New Dunlop Trailsmart tyres

Blackal said:
Any new tyre will be a revelation, but since Dunlop do so well with Road and Sport - I'm expecting great things
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Certainly, but I was still using all of the old rear tyre tread (road only type) with minimal flattening and trial type front. I'm stunned by how good the TKC-70 is. Of course they are not foolproof but they feel invincible. Only negative so far is the treads singing on tarmac. Which I quite like TBH.
Conti Road Attack was damn good when new but squared off in under 3K and went evil handling. Hopefully the '70s will last better than that.
 
I got a set of PR4 trails for the GSA from Tyre Leader for £173 delivered inc vat. Arrived within two days. A great price especially when I recall paying £155 for my present Tourances from M&P.

I still have 3.5mm on my (squaring off) rear Tourance so no rush to fit them yet for my daily commute.
 
Bendy toy said:
Certainly, but I was still using all of the old rear tyre tread (road only type) with minimal flattening and trial type front. I'm stunned by how good the TKC-70 is. Of course they are not foolproof but they feel invincible. Only negative so far is the treads singing on tarmac. Which I quite like TBH.
Conti Road Attack was damn good when new but squared off in under 3K and went evil handling. Hopefully the '70s will last better than that.
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Having run Heidi's for quite a while on my 12000 it never ceases to amaze me how good they were on the road. Obviously they had their limitations but they were far better than I ever expected them to be.

One area where they were less than perfect was at sustained high speed (three figures plus). You could feel the bike move on the blocks and the steering was not what you would call precise :eek:. You got used to it and it was just a bit unnerving at times. I'll be interested to see how the Conti's behave?

Andres
 
I don't really do enough off-road to justify the K60 Scout and have read the K76 is not as good as the Tourance (which I found pretty average TBH). But I was I was very close to going for Heidis, but Tyre Leader were showing TKC-70s at £165 a pair - a no brainer.

At A road speeds, the TKC-70s sing but its not at all unpleasant even without ear plugs. On dual carriageways they feel totally planted. The only thing Ive not tried is rain. The usually soggy Devon climate has failed to deliver so far this year.

http://www.tyreleader.co.uk/motorbike-tyres/continental/tkc-70/150-70-r17-69t-191197
http://www.tyreleader.co.uk/motorbike-tyres/continental/tkc-70/110-80-r19-59t-191195

Prices have gone up. These are £10 more than I paid for the pair only a couple of weeks ago.
 
Well, tyres scrubbed in now and have to say it's a massive improvement on the squaresd off Tourance.
Had a steady run this morning and gradually grew in confidence with the new tyres. Plenty of grip, and no little twitches over those surface changes as I occasionally had before.
Found myself previously checking the surface in front of me constantly which is obviously not ideal....however now I could concentrate on the lines completely and forget about what the tyres might do if the surface changed mid corner. (As they do with quick patchwork repairs these days)

I paid £167 delivered through Oponeo, and my fitter said they were very nice tyres to fit which I admit I never gave any thought to until he said it. As an aside Oponeo were excellent, ordered Tuesday arrived Thursday afternoon at my fitters.

Next run out....see if I can get over onto the edges :green gri
 
On the old tyres I gave up bothering about twitches over road ridges a loong time ago. The rear was a road tread Maxxis SuperMax the front was one of their trail type. Not great but not bad either. Its also had Bridgestones (BattleWings?) and Metzeler Tourance. The new TKC-70s are by far the best tyres this bike has seen, evidenced by the almost total lack of chicken strips and I'm not even trying.
 
I have just fitted tic 70's to my GS after being faithful to tourance exp's ive done 500 miles on them and they are staggeringly good on road off road they do ok on loose gravel etc, but the additional benefit is that they look the part!!
 
Tyres all right, but where's my voucher?

NeilCol said:
About to bite the bullet and have some new boots fitted....was going to decide between the Tourance Next or Anakee 3's, but have seen Dunlop have brought out the Trailsmart.

Anyone got a set of the trailsmarts fitted?

