My take:

- Dry tarmac grip is fine, over to about 10mm from the edges on the rear, which is about as far as I leant the OE Tourances. Now we're into summer and I've got used to them I don't think they're holding me back at all - I don't bimble along but I don't exactly try to get my knee down on the Ten' either.

- People are full of horror stories about knobblies on wet tarmac. I've had no moments so far, so any decrease in grip is less than the amount I slow down in the wet anyway.

- I've only done dry off-roading so far, so I haven't had the opportunity to see if they are better than the Tourances at shedding sticky clay (as previously reported). I can't see how they would be worse

- The steering gets lighter due to the reduced contact, which takes a bit of getting used to. It will occasionally also weave at high (80+mph) speeds if set off by a bump, but not in an 'out of control' way, just a small oscillation that will die down unless you try to make it die down . I imagine this is true of all knobblies - I've ridden smaller trail bikes which weaved something chronic at much lower speeds (50-55mph). This is also pressure dependent so you can fix some of it by playing with the pressures.

- The rear tyre does whine. It didn't when it was new, but it has started to now it's worn down a bit. Strangely, it's worse in the wet. I wear earplugs and ignore it, but it may annoy others.

Overall, I'm happy with them, the only question remaining being how long they last. I know it won't be as long as something like the Tourance/Anakee type tyres (I replaced the OE tyres at 6144mi), but if I can get say 4000 out of a rear I'll probably keep a set on there permanently rather than change back and forth with more road biased rubber.