Goodbye Avon - it’s been a blast

JonnyBravo

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For many years now I have been running Avon Trailriders and found them to be a most excellent tyre choice. I’ve been through 4 rears.
Superb in both the dry and the wet. Confidence inspiring.
Great mileage too.
Best of all - made in Britain.


Alas, with the demise of Avon and no availability of new boots locally in sizes needed, today we have acquired a pair of Continental TKC70’s.
A new tyre to me.
£303 the pair fitted.

I have run TKC80’s previously which were surprisingly excellent on road - probably because they are very soft. Hence they wear out so quickly.
Great off-road on trails around Spain though.

New horizons await in September when I head back to France, Germany and Belgium for a few thousand miles to try them out.

Here’s hoping Continental match the Avon’s

IMG_7173.jpeg
 
Avon still exists as a brand and the Trailrider is listed on their website. I thought the brand will continue but made in the French factory owned by Dunlop & parent company Goodyear. A friend recently bought some Spirit ST but they could have been made in Melksham before the factory closed I suppose.
 
Had some Trialriders fitted in March…..think they are still available.
 
We used TKC70s on our F800GSs during our trip of Australia, New Zealand and North America.
Usually got 10-11,000 miles out of a pair.
They coped well with some of the more aggressive road surfaces we encountered, Alaska Highway etc, and I even did a couple of sessions on a track day.
 
Ran many pairs of TKC70 on my hexhead (both standard and rocks). They are excellent “do it all” tyres IMHO.

I went for a more road focused type of tyre at the last tyre change, as I have a second set of rims with 80s on for greenlaning… but decided to put 70s back on the main set of rims as well.
Especially in the UK (south) I doubt there are road conditions (corners) where you’d need more road-biased tyres, at least on hexheads.
 
Friend I ride with a few times a year swears by them, won’t put anything else on his old twin cam. Be interesting to see if he can still get them. I always make a point of comparing how much weight he has to balance them compared to my ContiTrails. My last few sets of Avons always needed loads of weight. I’ve an image of my Blackbird wheel with the then new Storm 3DXMS with two full strips plus another 3 or 4 bits next to one of the spokes as such. Tyre fitter tried the tyre in three places to no benefit. The rep assured me a year or two later that they’d fixed their QC issues, so I tried a set on my Pan…. Fecking scary instability, which disappeared as soon as I fitted an old part worn rear Pirelli. Stopped buying them after that and a pair of Storm2s that had no grip in the wet. Fitted an old stock Azzaro, grip restored. Personally I won’t miss em.
 


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