All about the same price, and I'm not going to be doing much if any off road riding I suspect so I want the set that offers the best compromise for dry and occasional wet riding.
It may all be subjective, and I'm not one for pushing the bike to the limit so it might just be that i would be unlikely to notice any difference. :nenau
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I'm happy enough with the Trailsmarts which I fitted on the 13/08, but not happy with Dunlop. There was a special offer of a £30 fuel voucher at the time - I duly filled out the form both online and by post. Dunlop acknowledged receipt, then after a while said that there would be a delay, and since then nothing despite ever more aggrieved emails from me. Anybody else had this?
 
Doon said:
I'm happy enough with the Trailsmarts which I fitted on the 13/08, but not happy with Dunlop. There was a special offer of a £30 fuel voucher at the time - I duly filled out the form both online and by post. Dunlop acknowledged receipt, then after a while said that there would be a delay, and since then nothing despite ever more aggrieved emails from me. Anybody else had this?
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Don't get yourself in a tiz poppet, it's only 30 quid :comfort I know it's annoying love, but we're only here for a short while and if you were really bothered about the odd 30 quid you'd have bought a CG125.

Don't buy Dunlop tyres again, and be happy in the fact that they lost a customer forever.
 
oddshapedballs said:
Don't get yourself in a tiz poppet, it's only 30 quid :comfort I know it's annoying love, but we're only here for a short while and if you were really bothered about the odd 30 quid you'd have bought a CG125.

Don't buy Dunlop tyres again, and be happy in the fact that they lost a customer forever.
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Er, hardly a tiz in my book, but there you go.

Anyway, just came back to say that Dunlop did respond and have upped the value of the voucher to 50 quid, so I might even upgrade my CG with some tastful stickers.

So, eventually very happy with the tyres, and Dunlop did deliver. And haven't lost a customer.
 
I loved the TR91:s, sticky and safe imho (First a trip thru east Sweden up into Finland, then Norway-Nordkapp down thru Norway into Sweden again then home to SE Sweden again, then went for a trackday, fully kitted with panniers and Madame @ pillion, like the trip, and they performed brilliantly(tyres & Madame)) and Motorrad loved the new Trailsmarts, so guessing what I will replace the now almost worn out TR91:s won't be that difficult... :D
 
NeilCol said:
Let me know how those Conti's go.
I had more or less settled on the Tourance, and have gone off the Anakees a bit but hearing the glowing reports on the Dunlops have swayed me that way now.

Can't get them done til after pay day so another couple of weeks to make a decision anyway, but I may be looking into it too much considering I'm not one for pushing the bike to its limits.
Saying that my Plain old Tourance the bike came with are pretty squared off and down to about 2 mm in the middle so I'm hoping I will at least feel some benefit to new rubber regardless which ones I stick on.
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With about 1000 miles on my TKC-70s there is no wear that I can see. Grip at A road speeds is really great and really inspire confidence. Initially, they they felt knife edge in the steering but I soon got used to that and realised the old tyre was just very slow steering. Off road they are great on gravel but crap on mud or wet grass. The only tyres for mud are TKC-80 or maybe the Heidenau Scout K-60.

The tread blocks sing on tarmac but they are a lot less noisy than the more aggressive off road types. At motorway speeds the -70s do move about I guess its the tread blocks. It's never worrying and the effect may well reduce as they wear. Wet grip is great and I no longer worry too much about gravel on the road. Though the leaves this morning had me picking my way. :eek:

Overall I like the Conti TKC-70. Anyone doing a lot of motorway riding would be better with a road tread but for me with A roads and gravelly lanes they are ideal.
 
TR91's are fantastic tyres - wet or dry! Had these for the last three sets and fantastic grip wet or dry! Only thing was that the last set only gave me 6800 miles whereby I had seen over 8000 on the rear of the last couple of sets. Think this might have been due to a two-up fully laden tour of Scotland just after fitting but hey ho!

Anyway, time to fit a new set and time to decide whether to go for the new Trailmax or sport a chance on the new Avon Trailriders which were too new to have many write ups!

The new Avons are hand made in Melksham and said to be the most advanced tyre that they have ever made...bar none. They claim single belt radial with duel compound on the rear, highest silca content of any tyre they have made and 'sipes' to provide quick warming of the tyre.

