| Author | Message | ||
     Solarbri |
Well, my rear tire is just about toast at right around 2000 miles. What are the most aggressive tires available that will fit the ULY? I'm not sure I like the idea of running a TKC 80 backwards on the front. Does anyone know something that I don't know yet? I ride a lot of dirt roads with this beast and want to maximize its capabilities there, but still want good on pavement performance... Anyone???  Please don't tell me it's not a dirt bike... I know what kind of bike it is.  | ||
| Dale |
Throw a pilot road on the back and leave the D616 on the front. I have 9000 Miles on a set of these. They work great. Looks like they might go 12000 Miles. I have another set waiting for me. | ||
| Soloyosh |
Pirelli MT60R... Came on the KTM 625SMC stock. You'd be stepping down to a 160 in the back, but it'll fit and it's definitely got a dirtier tread bias compared to the 616. Longevity... who knows... Cheers Brett | ||
| Solarbri |
Soloyosh, Our names are similar yet different...how about that? Also, I took your advice when I was questioning where to buy the Uly and you said the Missoula HD/Buell/Ducati was pretty good. I haven't been back yet since purchasing (5-6 hr drive) yet they sold me the bike for less than retail  and the no sales tax thing in Montana is COOL! THANX!! Anyway, what do you think the size change on the back tire would do to the performance/handling of the bike? Anything? ChadHargis and all, what do you think? | ||
| Windaddiction |
honestly the stock Dunlops are pretty decent off road on gravel, try lowering the pressure by 10 psi front and rear big difference. Also it's the summer, it's time to rip down the paved road, the perelli syncs are a great tire too, though not as good off road, they are great in the rain! Also if I'm not mistaken putting a 160 on as apossed to the 180 will actully make it handle quicker?? am I right on this? | ||
| Fastfxrs |
Putting a narrower than stock tire width may make seating the bead difficult ( may need to run a tube with it). | ||
| Fastfxrs |
Dale, which bike did you have the pilot roads on? That kind of milage sounds good to me. Tim | ||
| Chrisb |
Maybe we all need to start calling Avon every few days and ask them for a Distanzia AM44 in the size we need. I'm sure after a 100 or so phone calls they will feel there is a real need and start pressing some out. | ||
| Buellgrrrl |
Put me down for some more agressive dual sport tires too! Last summer in Chester, Montana on the M2L I found out where the family homesteaded back around 1910. I was tempted to ride out and check the property out, but it was 20 miles down some poorly maintained gravel roads and getting late in the day. On my GS or ST wearing Distanzas I would have headed up those gravel roads in an instant. If the Uly is going to run with the other dual sport bikes it needs the same shoes, like the Distanza. Perhaps Buell should order a bunch to help motivate Avon... | ||
| Biker_bob |
Michelin Anakees would be an awesome choice. That's what a lot of the GS riders who don't want the knobbies use. | ||
| Dale |
 Since I have a 27" inseam, the day the Uly hit market I went to Beaver Dam, Wi and bought a K1200R. Love ABS and whats not to love about 163+ HP. I have a place in Mesa, Az. My favorite road is HWY 88. 15 miles of twisties, 10 mile of hard pack and 15 miles of gravel. I put sets of D616s they work great but the rear lasts 4000 miles. So when I went to Daytona I new I would need something different. That is way I put a D616 on the front and a pilot road on the back. 5000 miles of the 9000 was I-10. The D616 has lots of tread left and the pilot road has 2/32 left. Having traction on the front, in gravel, is more important then the rear. Backs around corners nicely. | ||
| Guybones |
I can only assume that many of you all do not have a lot of experience with dualsport tires. Good ones, and I count the Uly Dunlops among them, work well across a wide variety of terrain,(my personal faves for many years prior were Avon Gripsters on a hot-rod XR620), but don't last too long. There is no way a tire that is soft enough to offer traction on both dirt & street the way the Dunlops(& Gripsters) do is going to survive too long under the onslaught of the the Thunderstorm. If you want only streety tires, cool, they will last longer, but dualies, by nature, will not. I've pushed the stock dunlops hard, it's been pouring record amounts of rain here in West Sonoma County, and they have never let me down. I'm an architect, and have learned to trust engineers, with verification. The Uly works well within it's stated mission, and I will have to buy tires more often than a pure street bike, it has always been so.  | ||
| Buellgrrrl |
I've always gotten at least 10,000 miles from the Gripsters- even with a sidecar hooked to the GS. | ||
| Roadrailer |
