I made a jump back to road rubber recently. With a road trip in a few weeks I decided not to destroy a set of TKC's and go for something that would work better on the road.

My initial choice was Conti Escapes, but when presented with a set of Anakee 2's for �140 I though why not?

Firstly, for those of you who like to fit your own rubber, the Anakees are a <swearing> Pig. they are very stiff indeed and required lots of swearing to get them fitted. The bead is much stiffer and tighter than the TKC's.

Once fitted (along with a new carrier bearing) I took them out for a spin. I didn't actually notice any difference between the Anakee's and the TKC's (other than the TKC's were properly shot), or rather the Anakee's and new TKC's.

I found no greater grip, or confidence with the Anakees, but the do hold well and lossing the chicken strips isn't any great drama, even with only 50 or so miles on the tyres. The Anakee's do heat up much more than the TKC's and it's very noticable.

I've found them very well planted, on dry roads (can't go out in the wet as I destroyed my carrier bearing seal and am waiting for a new one) and under very hard breaking they don't fall into a skid like the TKC's can.

The bike feels much more twitchy, or rather it's much more responsive to minor steering adjustments which make looking around a little more hazardous than the TKC's.

OK, comparing TKC's with Anakee 2's isn't really fair, but that is the only comparison I can make - it's been a long time since I had road bias rubber.

I'm looking to see if there is any real improvement with regards to range (MPG), but it isn't a major concern. The real reason for change was so that I didn't kill off the TKC's with lots of road mileage, and the Anakees came it at a really good price.

<edit> One big problem with the Anakee 2's is what I call "gate trail", that is the contents of the field that tractors spread out onto the road at gates. The Anakees don't like the clumps of mud - but then they aren't really made for riding through mud at speed. The TKC's could deal with this hazard very well, the same goes for gravel.

I suspect the Anakee 2's aren't going to become a long term partner as I mostly ride back roads and gate trail is common place, but for the street they suit my short term needs.

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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Thanks Darren nice little read .cool

�140 is a very good price. I've had a set on for about a thousand miles now and did notice an improvement in fuel consumption of 3 to 4 mpg. That's coming from the original Seracs so you might get a bigger increase coming from TKC Darren.

I think you may find, that for a given size, the Anakees are smaller diameter so speedo reads fast, so mpg is better.
I tried with sat nav and my Anakees were reading something near 10% fast, whereas my conti escapes were only 5% fast.
Hence the improvement
Rob

Nerd alert!!!!

I just measured the circumference... of the rear

A new TKC is 216mm around the centre, however due to gaps I reckon I could be 5 - 10 mm out (the webbing I used was falling into the gaps in the tread)

The Anakee 2 with maybe 70 miles on it comes in at 230mm.

It's an odd find, as the tread depth on the TKC is much deeper than the Anakee 2, so the carcase of the Anakee must be thicker (it might help explain why it was a pig to fit!)

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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

So, I took the Anakees up into the Highlands over the weekend, in what was a baptism of water!

The roads were very wet, with maybe an inch of standing water at times, and rivers crossing in parts.

The Anakees grip very well in the wet, but they reach a limit, and there is no warning of the grip going. a few times over the 700+ miles we covered over the weekend I found the rear spinning up in heavy road water. You could say this is to be expected, but we get similar conditions here in the lakes with lots of standing water, and the TKC's have never spun up under power.

Here's the basic situation;

Riding up (for this example) Glenn Coe, up the end heading onto Ranoch Moor, the water was coming down hill and the wind was blowing sideways. Give the bike some power to maintain speed and the rear spun up for a brief second.

In a nutshel, the rear tread becomes overwhelmed with water and cannot exit the water fast enough, so the tyre looses contact with the road. Kethblade, who is running Cont Escapes, had no such problem with similar loading (actually, Keith + bike+ luggage would be lighter, and so more prone to this problem) weights.

I've lost a bit of confidence in these tyres for extreme weather, but in the 'normal' wet and dry they do offer good levels of grip and never feel like they are going to 'surprise' you.

On the wear side of things, TKC's would be very square after 700+ road miles, the Anakees don't show any signs of such wear, still a nice round profile.

* The are crap on wet wooden deck bridges though !!

__________________
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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

I pulled a set off for UT last week. Yup, they were tough ******s to get off. The bead took a while to break as well.

I think they're the original Anakee's, not the Anakee IIs.

I wonder if it's because they're made for both tubed and tubeless use that they're ******s to get on/off?

__________________
I spent a lot of money on travel and racing motorcycles - the rest I just squandered.

XT660Z - Commuter, Adventurer...Racer?

www.dashmoto.net

Other bikes >> MT-03 / CG125BR-J / ER-6F
Departed >> ZXR400L3 / EC300 / DR-Z400E / DR800S / GPZ500S / GS400

That was my guess. The bead was a pig to get over the rim and had to be seated in the opposite well absolutaly right, before it would even come off the wheel.

In any case, I think they'll be off before we see any wet leave on the ground. Back to TKC's I think.

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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

TBH I'm trying to decide when or if I'll actually fit them, or if I should sell them on.

The odds on me covering 6k miles or so without needing knobblies are a bit slim, and if they are that hard to fit I don't really want to be going back and forth. I'm pretty happy with the E-09s for general use, and I'm probably going to be spending more and more time with the Swedish Army tyres on what with doing the rallies and having sold my GasGas.


Anyone want to make me an offer for a set of Anakees with less than a thousand miles on them?

__________________
I spent a lot of money on travel and racing motorcycles - the rest I just squandered.

XT660Z - Commuter, Adventurer...Racer?

www.dashmoto.net

Other bikes >> MT-03 / CG125BR-J / ER-6F
Departed >> ZXR400L3 / EC300 / DR-Z400E / DR800S / GPZ500S / GS400