Does anyone change tyres for winter?

[Bikerbrady]

Im currently running on continental trail attacks and luv em

Im thinking of putting these on for the winter, continental TCK80

I use my bike every day throughout the year as its my main mode of transport. I have 2 miles of back country lanes (usually very sh**ty and slippy through the winter) 10 miles of motorway and 2 miles city centre (each way)

Any thoughts from others who have to use their bike year round?

Cheers
Biker

 

[shready]

Personally I would fit Tourances, perfect all year round tyre IMO. Good for a bit of gentle off road, well behaved on road and good in the wet.

TKC80's will go off very quickly and aren't that good in the wet.

That's my tuppence worth anyway.

 

[Rushy]

If I was trying to stop quickly in the wet I know which tyre i'd rather be on and its not the TKC's

 

[Zundapp]

You've got to take account of what terrain you'll be riding on most of the time. If it's greasy, wet, occasionally slippy roads then knobblies aren't for that at all. But if you slide off the road on chunky tyres then maybe they'd be good for riding along in the ditch!

As always it's individual choice, but I doubt if many folk would choose TKC's for everyday road use - winter or summer!

 

[Noddy]

but I doubt if many folk would choose TKC's for everyday road use - winter or summer!

You better get down Bor......................INCOMING.

 

[Zundapp]

Ok then. All except for loonies fae Norfolk....

 

[brassmonkey001]

You've got to take account of what terrain you'll be riding on most of the time. If it's greasy, wet, occasionally slippy roads then knobblies aren't for that at all. But if you slide off the road on chunky tyres then maybe they'd be good for riding along in the ditch!

As always it's individual choice, but I doubt if many folk would choose TKC's for everyday road use - winter or summer!

I do. Sometimes I swap to Tourances for the summer but this year I didn't get around to it. I was waiting for the good weather.
I live down an unmade road and find anything less aggresive than TKCs to be too slippy when the wet wintery weather comes.

 

[motobiker]

The only good thing I can see about the Tourance WAS its longevity - but now the tread is 'thinner' - whats the point? there are far better tyres available.

I don't see any benefit in changing from the tyres you have to ones that are even less road biased.

 

[Sempione]

IMHO the mixture of the tyre compund is more important than the tread pattern for winter (road) riding.
Last winter back in Switzerland I used a set of Bridgestone Battlewings. They were fine.
I'm pretty sure that a more aggressive tread pattern would help on packed snow but would be worse than a road tyre under normal winter conditions.

Last Saturday I fitted the new Heidenau K60 Snowtex (M+S, 164 Euros incl shipping) to my 1150GS for my 500 mile weekly commute.

The tread pattern is more street oriented than the TKCs and the "Snowtex" variant of the K60 uses a softer than usual Silica mixture.

So far I rode 260 miles on them (mainly on wet roads) and I'm quite happy with the tyres. Time will tell how long the tyres will last.

Edit:
I found an article on the K60 Snowtex online. Unfortunately it's in german:
http://www.mg-outerlimits.de/tests/zubehoer/winterreifen.shtml
In a nutshell:
At an air temperature of -6°C and a tarmac temperature of -3°C the Heidenau Snowtex achieved a tread surface temperature of 25°C while a standard Metzeler tyre (unfortunately no more details) warmed up to only 4°C.
From 70 km/h the braking distance with the Snotex tyres was 4m shorter than with the Metzeler tyres.

 

[Packer]

The only good thing I can see about the Tourance WAS its longevity - but now the tread is 'thinner' - whats the point? there are far better tyres available.

I don't see any benefit in changing from the tyres you have to ones that are even less road biased.

I believe that you can still get the old pattern

 

[Bikerbrady]

Thanks for the opinions.............my trail attacks will be staying on throughout the winter

 

[shready]

I believe that you can still get the old pattern

In my garage

 

[Rushy]

I believe that you can still get the old pattern

Thats right , I had a rear put on a few months ago and the guy said nobody wants the new one's

 

[Deleted account 211025001]

Last Saturday I fitted the new Heidenau K60 Snowtex (M+S, 164 Euros incl shipping) to my 1150GS for my 500 mile weekly commute.

The tread pattern is more street oriented than the TKCs and the "Snowtex" variant of the K60 uses a softer than usual Silica mixture.

So far I rode 260 miles on them (mainly on wet roads) and I'm quite happy with the tyres. Time will tell how long the tyres will last.

.

They look very interesting, sort of a cross between a knoblie and a 'wet' - found some good write-ups on the Net too - have to say there is nothing on this Earth that'd get me onto TKCs on my GS but if I was going to use it both off and on road I would be tempted by them.

Andres

 

[seamus1504]

My GS is also my only mode of transport summer and winter and run it TCK's for me they do the job and look good too!!