First of all, I think it's important to clarify that the Uly is not a dual sport by commonly accepted standards, if anything it's an adventure tourer. Buell goes a step further and deems it an "adventure sportbike," but I'll save that for the "it's not a dirtbike" thread. That being said, there are very few adventure touring tires (I'm excluding knobbies here) that have a life span as short as the D616s. Hell, the guys on the VStroms pray for their Trailwings to die! Sure, you may not get 10,000 miles out of them (although some will), but that's a far stretch from the 2,500 or less that many folks are seeing out of their Dunslops. The reality is that the 616s are little more than sport bike tires with an aggressive tread pattern. To evidence this, look at the ad for the 616s in this month's Motorcyclist magazine, or Dunlop's own website; not a mention of dirt anywhere. That tread pattern may give them a slight edge off road compared to a pure street tire, but not much. When pushed beyond well-graded roads at a moderate pace, they quickly show their limitations. Going back to the original question, I don't think you're going to find a more dirt-oriented tire for the standard sportbike sized wheel the Uly wears. And I wouldn't hold my breath for the tire manufacturers to produce one, demand is just too low. | ||
| Guybones |
Just a word, I stopped by Zeitgeist on my way back from The City, and checked with the few, the proud, the last who actually ride bikes there, and no-one has ever gotten nearly 10,000 mi. on a Gripster, at least the rear. Maybe they make a special Beemer tire, although they might have told me, since I also have an R80GS with Gripsters, and that dog don't hunt either. To get back to the question, any more aggressive tires would probably launch one over the falls. I just finished my ride back from the City to the country, from sticky new asphalt to potholed dirt/gravel, at one point I got on it right when I hooked up on a mostly dirt road, and I was glad the tires spun a bit, I think I might have been unnaturally introduced to a redwood if I had knobs on the rims. For me, the Ulysses is a dual sport, a heavy one. I've been riding dirt for 30+ years. If a KTM Adventure or BMW R1200GS can be a dualie, then certainly a Uly can be. I've ridden all three bikes on my way to a decision, on both street and dirt, they are all impressive, though certainly not ballerinas, but work. Sorry if this comes off as a rant, but dang, this bike comes under so much scrutiny; it does what was promised, ride it. Oh, 616's are way better than Trailwings, perhaps that's why they want them to die. | ||
| Adrian_8 |
I have to be exact.. 3999 miles on my ULY with the last 1500 on Pirelli Scorpian Syncs. Most of the miles are two lane. The Syncs are going about as fast as the 616's did. In another 1000 they will be probably be shot...next try will be the Pilot Roads. I think the cost comes down to "Boys and their Toys". | ||
| Roadrailer |
Sorry to nitpick this point, GB, but I don't know many who consider the GS or Adventure dual sports (although the Adventure comes closer than the GS). They're adventure tourers. The KLR is a dual sport. I understand the 616s grip better than the wings (and with their track tire-like life span, they ought to), but my point is that there are many dual purpose tires out there that offer both grip and significantly better wear rates than the Dunslops. The wing is at the extreme end of that group. Of course, as I already mentioned, we're really talking about apples and oranges. And all this is really irrelevant, as it's highly unlikely tire manufacturers will start producing dual purpose tires in Uly sizes. | ||
| Jim_sb |
The thing about the dual sport category is that it is extremely broad. I've been on organized Dual Sport rides such as the Anza Borrego Desert Dash where a very talented rider on a big GS did the whole thing. As well as a host of KTM 950's, GS650's', KLR's, etc. OTOH I did another dual sport ride and the biggest bike I saw was a KLR and that bike was a handful on some of the gnarly stuff we had to ride that day. Obviously it's mostly the rider, not the ride - the bikes are tools, and sometimes the big bikes really are not the right tool for the job at hand. There are always compromises. But if you're on a lot of tight, technical single track with steep up and downhill rocky, rutted stuff it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out you'd have an easier time of it on a 250 lb. dirt bike than you would a 500 lb. "adventure" bike. If there is a single "do it all" bike that would keep me happy I haven't found it. Perhaps the street legal 650's from Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki come closest. A good dirt rider can get them through most anything yet they still have some juice for extended pavement work at speed - although there's no way they'd keep up with a Uly on a spirited jaunt. There's no wrong answer, just what you enjoy. Right now I'm enjoying my DRZ400S for dirt and my Ulysses for everything else. So far so good. Everyone needs at least 2 bikes! BTW my D616 rear has 2300 miles and the wear bars are close to showing. I'm thinking 3k max. I may try to finish it off this weekend... Hopefully Buell will sell enough of the Uly's that someone will come up with a tire that wears more like 5k in back with similar reasonable off-pavement abilities. Regards, Jim in Santa Barbara | ||
