much because of the tyre stiffness as the tyre being moulded so when it's off the rim the beads kind of suck together, making it awkward to get the tube in and get the first bead over the rim. The E-09's (and in fact the front Army Special) sit a lot more 'open'.

Bearing in mind some of the comments made in this thread, I was a bit apprehensive when I woke up to drizzle this morning. Took it fairly steady on the way to work, but they don't seem too bad. I've got about 30psi in the front and 33 in the rear, and they're perfectly stable at 70mph.

I'm off down to Wiltshire on Sunday with my local TRF group, all of whom will be on small trail/enduro bikes. That ought to be a pretty good test :D

Expect I'll take them off again in September and go back to E-09s for the time being - there's still a good 1,500 to 2,000 miles left in the ones I've just taken off, and I had another set delivered at the same time as the Army Specials. Main reason is that I use the bike for *everything*, and an 80mph speed rating is just a bit too close for comfort on the motorway. I'm hoping to do a few of the rallies next year, so I'll stick them back on when I really need the extra grip.

Hi Rick, How come you sold your Ten? Have you moved on to another machine or quit riding? I hope not.
My Ten is getting better with the miles on it now just on 6000.

Goughie in Bath

Hi Goughie I have not given up riding, I have bought a very low mileage DRZ 400S a 2005 model with 500 miles on it. I sold the Ten because I wanted to ride more off road again

Did about 1,100 miles on them, including a full day on Salisbury Plain and two days of training with the Big Bike Rally Challenge. Excellent for both of those, and acceptable on tarmac in between.

Front is still on (and looks barely worn), but I put a fresh C-02 rear on for the Hafren last weekend (because Gwyn at Trellesport didn't have another Army rear in stock). There's still plenty of life in the Army rear for trail/road riding, so I'm probably going to put it back on again this weekend and see how long it lasts.

I got 3000 miles out of mine hard riding on and off road. Rear is very good the front I think is a little to soft for me

[QUOTE]thus avoiding my usual trick of fitting at least one tyre backwards and having to take it off again./QUOTE]
tea...keyboard....


:)