So I decided to give them a try!

So far I have done around 1000 miles of mixed riding, but not had a chance to try them in the wet yet. Initial grip and handling are excellent with a good turn in and reassuring adhesion from the off.

A good chunky tread pattern, but I would say they are a little bit of a harder ride than the tr91's and have found myself backing off the preload just a little bit more.

Will keep everyone posted on the wear and wet grip when I get the chance - but not at all dissappointed so far.
 
Rotaxmaxracer said:
TR91's are fantastic tyres - wet or dry! Had these for the last three sets and fantastic grip wet or dry! Only thing was that the last set only gave me 6800 miles whereby I had seen over 8000 on the rear of the last couple of sets. Think this might have been due to a two-up fully laden tour of Scotland just after fitting but hey ho!

Anyway, time to fit a new set and time to decide whether to go for the new Trailmax or sport a chance on the new Avon Trailriders which were too new to have many write ups!

The new Avons are hand made in Melksham and said to be the most advanced tyre that they have ever made...bar none. They claim single belt radial with duel compound on the rear, highest silca content of any tyre they have made and 'sipes' to provide quick warming of the tyre.

So I decided to give them a try!

So far I have done around 1000 miles of mixed riding, but not had a chance to try them in the wet yet. Initial grip and handling are excellent with a good turn in and reassuring adhesion from the off.

A good chunky tread pattern, but I would say they are a little bit of a harder ride than the tr91's and have found myself backing off the preload just a little bit more.

Will keep everyone posted on the wear and wet grip when I get the chance - but not at all dissappointed so far.
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Well, how are the Avons working out for you??
 
I have had the TR91s previously and now on the replacement Trailsmarts on my GSA. A fantastic tyre....so sure footed in the wet and muck, stable at high speed cruising....quiet and stable two up fully loaded in the twisties. Not sure on longevity as only got 3k on them but seem to be holding up well....thoroughly recode dead.
 
Well, I'm nearly 3000 miles into these trailsmarts now and so far no complaints.

Couple of squirms on greasy roads while cornering caused a twitch in the Arse area....and a close call with some damp grass while camping nearly led to an off, but I like to think some counter steering and flailing legs kept me upright rather than luck :cool:

Still not pushed the tyres to the edges yet, and I would be reluctant to give an opinion in the wet as I'm very cautious in the wet due to some previous close calls with Lazy truck drivers diesel.
Seem to be very responsive to the change of road surfaces and when driving down the middle of the road in traffic, to the point where the bike will twitch about but again this may be to do with the amount of grip the tyre has and is probably commonplace.

On a smooth dry road, these tyres are very well planted and have more than enough grip for me. They do seem to be starting to square off, and the turn in is certainly much slower than it was when I first got them. Hope to get at least 2k more from them before swapping.

Would I buy them again? I have to say, I'm a bit of a fiddler. I usually always try something different and prices are all much of a muchness. Hoping to get through this summer (when it friggin finally arrives that is) and look at new tyres for next spring....although saying that it's big service next time according to my service guy so we shall see. :blast
 
+1

I was a fan of the TR91s.

When I took delivery of the new GSA it came with Anakee IIIs, despite the reported road noise I stuck with these over the past two years. Then three weeks ago when I needed a pair of new tyres there were no Anakee III front tyres available for love or money.

I bit the bullet and went for the Dunlop Trailsmarts in the hope they were as good as the TR91.

I've held off saying anything as the weather has been so good up here recently I'd only had the chance to ride with them on hot, dry tarmac. All this changed in the last week and we've had some dreadful weather. So, having now clocked up a few hundred miles in heavy rain and thoroughly wet roads, I can say that, IMHO, these tyres are every bit as good, if not better, than the earlier TR91, with excellent grip in the wet. I can't comment on longevity yet, I used to get about 5k out of a rear TR91 so if they last that long I'll be happy.

Bob
 
Any results in final mileage on the Trailsmarts on the WC models, only got 4000 out ot Anakee 3 rears and by 4500 the rear Pilot Road 4 Trail is about shot (and very scalloped on the edges)
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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