What is the best tyre for adventure and dual sport motorbikes?
It doesn't exist.
There are too many variables.
What is your balance between on-road and off-road riding?
Type of terrain?
Which is more critical?
What is your budget? What is your weight?
Do you carry a passenger and/or luggage?
Do you ride aggressively?
What longevity do you expect?
Your skill level?
Climate factors?
Do you hate tyre noise on the road?
Maximum loading rating?
Maximum speed rating?
Intended air pressures?
Type of ply?
The size of your motorbike?
Tubeless?
However, we will provide some suggestions.
First, a few points.
We believe it's 80% the rider, 20% the motorbike.
For this video, we suggest it's 80% your riding skills, 20% your choice of tyre.
Why spend hours obsessing over tyres when you could obsess about learning to ride better?
It will make much more difference.
Next? Don't trust the advice of idiots on the internet.
I include myself in that category!
Most of us are clueless, or too biased in our opinions.
If you take the advice of others, find hundreds of comments and average them out.
Statistically you might find some value in this.
Maybe.
In a similar vein, don't listen to just one review.
Social media influencers do rave reviews in exchange for free tyres or money.
Look for many objective reviews and see if a common theme emerges.
Finally, I don't think there are any bad tyres.
Some riders just make dumb decisions then blame the tyre.
They buy a road-oriented tyre then say it's terrible in mud and it almost killed them.
Duh.
They use a very hard rubber compound for longevity,
then complain when it slips on wet roads.
Seriously?
So lets keep it simple.
Do you mostly ride off-road?
Do you enjoy tough terrain?
Are you an aggressive rider?
You don't mind poor on-road performance and rapid wear?
Buy an enduro-oriented tyre.
Do you spend similar amounts of time on-road and off-road?
Do you want reasonable performance for both types of riding, and you can accept the compromise?
There's a huge range of adventure tyres available.
Do you spend most of your time on the road?
Do you ride very carefully when you occasionally ride off-road?
Do you own a 'sports tourer'?
Then there's a wide range of touring tyres, or 'sport-tourer' tyres available.
Every tyre fits somewhere on this spectrum.
The tread pattern is usually a good indicator of where each tyre sits between
'enduro' and 'tourer'.
Then you need to make decisions about your budget, hard versus
soft rubber compound, and countless questions.
My advice? Don't stress about it too much.
Focus more on your riding skills.
You should be okay.
The most aggressive off-road tyres?
Here are some popular ones.
The Motoz Rallz and Adventure tyres rate well with a 13.5mm rear tread depth.
The Shinko 705 if often rated as the best value for money tyre.
Here are some popular 50/50 tyres.
I have a review on the Shinko 705, a great budget tyre.
The Heidenau has a hard rubber compound and lasts a long time.
Unfortunately I know very little about others, do your research.
Touring?
These tyres are so close to road tyres I don't know if there is much difference.
Again, these are some of the more common ones.
Obviously there are lots of tyres we haven't mentioned.
Which tyres have you used?
Did you hate them or love them?
Do you think your choice of tyres makes a big difference?
Let us know in the comments.