| Solarbri |
Having started this thread,I figured it's time to chirp up...  So, maybe I shouldn't have said the word "dualsport". And maybe I should rephrase the question as such... With tires out there that look like they would be a slightly more aggressive tire to handle dirt roads, and their associated partners in crime (loose sand, gravel, and mud), like the Pirelli Mt60R mentioned above, and the Avons, and the Michelin Anakees. What sort of repercussions might arise from trying to fit these slightly smaller sized tires to the Uly? As in the MT60 comes in a 160/60r-17 as opposed to the stock 180/55r-17. The tread looks to me like it would be a bit more capable on dirt, yet still be very good on pavement. I'm not unhappy with how the dunlops perform. They wear a bit fast, but I can dig how that is a compromise. Does anyone have any feedback of trying a slightly smaller rear tire than OEM on any type of bike? Those MT60's seem like the closest thing available to what I'm looking for. My 616 with 2800 miles on is shot and I need to decide quick before something unsightly happens...I suppose I could just replace with another 616 and keep posting here... it would probably need replacing before we come up with any real solutions.  | ||
| Lorazepam |
These are my next tires.   I think they will do well enough on gravel, and I hope to get better mileage out of them than the dunlops. | ||
| Jim_sb |
What are they? | ||
| Lorazepam |
They are 150 dollars or so a set, and made by Shinko. It is the 009 Raven. They also have a DOT legal Slick that is W rated, in two compounds for track days. When I saw the tread design, I figured I would give them a shot. I am about an hour and a half from Iron Pony motorsports, the biggest bike accessory store I have ever been to. My Girlfriend got them for me for Christmas, they were actually going to go on my BMW to see if they would work well on the gravel in front of my house. I was thinking along the lines of them being a decent touring/sport tire, and the tread pattern had to be better than the average sport tread for the rocks. I have been around many tire plants, and you would be suprised at the name brands that manufacture the store and other brands on the same machines, using almost the same rubber compounds, and different mold patterns. Call me thrifty, or just a cheapa$$, but 150 bucks for a set of tires beats 300 any day. If they suck, they will be abused, and retired early. I will keep you posted on how they work after mounting them. I am going to try a 170/60 and see if I can get the seat down a bit with the smaller tire. Here in Amish country the roads have a lot of bad spots from the horses pissing on the road, and all the horse manure adds handling excitement that most of you dont get to experience. I imagined the Uly would be the perfect bike for around here, and I was correct. It handles the gravel and bad pavement way way better than the sport tourer I previously owned. Love the bike, and hope we have a long lasting relationship. | ||
| Jim_sb |
BTW, I am NOT as unhappy with the D616's as some others are. I've pushed them a bit both on pavement and off and they've acquitted themselves quite nicely. On one ride on a dry but occasionally sandy / dirty but otherwise nicely paved back country road the Ulysses with the 616's literally "walked away" from my buddies who were riding a BMW GS and an FJR1300. They were sliding in the corners. I wasn't. Which is the difference. Because they're both better riders than I am. Best, Jim in Santa Barbara | ||
| Soloyosh |
I agree with Jim, I'm happy with my 616s. I removed the rear at 5200 miles due to a puncture and it still had 4/32" to the wear bars. Cheers Brett | ||
| Jim_sb |
I think the Shinko's are worth a shot. They don't look like they would shed water (or dirt) as well as the 616, but they might be fine. Keep us posted. Jim in SB | ||
| Spoof |
I'd just chirp in that although Anakees and Distanzias are both great tires, I wouldn't really categorize them as much more aggressive than the 616---they're similarly poised 90/10 tires. I've slid the front and rear plenty on dirt, gravel and sand, but the reason I poke along in the rough stuff has a lot more to do with rider limitations than tire limitations.. ) | ||
| Jim_sb |
Spoof, do they come in stock sizes that fit the Ulysses? | ||
| Dale |
My R1200GS came with Michalins, the front was to slippery in the loose stuff. The 616s are alot better. I know have knobbies on the GS and on the gravel roads I cannot tell if they are better then the 616s. Plus donot forget they are Z rated. | ||
| Biker_bob |
No Spoof but I know the Anakees do not come in Uly sizes. | ||
| Spoof |
No... I wasn't suggesting that they do---I was just commenting on the fact that they aren't any more aggressive for offroad than the Dunlops. I thought it was weird that a question about aggressive tires went on to take the form of people wishing that Anakees and Distanzias came in Ulysses sizes---cause they're the same application as the stockers. FWIW--loving my SYNCs after 800 miles or so--certainly not any worse off the pavement than the 616. |
